Working Title: Influencer

Felicia sipped her water and glanced around the dining room. With her husband and friends still poring over their menus, she could let her mind wander. Her gaze fell on the blue-gray walls, a quiet contrast to the light, distressed wood tables. Most of the diners paid no attention as they imbibed on the bountiful beer, cider, and wine selections offered at this farm to table marketing madness. For her part, Felicia chose to abstain even though she knew she could manage a single glass. She had no desire to risk ruining a good day with getting pulled over by the Wayzata cops.

"Hey, Licia," Adrian asked, "did you look at the wine list?"

Felicia shook her head. "Any good ones?"

"Some of the descriptors for the cabernets are something else."

That made Felicia push her closed menu to the side and pick up the slim folder that showcased all the drink. She opened it and flipped the pages.

"Oh, wow," she muttered after a bit. "Mischievous tannins? How the fuck can a tannin be mischievous?"

"I think the sommelier was pretty blitzed by that point," Angie piped up.

"Had the sommelier kept drinking they'd have to change their name to London."

Marcus snort laughed and dropped his menu. Felicia cocked her head, an amused smile creeping on her face.

"That was too good," Marcus mumbled as he tried to tame his laughter.

"On that note, we're keeping those mischievous tannins far, far away from Marcus."

"Agreed!" Angie cheered. "Besides, I'm trying to think of the last time ether of us bought a bottle of cabernet."

At that, Marcus shook is head. "I prefer merlot, but I think I'll have a beer tonight. There are so many local options it's rather impressive."

"Whatever you do, don't get Surly Furious," Felicia warned. "It's like getting hit in the mouth with a pepper grinder."

"Duly noted," Marcus muttered. "I was looking at something a little bit lighter, like this Lonely Blonde by Fulton."

"That's a good one, a nice and steady classic."

"Sounds like you're the bigger beer drinker in your house," Angie said as she set her menu aside.

Felicia nodded. "Adrian's more of a sweet cider sort, while I like a nice, dry beer type-item."

"Speaking of cider, I think I know what I'm getting to drink," Adrian announced.

"Sap sucker?"

"Uh huh."

Angie smirked. "You two really are an old married couple."

"Twelve years of marriage will do that to ya," Adrian replied.

Out of the corner of her eye, Felicia spotted Marcus' head turn more in her direction. In her peripheral vision she could spot a half smile on his face. Something about his wistful expression tugged at her mind. The server stopped at their table before Felicia could even begin to ponder the point.

After the group placed their orders, they got their drinks and two shareable plates. Felicia grinned at the Brussel sprout and bacon skewers placed between her and Marcus. Adrian interrupted her contemplation by sliding a pear and brie crostini onto her empty plate. That spurred her to grab a skewer, although Marcus told her she could have his. Felicia questioned this and persuaded him to take half of one.

"Thank you for getting him to eat some veggies," Angie said to Felicia with a smile.

Felicia shrugged. "I do what I can."

"So what did you think of Apple Jack's?" Adrian asked.

"I liked that it offered some different activities from your typical orchard," Marcus said. "That apple shooting game, for example. It was more difficult than I expected."

"You still hit the target a couple times, though," Angie reminded him.

Felicia could not fight her grin.

"Thankfully I did get good photos of that," she remarked.

"Yeah, let us know when you post them," Angie said. "I might have to get copies."

"And the view by the river is lovely," Marcus continued. "I could have stayed there all day."

"Yeah, Felicia really liked that when she and I first visited the orchard," Adrian mused.

Felicia nodded. "The river overflowing its banks a bit gave it a surreal edge, at least to me."

"I can see that," Marcus agreed. "Now I have to ask. What were you and Adrian talking about whenever you said Apple Maps during our
visit?"

At that, Felicia and Adrian swapped glances. They started snickering within nanoseconds.

"Should we tell them?" Felicia asked her husband.

Adrian grinned. "Sure!"

"This sound very interesting," Angie remarked.

"Oh, it is. Felicia has had quite a few of what she likes to call gentleman problems."

Felicia sipped some of her water. "And Apple Maps became an inside joke due to one of those problems, the most recent one, in fact."

Marcus blinked and fiddled with his half full pint glass. "Oh?"

"Yeah. I used to work with a guy named Oliver. He was one of the financial analysts on the team, so our work didn't normally cross paths. The one exception was the tracker my support cohorts and I used."

"Did he create it?"

"Yes," Felicia answered, "And a few years ago it started giving us issues out of the blue because Microsoft Access is a landfill fire."

The guys snorted at Felicia's assessment of the software in question.

"The database was constantly not working," she continued. "This meant after years of barely having any contact with Oliver I was reaching out to him at least once a week."

"How did he take that?" Angie asked.

"Surprisingly well. At the time, I thought it would annoy him. If that was the case, he was damn good at keeping it to himself."

"Why do I get the feeling he wasn't annoyed?" Marcus pondered.

"Well, not with Felicia," Adrian jumped in. "If anything, I think he was annoyed with me."

"Something he revealed during a happy hour," Felicia elaborated. "We all got together at a brewery not too far from the condo a few days after my birthday. I ended up sitting between Oliver and his boss. Oliver's work buddy tried to get hi to move over one spot, which would have put an empty chair between Oliver and me. Oliver said, 'Nah, I'm good." and didn't move."

Angie grinned around her wine glass. "Oh really now!"

"And that was just the start of the evening. Oliver and I got to talking about when I first moved up here way back in the late 2000s. Due to the collapse of the 35W bridge I lost the only way I knew for getting to Adrian's parents' house. I got directions from Adrian over the phone but ended up driving around in circles because I was looking for the wrong type of road. Oliver said, 'He deserves all the credit for you getting lost.' when I recounted this to him."

"Wow!" Marcus laughed. "Yeah, I'd say he was more annoyed with Adrian more than anyone or anything else. Did you call him out on it?"

"In front of our gossipy coworkers?" Felicia asked. "Hell no. Unfortunately, Oliver and I chatted only with each other for a decent part of the night."

"Well, that might not seem super strange," Angie suggested.

"On its own? Maybe not. After that happy hour, though, so many other things happened between us."

"What kinds of things?"

"Oh, let's see," Felicia began. "There was the thesaurus inspired signing of my sympathy card. I made a joke that got him to laugh in the middle of a meeting he was hosting. He tried to find candy I could eat since chocolate rules out most things for me. He played with the coffee maker when we were chatting in the break room. And all of that happened before another happy hour."

Angie's mouth fell open, prompting Adrian to chuckle at the display. Felicia glanced at Marcus and found him chugging from his pint. He waved over the server and ordered another round.

"Even that not so detailed rundown is something," Marcus muttered after a bit. "What ended up happening with him?"

"This is where things get a bit serious," Felicia remarked.

"How so?"

At that, a different server arrived at the table with a plate in each hand.

"I'll tell you in a bit," Felicia promised.