Page 75 of Free Fall

I shudder against my will. “Still gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Have you practiced on the similar roof you found in Tahoe?”

“It’s a bit of a drive…”

Doing serious practice with the roof on the boulder in Tahoe would require me pulling up stakes, so to speak, at the campground and leaving town for at least a few days. It’s not that I can’t go that long without seeing Sejin, but I just haven’t wanted to…

Alright. Maybe everyone’s on to something with the rumors that I’m losing focus.

“I’ll go this week.”

“What about Sejin?”

“He can go too if he wants.”

“He has a couple of jobs, doesn’t he? Plus, he helps his cousin’s boss over at the plumbing business now and again,andhe babysits those kids,” she reminds me, like I don’t know my own boyfriend’s situation.

Wait. Boyfriend?Boyfriend?Maybe…maybe that’s what he is…

“Yeah, so?”

“He can’t just say ‘sorry, I’m not coming in to work or helping out around here today because I’m taking off with my itinerant lover.’ It’s not how real-life works. Not that you’d know anything about that, living in a van and barely scraping by. If it weren’t for that trust fund from your grandfather, you’d be eating stolen Saltines and ketchup from the Lodge for your meals and foraging for berries in the forest.”

“Lover,” I say out loud, ignoring the rest, especially the mention of my biological grandfather and the surprise of his money. “Hm. Lover. I don’t know about that.” I test the word in my head again:lover.Is it worse or better thanboyfriend?I’m not sure. I should ask Sejin his opinion.

“Well, what do you call him?”

“Sejin. Or Doc.”

“Doc?”

I shrug. “An inside joke about some games we play.”

Peggy Jo chuckles. “Oh, lord, you’ve got a nickname for him?”

I shrug.

“I really think you oughta consider putting this climb off a year.”

“You’re telling me other climbers are celibate? Bullshit. Alex Honnold was notorious for his appetites before he married—”

“I don’t know about notorious, but the man had relationships off and on, yes. But when did he get hurt? At the start of a new relationship, that’s when.”

“And when did he free solo El Cap? In the middle of that relationship.”

“So, you’re in a relationship with Sejin?”

“I don’t know. We don’t fuck other people. We agreed to that. We hang out a lot. We like each other. I don’t see why we have to nail this down right now. I kind of have other things on my mind? Like Heart Route. Just as an example of, you know, where my focus is.”

“Right. Look at you, getting all sharp with me.” She clucks her teeth. “I regret taking you under my wing most days, you know that?”

“Then stop spraying about me all over town.”

Peggy Jo laughs. “If I can’t spray about my obnoxious protégé, what good have all these years of mentorship and endless anxiety done me?”

I snort, and we both let the subject drop. She turns on the radio and some old-timey country music fills the cab of her truck. It’s not horrible. I kind of like the banjo and the harmonies. But I also wish Sejin were here, and he could introduce her to the charm of KPop.

Weird how I miss him, and it’s been less than an hour since we’ve been apart.