Page 34 of A Quick Stop in Paradise

“And what is your type?” she said, and I definitely did not just imagine the teasing, playful tone there in her voice. I smiled at her.

“You would like to know, wouldn’t you?”

She didn’t miss a beat. “Mm-hm. That’s why I asked. Now answer, or I’ll revoke permission to stare at my ass, and then what will you do while I’m climbing?”

This girl really did like to play with fire. I liked a little heat, though. “Well, we wouldn’t want that,” I said. “Dunno. I’ve actually got pretty broad interests. I generally like a person who’s pretty cool and put together… or at least who comes across as put together. I don’t think anyone in this world is really put together.”

“Fair enough…” she said, not looking at me, distracting herself watching Allison climb the wall.

“And yours?” I laughed, nudging her side. She blushed a little, but she didn’t back down.

“That’s what I’m hoping to find out.”

“You don’t know? No… celebrity crushes? Fictional characters who get you hot under the collar?”

She laughed, hanging her head. “I think I was so focused on trying to just maintain attraction for Shane that I gaslit myself into believing a lot of things I felt like I needed to… now I don’t know what I actually feel. And I’d like to find out.”

“Hm…” I took the weight of it in, thinking it over, before I decided to trample all over the serious statement. “But you definitely like a girl with abs. Who cooks without a shirt on.”

“Oh, you’d like me to be, wouldn’t you?” she said, meeting my gaze with a challenging gleam in her eyes.

She was seriously going to have no issues getting a hookup. I’d have ditched Allison here to take her back to my place right now, if she’d asked. Which was a weird thing to think about a friend who was kind of in my care for the time being, but dammit, she was my friend who was in my care and was hot as hell.

“The more people into me, the better,” I said, opting for a non-answer. “It’s good for my ego. You and I can go to Casablanca after this. It’s a nightclub… it’s not a gay club or anything, but it’s got analternative sectionthat’s, ostensibly, just for people who don’t fit the mold too cleanly. But in practice, it’s both that and about two-thirds queer people, and the girls in the last third are cool enough not to get upset if a girl hits on them.”

“That’s where you like to pick up your girls?” she said lightly, and I shrugged.

“Couple places I like to go, but that one’s nice. I’m friends with the staff there, too, so even if I don’t leave with someone, I generally get to have a nice evening chatting to someone there. And as for you—you’re hot, so I think it’ll take you about five minutes to find a girl who’s interested in you, if you go looking.”

“Psh…” She looked away. “I think you might just be projecting.”

I laughed. “Trust me, Ryan. I’m not worried about whether you can find a girl. I’m worried about how we’ll find Allison a girl who doesn’t scare her away.”

She inspected her fingernails idly. “You’re making a lot of promises of me. What are you going to say if I don’t find a girl tonight?”

“Then I guess I owe you another pizza.” I winked, and she smiled, rolling her eyes. As if I couldn’t see the blush creeping over her cheeks.

“Are you going to climb,” Allison called from the wall, a grand three holds up, at maximum, “or was this just a sick social experiment to watch me embarrass myself?”

Ryan glanced at me with a glimmer in her eye. “She’s feisty when she’s climbing, huh?”

“When she’s doing any physical activity. Not swimming, though. Girl’s a fish.”

She laughed, stepping towards the wall. “Guess Allison and I will have to drag you swimming with us this week, too. I love the water. Now, do me a favor and correct my form? I’m sure you might have noticed one or two areas for improvement in between all the staring.”

Ah, what the hell, she started it. I looked at her ass. “Don’t see any area for improvement, honestly.”

“Stop it,” she laughed, with that tone that said she didn’t want me to stop at all, the liar. “You’reverysweet. Now—the climbing?”

“Ah, yes. Forgot about that.”

I showed her a couple tips on how to use her legs better to take some of the pressure off her arms, keep her less likely to pump out this time, and I stood under both of them on the wall and commented on how they both needed some finger strength workouts. Allison didn’t appreciate the joke. She’d appreciate it better once she was back on solid ground.

Still, both of them managed to make it up to the top of the climb, Ryan taking the harder route—I was a sucker for an overachiever—and I high-fived her when she came back down, loving the sparkle in her eyes of completing her first climb. Allison took her sweet time, still warming up a little on the wall, and looked more like she was considering strangling me for bringing her here when she came back down, but she at least took Ryan’s compliment on making it to the top, commiserating on the first climbs. The two of them sat resting side-by-side and chatting as I tackled one of the harder routes—my exercise, and my stress relief, my happy place, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to show off just a little bit in front of Ryan.

And from the way she looked at me when I was pretty sure she didn’t know I was looking, I think it was working.

Ryan went back to the wall to try another route on the climb she just did once I got down from the wall, and Allison, a little more warmed up now and a little more enthusiastic now that she’d gotten over the starting-off hurdle, tackled her next climb with a bit more energy while I kept going on another, and it was when I flubbed a dyno trying a new route and dropped off the wall that Anthony found me, one of my climber buddies and, blessedly, one of the few who knew how to shower regularly. Still kinda stank, but more in the inevitable way that anyone would after climbing for a few hours—guy loved his endurance sessions, and he had a mountain-man build to show for it.

---