“Are there always this many people?” I asked Emily as we settled into our seats.
“Ha, no. The group is usually much smaller. But more people come out when there’s a special occasion, like a product launch or when there’s a new Stumpstasher. I think most of these people are here for you!”
Tania, my boss, suggested that we all go around and introduce ourselves. There was Emily, as well as Tom and a few other people whom I remembered from Cassie’s wedding, Priya, Rich, and Tony. Besides one female software engineer named Laila, everyone else was a dude, and even though I repeated their names in my mind, I just could not keep their names and faces straight. There were too many hoodies and too much flannel.
A waiter came by with waters for everyone, then went around and took our drink orders. Multiple people offered to buy me a drink, but I only accepted Tania’s offer.
As the waiter made his way around the table, Emily looked around and asked, “Where’s Ian?”
Rich snickered. “Ian never comes out.”
“He came out once, when we launched the new mobile app,” offered Priya.
Rich rolled his eyes. “For like five minutes. That guy never hangs out, never even tries to talk to us except about work. He’s so unfriendly.” The intensity of Rich’s dislike surprised me.
“He’s not that bad. Just kinda awkward sometimes,” said Emily, who was watching my face.
“We’re software engineers, we’re all awkward,” said someone whose name I’d just learned a minute ago, then promptly forgot. Matt? Mike? “But Ian doesn’t even try.”
Rich continued, “I’d be surprised if he had any friends.”
Priya turned to me and asked, loudly enough for everyone to hear, “Anna, aren’t you dating Ian?”
I nodded, meeting Rich’s widening eyes. “Yeah, I am.”
Rich didn’t say anything, just looked away and sipped his water.
“Did you guys start dating after Cassie’s wedding?” asked Tom, eyes a bit too wide.
“Ah, kinda.” I nervously sipped my water.
“If you guys are dating, then he can’t be that bad, right?” Priya asked, clearly trying to throw me a bone. “Have you met his friends?”
Did Ian have friends? I decided that Lina didn’t really count, as we only ever saw her at the gym. I slowly shook my head. “We’ve only just started dating, so I...I haven’t met his friends yet.”
Silence. Rich and Matt / Mike exchanged a meaningful look.
Emily came to the rescue. “So you were Cassie’s roommate in college, right?”
◆◆◆
A couple hours later, Ian and I were making a pizza together for dinner. I chopped the vegetables while he worked on the dough, skillfully flinging it into the air, stretching and flattening it out with each upward toss.
“The happy hour today was interesting,” I said, slowly slicing a bell pepper.
“Oh yeah? What happened?” Ian asked. He set the prepared crust on the floured countertop and stirred the sauce.
“I kinda got the impression that some of our coworkers don’t really like you.”
He chuckled. “I can guess who. I’ve killed some projects because they didn’t make sense for us as a company, and it definitely upset some people.”
I nodded. Typical office politics. “But they also asked me if I’d met any of your friends. I said that we just started dating, so I hadn’t met them yet.”
Ian continued stirring the sauce and didn’t look up. “I see.”
When he didn’t say anything more, I innocently asked, “So when will I meet them?”
He finally looked up and met my eyes. Exhaled slowly. “I don’t have that many friends here. Most of my friends from high school and college live elsewhere. You’ve met Cassie and Lina, at least, and I chat with other folks at the climbing gym sometimes. I’ll introduce you to them next time I see them.” He went back to tasting and seasoning the sauce.
“I see.” I did, and I knew that I had no right to judge. I didn’t have that many close friends in New York, either. I had a bad habit of just hanging out with whichever guy I was with at the time and his friends.
I hoped that wouldn’t remain the case, or else it would just be the two of us. And maybe Lina, I guess.
◆◆◆
On Saturday, Ian brought me along to the climbing gym again. Lina was there, too, as usual.
“Hey, how’s it going?” she cheerfully asked, patting my back. “Ready to send that red V1 today?”
Sending a route meant successfully getting to the top of it, and there was a red bouldering problem in the corner of the gym that I hadn’t been able to send the last time I’d been there. It was the only V1 left in the gym that I hadn’t completed yet, so out of pride, I’d refused any beta (climber lingo for advice)—I wanted to get it on my own. Lina and Ian respected my wishes and kept their beta to themselves, but despite trying over and over, and even secretly watching both of them warm up on it, I just couldn’t send it.
With his height and long arms, Ian had swung up through the hardest part and easily caught the next hold, which I’d dubbed the devil hold because of its deep red color and horn-like, curved shape, as well as its ability to bedevil me. But when I tried to copy his motion, my fingers barely curled over the lip of the hold, then slipped off, each and every time. Maybe if I jumped and committed harder...but no, no matter how much I threw myself at it, I just couldn’t stick it.
Meanwhile, Lina gracefully rocked her body over a foothold and maneuvered into
