"The problem with you, Kristoff," his friend Sven had once said, "Is that you think about things too much. The time to ask a woman out is as soon as you realise you like her, not after you've spent weeks pining over her from afar. Just ask and be done with it."

That had been years ago - pre-Leanne - but Kristoff could hear Sven's voice in his head when Anna had complained about having no one to go out with on her birthday. What're you waiting for, a written invitation?

Why had he kissed her? Okay, yes, she'd kissed him first, but he could easily have played that off as a joke; smiled, said thanks, changed the subject. He wasn't normally so impulsive. Maybe part of his brain just felt he deserved something nice, something simple. A friend, but sometimes we kiss.

"You need to get back on that horse," Sven had said more recently.

"That doesn't sound very flattering to - well, anyone," Kristoff had replied.

"You know what I mean. Please don't spend ten years moping about, waiting for the love of your life. Because then when she does appear you'll be too scared to talk to her. Get some practice in. I mean, still find a nice girl you like and be nice to her, but aim more at the level of - we've had a nice dinner and now we'll have a kiss and a cuddle on the sofa. Start there, work your way back up."

"Nice girls don't exactly grow on trees."

But, what did you know.

"Are you ready for this weekend?" was the first thing Anna said to Kristoff when she saw him on the way to work that Friday.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"I've never done anything like this before!"

"Really? They do it every year here."

"Team-building things at my old places were all conferences and seminars and boring things like that. Oh, one time we did a firewalk."

"What's that?"

"You know! Where you walk on hot coals."

"Why?"

"To prove, you know. You can do anything you put your mind to."

"Did you do it?"

"Of course! It was fine. It was only a few steps."

"Huh. Well, thank you for making me feel better about a scavenger hunt and a barbecue, even if we do have to sleep in wooden sheds afterwards."

Anna laughed. "It'll be fun! And they're cabins."

"I slept there last year. They're definitely sheds."

"Do we get one each?"

"Oh, no. There's one for boys and one for girls. Bunkbeds."

"I've been informed," Anna said, "That it's - and I quote - 'not so much a barbecue as a piss-up.'"

Kristoff laughed. "Did Dan say that? A few of them get quite drunk, yeah. Go to bed by midnight if you don't want to hear the printers singing dirty rugby songs."

"Maybe I know a few rugby songs."

"Well, I'll look forward to it then."

From: April Howell

To: all staff

Subject: Team-building weekend 2017

It's nearly here! The famous ARUNDEL PRINT ANNUAL TEAM-BUILDING WEEKEND! :)

Itinerary:

Saturday:

10am: Arrive and unpack

11am: Assault course: admin/design/management vs printing/binding/distribution! Wear trainers and joggers/t-shirts that you don't mind getting muddy!

12 noon: Lunch

2pm: Spaghetti towers - build the tallest tower out of (dry!) spaghetti to win! Groups of three or four for this one, try and stay in departments if poss!

4pm: Scavenger hunt - choose a partner and whichever pair finds the most items wins! All new items for 2017!

7pm til late: Barbecue and bonfire! Behave yourselves please, let's not have a repeat of last year!

Sunday:

9am: Breakfast

10am: Tidy up and leave

(we need to all be out by 11! So no dilly-dallying, remove all rubbish from bunks and campsite please, no one is leaving until it's all clean)

Any dietary or other requirements let me know ASAP please as I am going to the cash and carry on Thursday!

"Not exactly Center Parcs, is it," Judy said cheerfully as they unpacked in the cabins.

"It's barely even Butlins," Anna replied. Judy laughed.

"I think they do outward bound things here, for schools and youth groups, most of the time," she said. "Did you get a look at the assault course?"

"Yeah - does everyone do it?"

"In a relay, usually. Then whichever team gets the best time wins."

"And we need three for the spaghetti thing? So we'll do that as a department?"

"Three or four, so I thought we could ask Kristoff to join us?"

Judy had her back to Anna as she pushed her suitcase under the bed, but Anna could feel her grin.

"Sure," she said. "Why not."

"Ow," Anna said. "No, no, it's fine. It only hurts if I bend it like this - OW."

"Are you sure you don't want to go to A&E?" Kristoff said.

"Oh, no, it's definitely not broken." She rubbed her wrist with her other hand. "I've broken it before. We won, though, didn't we."

"Well, yes -"

He had to admit that Anna's run round the assault course had been impressive. She'd insisted on going first and had attacked it with such gusto that her low time had more than made up for the CEO ambling round the course like he had all day (while Anna bounced on the balls of her feet with frustration). She seemed to consider the fact that she'd probably sprained her wrist as a minor annoyance.

"What use are you to us now," Dan said, "If you can't tape spaghetti together."

