Page 35 of Untouchable

Progress towards what, Parker? he thinks. He’s not going to be your fucking boyfriend.

"Six years now," Harp says. "How about you? How long have you lived—well, where the hell do you live, if you don't mind me asking?"

“I live here. Just a few miles that way,” Parker says, pointing towards the opposite side of town where clusters of identical apartment buildings have been cropping up as the town grows. “I… moved up here a couple years ago and found my housemate on Craigslist. It was through her that I actually heard about Rocky Mountain. And, um, the rest is history.”

He takes a sip of his milkshake. He doesn’t mention that he’d moved from Denver to Mink Creek to be with his boyfriend at the time, Cole, who was doing some internship or program for med school. They’d been together for six months when Cole moved, and six months after that, Parker had uprooted his life to follow Cole to Mink Creek.

Cole, though, had been a little reluctant about moving in together, and so Parker had ended up moving in with Mindy.

The relationship hadn’t lasted, but that friendship had.

Parker doesn’t tell Harp any of that, but he finds himself wanting to share his life with the other man, boring as it is, in hopes that—

Parker’s not actually quite sure what he hopes for. He just knows he likes listening to Harp talk, knows Harp is intelligent in a way that Parker’s never encountered before. Harp’s mind is sharp, cagey, clever—so unlike the dry, academic leanings of his sisters.

“I like it better here,” Parker says, knowing he’s rambling. “I like not being in a big city. I like being able to drive five minutes and be out in nature. I like that people here are friendly. I like being—somewhere different from my family. I, uh—yeah. I guess—I guess Mink Creek just makes me happy.”

* * *

Harp is nodding so hardthat he almost makes himself dizzy. This was the stuff that Harp had wanted out of Parker—had been trying to drag out of him—and now it's being offered freely.

Harp wonders if it's because they're on neutral ground, or if it's because they don't have an appointment today, or if it's because...

Because what, Harp?he asks himself. Because he wants to be friends with a weird loner twice his age?

Harp hides his frown in between bites and asks with a full mouth, "You ever hike out here? There're a few great trailheads on the way to my place."

“Yeah!” Parker says, a little too enthusiastically. “I used to, uh, date someone who had a dog, and we’d go up to Lumpy Ridge all the time. My favorite in the summer is the Crystal Loop, because it takes you down to the lake. We’d take Jack—that was the dog—down there and I’d play fetch with him in the water. He loved it so much he’d literally get so tired he couldn’t even swim anymore, but he’d still want to play and I’d have to make him stop. Damn, I loved that dog.”

Parker clears his throat.

“But, uh, yeah, I hike a lot—not a ton recently, since I picked up some more clients at the gym—I do like, personal training and stuff too, but I definitely need to get out there before it snows and all the trails close. I like Mittenzwei Pass in the winter though—you have to stay on the gravel bits, you know, but it’s weirdly… pretty in the winter somehow? Even when it’s gray and gross out and the snow is all slushy. Like, I dunno, when I’m there by myself I sort of feel like I’m in this fantasy movie or something, or like a chipmunk might suddenly start talking to me.”

Parker stops abruptly.

“Sorry,” he says. “I’m talking a lot.”

"It's great," Harp blurts. It's refreshing, actually, after wondering about this human being for weeks on end. He’s finally able to add muscle to the skeleton of personality Parker had been willing to show so far.

When it's clear that Parker is waiting for Harp to hold up his own end of the conversation and not sit there like a caveman, he adds, "Congrats on expanding your client base. You deserve it."

“Thanks,” Parker says. “It’s really rewarding, you know? Like, a lot of the new people I’m seeing were referred by current clients, and it feels nice to—I guess to know I’m helping people. One of my clients came in because she wanted to lose the weight she’d gained during pregnancy, and now she’s doing triathlons and stuff because she discovered she loved it so much. And it’s neat, too, because at Rocky Mountain, they pay for us to do a lot of continuing education sessions, so, like, a month ago I went to this training on cranio-sacral stuff in Denver, and next year they might even subsidize going to New York for this five day Thai massage module that’s supposed to be one of the best in the country.”

* * *

Parker pauses for a moment,and then panics. He’d always had this problem growing up—he never stopped talking, endlessly chattering away about what he did in science class or how soccer practice had gone, while his parents were trying to decompress after their long work days. You dominate the conversation, Parker, they always said. No one else can get a word in.

He was doing it again.

“Er—sorry—so, you hike a lot too?” he asks, a little sheepishly.

"It's amazing that you have your shit together so much at 26," Harp says, instead of answering the question. "Where do you see yourself going with that? I mean, what's the end game—or are you doing it now?"

Parker can’t help laughing at Harp’s assessment of him, and Harp gives him a quizzical look. Normally this question makes him bristle—there’s always the underlying implication that his career should be a stepping stone to something better.

But with Harp, it’s different. He sounds like he’s simply… curious.

“I don’t think I have my shit together at all,” Parker says. “My family’s still waiting for me to go to school and get a real job like my sisters.”

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