by MJ Duncan
Anna laughed and shook her head. “No, not really. I’m just messing with you. We’re not going to be painting my porch. Though I do need to get on that before winter,” she added as an afterthought.
Even though Bryn had never painted anything other than a canvas in a high school art class, she found herself offering, “Yes, well, if you need help…”
“Aww, thanks.” Anna winked at Bryn. “I’ll let you know when I finally get around to it if you really want to help. But today is about fun, not work.”
Bryn nodded. “Okay, then. In that case, would you care to enlighten me on the type of fun we will be having?”
“Nope.” Anna tightened her grip on the steering wheel as she accelerated through a turn, and laughed at the way Bryn braced a hand on the dashboard. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
Once they were clear of the turn, Bryn relaxed in her seat and leveled an incredulous look at Anna. “You do realize that that’s not a particularly reassuring answer, right?”
“I do.” Anna eased up on the accelerator as they neared the newest subdivision of single-family homes that framed the outskirts of town, cookie-cutter neighborhoods that sprouted like weeds out of farmland that had been sold to the highest bidder. “Trust me, Bryn. If you don’t have fun, I’ll make you dinner or something when I take you home to make up for it.”
“That sounds more than fair.” Bryn nodded as she looked out the windshield.
“Perfect! And when you do have fun, you can make me dinner.”
The idea of spending the rest of the day with Anna, and not just a few hours this afternoon, made Bryn smile. “Do you not have food at your house?”
“Eh.” Anna bobbed her head from side to side, and then laughed at the look of disbelief Bryn gave her. “Yes, I have food. I just thought it’d be fun.”
“It would,” Bryn allowed. “All right, Ms. Fitzpatrick. You have yourself a deal.”
“You better start thinking about what you’re gonna make me.”
“You’re assuming that I will admit to enjoying myself so that you won’t have to cook.”
Anna placed a hand over her heart and gasped in mock-horror. “You would lie? That’s cold, Nakamura.”
Bryn laughed and shook her head. “Yes, well, the world is a cruel place.”
“Not always,” Anna said, her brow furrowed as she glanced at Bryn.
“Perhaps for you…” Bryn replied as they turned onto a small side street, surprising herself with her own candor. “I’m too used to being disappointed to possess your optimism, I’m afraid.”
They stopped at a red light, and Anna turned in her seat to look at Bryn. “Disappointed?”
Bryn licked her lips and looked out the windshield, thankful that the signal had already changed. “The light is green.”
A horn honking behind them reinforced her point, and Anna sighed as she returned her focus to the road. “I’m sorry.”
Bryn shook her head. “You have no reason to be.”
Anna shrugged and reached over to give Bryn’s leg a quick squeeze before returning her hand to the steering wheel. “Maybe not. But I am.”
“Thank you,” Bryn murmured.
Anna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So, how’s my buddy Figgy doing?”
Bryn relaxed, grateful for the change in conversation. “She’s doing quite well. She sends her love.”
“I bet she does,” Anna drawled. “I have a way with the ladies. I knew she’d miss me.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Bryn chuckled.
“And yet, here you sit,” Anna said, waving a hand at Bryn
Bryn nodded in gracious defeat. “Indeed I do.”
“I’m glad.” Anna smiled shyly as she turned into a long, narrow parking lot. “We’re here.”
The building in front of them looked like a refurbished manufacturing plant of some kind, three stories tall with an even taller peaked roof that ran lengthwise along the building. Its tan stucco walls looked freshly painted, and there were several large, square windows dotting the structure. “And, where, exactly, is here?” she asked once Anna pulled into a parking space in front of the building’s entrance.
Anna killed the engine and opened her car door. “Vert.”
Bryn rolled her eyes and climbed out of the car as well. “Yes, I can see that,” she said, waving at the blue and neon yellow sign above the door. “But what is Vert?”
“You ever been climbing?” Anna asked as she pulled a medium-sized duffle from the trunk of her car and slammed it shut.
Bryn frowned. “Climbing?”
