“Hey, Ian, you ready to switch over?”
I looked up from untying the knot to see that the pretty brunette had arrived. She was dressed like me, workout tights and a sports bra, but she made it look so much better. Muscles and firm skin versus wobbly arms and flab. Model versus amateur. And she wasn’t a butterface, either—far from it. She had gorgeous cheekbones, a cute little nose, full lips, and straight teeth. I couldn’t quite place her nationality, but she seemed mixed.
Ian introduced us. “Yeah. Lina, this is Anna. Anna, Lina. Lina’s my climbing partner.” We shook hands. Rather, she squeezed mine with her giant climber claws and my tired hands barely resisted.
“Nice to meet you. How’d your session go?” Lina seemed to direct the question at me, but she was watching Ian.
“It was fun,” I answered. “I think I’ll be back.” I met her assessing gaze.
“Hey, that’s great! I’m glad you enjoyed it that much,” Ian said, patting me on the back. I must’ve felt like a slug with how sweaty I was, but I relished the contact anyway and directed a tight-lipped smile at Lina. Then Ian turned to Lina and said, “I’ll be over in a few. I think Anna and I just wrapped up, so I’m going to walk her out.” He turned to look at me and gave me a questioning look. “You’re done, right? You said you were too tired to go on?”
“Psh, I just need a break,” I said. “Besides, I did all the climbing this morning—it’s my turn to watch you struggle. Maybe I’ll learn what not to do.”
Ian grinned. “You’re going to be thoroughly disappointed.”
I smirked at both him and Lina before going to the counter and buying a protein bar and an energy drink. I knew I was going to be there for a while. To learn, of course. I ignored the flicker of displeasure that came from seeing Lina and Ian talking together.
Chapter 10
-Ian-
Anna surprised me by asking a lot of questions during the rest of the session. We’d switched to bouldering so that I could teach without wasting Lina’s time, and so that Anna could try it if she wanted to.
As I’d thought, she was a natural. She intuitively understood the principles behind the techniques that I showed her, and while she’d started out pretty scared, she quickly gained confidence. She did try a few bouldering routes, but was too tired to really do much.
Lina didn’t really help things. She got on some routes that were definitely not for beginners, then encouraged Anna to try them. “This one’s easy! You can do it!” she’d say, clearly missing that it was Anna’s first time, and that she was beat from two hours of top roping. Anna tried and failed a few times, then declined to try anymore after that. Something seemed kind of off between them, and they didn’t really talk much after that.
By 1pm, Anna had stopped climbing. She was also yawning every other minute, lying down on the mat and watching us with dead fish eyes.
I plopped down beside her. “You okay? You don’t have to stay here if you want to go.”
She looked up at me from the mat. Then her stomach rumbled and her eyes widened.
“Oh...ah, would you be willing to get lunch with me? My treat, because you taught me so much today. And I’d like to ask you more questions about Stumpstash.”
“Uh, sure.” I wasn’t sure what else she could ask about Stumpstash because she’d already grilled me about it the other night, but I wasn’t going to turn down lunch with her.
“Hey Lina, I’m going to go grab lunch with Anna. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Can I come?” asked Lina.
Before I could answer, Anna said, “Oh, it’s probably going to be really boring. I’m going to ask him a bunch of questions about his workplace, so you probably wouldn’t want to come.”
Lina arched an eyebrow at her, but said, “I see. Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow, Ian.” We high-fived.
I packed up my gear and put on a little extra deodorant in the men’s locker room. Better to be safe than sorry. I met Anna by the entrance and asked, “So whereto for lunch?”
“You can pick,” she said.
“Uhhh, there’s a really good Chinese restaurant around the corner. You cool with that?”
She hesitated. “I...guess that’s okay. If that’s what you want.”
“We can do something else, if you’d prefer. There are a lot of places around.”
“No no, Chinese is fine.” Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Let’s go.”
I decided not to dig. Besides, the Chinese place was objectively the best lunch spot in the area, and one of the cheapest.
“So,” she asked, “how long have you been climbing with Lina?”
“A few months now. We met at a partner meetup night and we climb at roughly the same level. She’s been a good climbing buddy.”
“She’s...really good at climbing,” Anna said. I glanced at her, but she just looked straight ahead.
I playfully put my arm around her shoulders as we walked. “Are you jealous?”
“No!” She glared up at me and I smirked at her, our faces inches away. She lowered her eyes and glanced at my lips, then turned and looked ahead, but didn’t shrug my arm off. Interesting. Maybe she did miss me after all. I considered kissing her then and there, but decided not to rush things. Let her make the first move this time. I let her go as we approached the Chinese restaurant and opened the door for her.
The restaurant was old and dingy and smelled of grease, as all great authentic Chinese restaurants do. A giant hand-written “Cash Only” sign was posted in the window, next to a yellowing menu that was almost exclusively in Chinese. Old Chinese pop music played in the background, and an older woman in