"I'll supply creative vision."

"Such as?"

"Triangles are strongest."

"We need height, not strength. We need to get that marshmallow the highest off the ground if we're going to win, and you're the competitive one, apparently."

"You need strength to get height," Kristoff said. "Where is our marshmallow?"

Anna looked guilty.

"Okay, for the scavenger hunt we need you all in pairs," John the CEO announced. "Everybody pair up. Try and stay in departments if you can."

Dan leant over towards Anna. "Oh dear," he said. "Our department is three people."

"So it is," she replied.

"That's an odd number. Anna, would you do me a personal favour? Would you let me partner with Judy? Though that does mean you'll have to find someone else, I'm sorry."

"That's fine," Anna said, trying not to lUgh, "did you have any suggestions? Isn't HR just one person?"

"I think he means me," Kristoff said, behind her. "If you can stand any more of my company."

"Of course," Anna said, turning to him. "Rather you than Dan, I spend enough time listening to him complain."

"Fine," Dan said. "For that, we're going to beat you," and he turned on his heel and went to find Judy.

Everyone else was pairing up, too. Anna collected the list of scavenger hunt items and looked down it.

"I wish everyone wouldn't look at us like that when we stand next to each other," Kristoff said.

"They all think we're sleeping together," Anna said matter-of-factly.

"Really?"

"Mmm. Having some torrid affair." She grinned at him. "So you've done this before - how do we win?"

The barbecue was perfectly good fun, Anna didn't know what everyone had been complaining about. The food was fine, for a barbecue, and there was a campfire, and someone had managed to get some music playing. And there was plenty of wine and beer.

At the beginning of the evening Anna had tried to circulate, to sit and talk with different people from different departments, but she kept gravitating back towards one in particular. Kristoff mainly sat over to one side and only spoke to people who spoke to him; when she looked over he was either watching her or looking at his drink.

Finally she gave in and sat down next to him on the log by the campfire. His smile was immediate. "Having a good time?"

"Yes! This is fun."

To her surprise, he put his arm around her. "You look so pretty today," he said.

"Thank you."

He pulled her in a bit closer. "I know they're all looking," he said. "Looking at me with the prettiest girl in the room. Field. Whatever."

Anna laughed. "You're sweet."

"May I kiss you?" he asked, very serious.

"Everyone can see us."

"Oh." He looked down at his feet.

"I didn't say no."

His face lit up again, and Anna wondered exactly how much he'd had to drink; but then, she wasn't exactly sober either.

He kissed her, but Anna jumped away from him when a piercing wolf-whistle went off on the other side of the fire. Kristoff just laughed, then cupped the back of her head and kissed her again; this time a cheer went up but it didn't last long. The kiss lasted longer, and when it finished Anna found that she was now sitting on Kristoff's lap - which one of them had done that? Maybe both.

It was comfortable, though. She snuggled up and accepted another plastic cup of the not-as-bad-as-she-was-expecting white wine that was being passed along the line. She loved team-building.

By half-eleven the group round the bonfire was noticeably thinning as people retired to their bunkbeds. Anna decided she might as well go to bed as well - the evening was clearly winding down - so she said her goodnights and tottered off in the direction of the women's cabin.

She was walking along the path through the trees, wondering vaguely if she was going to be able to climb into her bunk with only one good hand without falling off the ladder, when someone came up behind her and grabbed her arm.

She jumped, and yelped. "I'm sorry!" the man said, and she turned to see Kristoff, looking worried. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said again, slipping his arms round her waist. "I didn't mean to startle you, it's only me."

"What are you doing here?" she said, "I was just going to bed."

"I wanted to kiss you goodnight," he said. "May I?"

His lips were already only millimetres from hers. Anna reached up and pulled his head down to close the gap.

They kissed. Anna's legs were already a little wobbly, and she let herself lean on Kristoff; he stumbled slightly, and Anna ended up with her back pressed against a tree. Kristoff moved his hands to her hips, then let one wander upwards as he started to kiss her jaw and neck.

He'd never been this forward before; his whole body was pressed against hers, and when his kisses returned to her lips they were deep and passionate. Anna pulled herself up on his shoulders and hooked a leg round his hips; he ground against her and she gasped against his mouth.

And then she had a sudden mental image of them trying to sneak onto the bunkbed to have sex and snorted with laughter. Kristoff pulled back a little in surprise. "What?" he said.

Anna kept giggling as she put her foot back down. "Sorry. Sorry. It's just -"

He let go of her and pulled back further. Anna was confused until she saw a group of people coming along the path to the cabins, and she quickly stepped back onto the path and pulled her top straight.

"Goodnight," she said.

"Goodnight," Kristoff replied, and then he was gone.