“Yeah.” Anna gave Bryn’s shoulder a light squeeze, pulling her gently along as she started toward the front door. “Climbing. Vert is a sport climbing gym.”
“I’m afraid that I still don’t understand,” Bryn said, shaking her head as she allowed Anna to lead her toward the door.
“Indoor rock climbing,” Anna elaborated as she pulled the oversized glass door to the gym open and waved Bryn through. “This is where I sneak off to whenever I need to relax.”
“Oh,” Bryn murmured, nodding as she looked through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind the front desk and out into the gym itself. “I see. Um, no, I have never been climbing.”
“You’re in for a treat, then.”
Bryn watched the few people on the walls inside the gym as Anna talked to the man working the front desk. She was confident enough in her fitness that the idea of going indoor rocking climbing was not terribly daunting, but she was not nearly as confident in her ability to not make a fool out of herself. She preferred to learn new skills away from prying eyes that might judge her efforts, and the idea of failing in front of Anna and who knew how many other people had her heart racing.
She tried to mask the anxiousness that she felt when Anna turned to look at her, but some of it must have showed because Anna gave her a quizzical look before asking, “Shoe size…six-and-a-half, right?”
“Yes.” Bryn frowned. “Why?”
“You need climbing shoes,” Anna explained as the guy behind the desk pulled a pair of black and red shoes from under the counter and handed them to Anna, who immediately turned to give them to Bryn.
“Of course.” Bryn took the shoes from Anna.
“You need a harness for her?” the guy behind the counter asked.
“Nah. I got two sets of all the gear we’ll need in here.” Anna motioned toward the duffle slung across her back. “Thanks, man.”
“All right. You ladies have fun.”
“We will.” Anna grinned at Bryn and started toward the door to the right of the desk. “You ready?”
Bryn took a deep breath and, after a moment, nodded. She was not going to let herself ruin the afternoon. “As I’ll ever be,” she said, her voice far more confident than she actually felt.
The air inside the gym was cool enough to keep people comfortable while they were exercising, and a few of the people standing beneath climbers turned to glance at them as they passed. The climbing walls varied in color and difficulty from section to section—some were flat all the way to the top with generous amounts of handholds, some had outcroppings that ranged from a slight angle to one that was parallel to the floor and looked like it would be impossible to navigate—and Bryn followed Anna across the gym to a section at the end that was the color of red brick. It had far more handholds than any of the other sections, and it was not hard to figure out that it was the easiest.
Easy was a relative term, however, because the wall was still over forty feet tall.
They sat on a small bench facing the climbing wall to change their shoes. Bryn frowned as she crammed her left foot into the shoe. “This is awfully tight,” she observed as she pulled the Velcro strap into place. “Do climbing shoes run small?”
“Yeah,” Anna said as she pulled her second shoe on. “You actually want them to be tight enough that your toes are absolutely smushed at the front. Helps you climb better.” She shrugged. “You get used to it.”
“If you say so,” Bryn muttered, as she watched Anna reach for the duffle she had brought with her. Once she had both of her shoes on, she stood and wiggled her feet, trying to ease the tightness around her toes. It did not work. If anything, they felt even tighter.
“Okay, so here’s a harness for you.” Anna pulled a black nylon climbing harness from her bag. “This is the front of it—” she handed it to Bryn in the correct orientation, “—and you just step through the waist belt, stick one leg in each leg loop, and pull it up like it’s a pair of pants. The leg loops will hang a little loose around your thighs, and that’s okay, it’s just important that you get the waist belt above your hips.”
Bryn’s forehead creased in concentration as she followed Anna’s instructions, and she looked up at her once she was holding it at her waist. “Good?”
“Perfect.” Anna pointed to the cinch strap that was at the front of the harness. “Next step, pull that strap tight enough that the belt fits snugly. You want to make sure that it can’t pull down over your hips. Falling out of the harness is never a good time.”
“Right,” Bryn muttered, trying to ignore the way her stomach clenched with fear at the idea of slipping out of the safety harness as she yanked the strap tight. “Makes sense.”
Anna placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and leaned forward as she asked softly, “You okay?”
The unease twisting Bryn’s stomach loosened as she looked into Anna’s eyes and saw only genuine concern staring back at her. Anna’s touch was light, but the warmth from it swept through Bryn’s veins, calming her nerves. She took a deep breath. Anna had been so excited about this, and she did not want to do anything that might ruin it. “Of course. I’m perfectly fine.”
Anna did not look entirely convinced, but she gave Bryn’s shoulder a quick squeeze and nodded. “Okay. Let me know if you need a minute or something, all right?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, so I’m just going to check to make sure your harness is tight enough,” Anna said as she grabbed hold of a loop on either side of Bryn’s hips and gave the harness a solid yank.
Bryn had not been expecting Anna to tug as had as she had, and she grabbed onto Anna’s shoulders to keep from falling over. “Sorry.”
“For what?” Anna smiled and held up a rainbow-patterned cloth bag attached to a black carabiner and clipped it onto the back of Bryn’s harness. “Now, this bag has chalk in it to help you climb. It’s the stuff gymnasts use when they’re on bars and stuff, just keeps your hands dry so you don’t slip off the holds. Good so far?”
The shoes on Bryn’s feet were too tight and the more stuff Anna gave her, the more nervous she became about actually trying to scale the wall in front of them, but Anna was smiling at her like her being there was the best thing in the world, so things definitely could have been worse. “Yes. Good.”
“Awesome.” Anna beamed and gave Bryn’s wrist a light squeeze. “Now, come with me so I can attach a belay line to your harness, and you’ll be good to go.”
Bryn followed Anna over to the wall and stood still as Anna secured a rope attached to a heavy-duty locking carabiner onto the loop of her harness that connected the waist belt and leg loops. “What does this do, exactly?”
“Ah, my bad.” Anna gave the rope a tug. She then unhooked a metal clip that she had clipped to her harness earlier. “This is a belay line.” She lifted the loose end of the rope indicatively. “It’s your safety-rope for when you climb. It’s threaded through a pulley anchored in the ceiling, and I hold the other end down here.” She folded the rope into a U-shape and slipped it through the clip in her hand. “This is an ATC device. It’s what makes it possible for me to keep you from falling if you slip from your holds, and when you get to the top of the wall, you just have to let go and I can use this line to lower you to the ground,” she finished explaining as she clipped the ATC device back onto her harness.
“You will lower me to the ground?” Bryn asked incredulously. Anna was a couple inches taller than her, yes, but she doubted Anna weighed much more than she did, and she did not see how in the world Anna would be able to manage a task like that on her own.
“The pulley disperses your weight so that it’s easily manageable. Never mind the fact that you’re tiny.” Anna grinned. Her expression sobered and she added, “I’ll keep you safe, Bryn. Scout’s honor.”
And, as Bryn took in Anna’s open, earnest smile, she believed her. Anna would keep her safe. The certainty with which she knew that was enough to make her heart skip a beat. She took a deep breath as she tucked her hair behind her ears, and then nodded. “Okay.”
“You’ll do great,” Anna assured her. “Oh, and if you ring the bell at the top, you’ll get a prize.”
“What kind of prize?” Bryn asked, grateful for the distraction as she walked up to the wall. She placed her left foot on a wide hold that was at about knee-height, reached up to grab onto two handholds that were at a comfortable height above her head, and looked over her shoulder at Anna.
“You’ll have to ring the bell to find out.” Anna winked as she pulled the rope tight and nodded at Bryn. “Ready when you are, Nakamura.”
“Right.” Bryn blew out a soft breath and turned back to the wall. The stiff sole on her shoes made her feel surprisingly steady as she pushed up off the ground and braced her weight on her left leg.
One down, too many left to go.
By the time Bryn was twenty feet off the ground, her nerves had eased to the point that she could simply focus on the wall above her. The process was mechanical—reach, push, pull, reset—but it required her full concentration, leaving no room in her mind for other thoughts. Finding her next hold was the only thing she was concerned with. She did not have time to worry about falling or her abysmal interpersonal skills. She forgot about the brochures the printer had messed up, delaying Spectrum’s mailing campaign for the season; and she did not think once about the section of irrigation she had discovered was inoperable earlier that morning because the row of vines it fed was beginning to wilt. Climbing was the perfect blend of physical exertion and all-consuming focus, and by the time she reached for the bell at the top of the wall, she felt like she had found nirvana. She could not keep from grinning as she grabbed hold of the dangling red rope and gave it a tug, sending sharp clang of the bell ringing through the gym, and she threw her head back and laughed when she heard Anna cheer loudly below her.
“Now let go!” Anna hollered.
Bryn’s head was buzzing with adrenaline and excitement over the fact that she had actually made it to the top, and so she did not question the instruction; she simply released her hold on the wall and sat back in her harness to enjoy the slow trip back to the ground. Anna’s smile was as big as her own when she was finally back on her feet, and Bryn shook her head as she admitted, “You were right.”
Anna laughed and pulled Bryn into a bear hug. “I knew you’d like it!”
Bryn wrapped her arms around Anna’s waist, sinking into the embrace with an easiness that would have been terrifying had she stopped to think about it. But she was not thinking. She was too high on the euphoric thrum of success singing in her veins to give much thought to anything. And maybe that was a good thing, because had she been more mindful of the situation, she would have been forced to examine why the soft press of Anna’s breasts against her own made her stomach flip, and the feeling of Anna’s cheek on her shoulder sent her heart flying into her throat.
Anna squeezed Bryn tight and hummed as she rocked them from side to side in a guileless display of happy excitement before she dropped her arms and stepped back to grin at Bryn. “You crushed it!”
Those three words were the most effusive praise Bryn had ever received, and she ducked her head as a furious blush erupted across her face. “Thank you.”
“You know this means you’re cooking tonight, right?” Anna teased.
Bryn looked back up at Anna, and her breath caught in her throat at the way Anna smilin
g so proudly at her. She swallowed thickly, and nodded as she murmured, “Yes, well, I guess I’ll be able to manage to whip up something.”
Anna laughed. “I can’t wait. So, you ready to learn how to belay? So I can have a go?”
“Of course.” Bryn looked at the device still hooked to Anna’s harness. “Is it difficult?”
“Not at all,” Anna assured her. She waved a hand at somebody behind Bryn, beckoning them over, and Bryn turned to see a woman in an orange T-shirt with Vert stamped across the front making her way toward them. “I’ll walk you through the process, it’s really quite simple, and then Jane will stay with you to make sure you’re working your hands right until you’re comfortable enough to do it on your own.”
Just knowing that there would be somebody to make sure she was doing it all properly made Bryn feel better, and she nodded. “Okay.”
Sixteen
Bryn tugged her shirt down into place, reveling in the pleasant ache that had begun to settle into her muscles now that the endorphins from her workout had begun to fade. The smile that had been plastered on her face ever since the first time she rang the bell at the top of the wall, however, was still firmly in place. She studied her reflection in the mirror, and was blown away by the happiness that she saw shining in her eyes.
She felt alive, and it showed in every aspect of her face.
She made her way down the hall and into the great room at the same time Anna came from the opposite wing of the house where she had showered and changed in one of the guest rooms. Anna was wearing khaki shorts and a heather gray tee stamped with a distressed Property of UW Med School design, and Bryn was struck by how young she looked in that moment with her damp hair hanging in loose waves around her shoulders, a wide, carefree smile lighting her face, and her eyes twinkling with joy.
“Hey.” Anna ambled further into the room, all loose limbs and easy swagger, the backpack that had held her change of clothes slung over one shoulder. “Nice shirt.”
Bryn looked down at herself and nodded. It was the “prize” that she had been promised for reaching the top of the wall—a ridiculously bright, highlighter-yellow T-shirt with the Vert logo stamped in blue across the chest. She had been embarrassed when Anna bought it for her on their way out of the gym, ignoring her repeated assurances that she did not need a prize and that Anna should not feel obligated to buy her anything, but Anna had insisted, handing her the shirt with a playful smile and a light, “I always make good on my promises, Nakamura.”