Chapter 1 - Watch Out for Those Top Belays
Maddy was different. At least she said she was. We were practice climbing on a club outing. It was hot, an October heatwave that almost always arrived as school started. Pinnacles was now a national park, and the routes were well known. Only beginners, or friction freaks, went there. The rock was volcanic, with dozens of little nubbins that were hard to get a grip on, and hard on your body when you fell. Almost everyone top roped, unless they were trying to prove something and do a free climb.
I told Maddy that free climbing at Pinnacles was pointless. "Can't you see the newspaper? So and so was critically injured falling ten feet in the park while free climbing. If you are crazy enough to free something you are not sure of, do it where the obituary says it was one of the hardest routes in the country. Go out in a blaze of glory."
Maddy was drenched with sweat and had come off the pitch she was on three times. I patiently belayed her and said, "Maybe that stretch is too tall for your shoes. See if you can find something shorter."
She swore, found the right nubbin, and was beside me in thirty seconds. "Asshole."
"Oh?"
"You are supposed to make us find a way ourselves. Builds character. Especially when it is a guy belaying a girl."
We hiked down the back of the rock and she said, "You willing to give a sweaty, smelly girl a ride back?"
I looked at her. She was going into her senior year, and I was a junior. Everything about her was nice, except her reputation for being a sharp tongued ball buster. We had never climbed together, but I said to myself, nothing ventured, nothing gained. "Sure. My passenger never quits early but there is plenty of space in other cars. Are we heading out now?"
She nodded. "I told one of the other climbers to explain to my driver."
I found water and a couple of towels. "Want me to pour some of this on you?"
"Yes, but I want it on my skin, not these clothes. What about moving the car into those trees?"
In a few minutes, I was pouring water down the naked back of Maddy, and she was wiping her front and between her legs with my wet towel. The next towel dried her and a fresh sports bra and boy shorts went on. The back had been tan from top to bottom. How did that happen, I wondered.
She turned and said, "You?"
I nodded, turned around, and dropped my shorts. The water felt great. She said, "Matt, what have you been doing to fix up the bod like that?"
I dried off and got my own clean shorts on. "Believe it or not, a horse guest ranch. Friend of my uncle's. Worked my ass off. Learned to ride a horse without falling off. How did you get tan all over?"
"I was a counselor and lifeguard at a girl's camp. There was a patio with a fence and we all went around bare ass."
As we drove down the road towards Palo Alto, I pointed to the cooler in the back. She pulled out a beer rather than a soda and said, "Sips for you?"
"You are being pretty nice for an Irish girl with a bad reputation about guys."
"It's a bum rap. I'm here to study hard and get into med school, learn how to rock climb, and check out guys - in that order. Don't get down to the third priority very often. But guys see this body I work so hard on and get to thinking they can have me. Doesn't work that way."
"Bottom line, a ball buster." I smiled, and she cracked a small grin.
"Last spring, I did have to kick a guy in the nuts. Came up to me without even a hello and had his hand down the front of my shorts. Didn't expect my heel to catch him hard. He cried a lot. Could hardly walk. The other girls were cheering, but the guys weren't."
We rode in silence for a while, and then she said, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure." This time the look was softer, but distant, like she wasn't sure what she was doing.
"I'm not making any progress in my climbing. Pinnacles sucks after a while. I've been working hard in the gym and on the climbing walls. My finger grip is a nine according to that machine."
She paused and I said, "I'm impressed."
"Yeah, but I'm not going to Yosemite on my own. I need a climbing partner."
"You are asking an Irish guy with a prickly reputation that you already called an asshole to be your climbing partner?"
She laughed nervously. "Maybe that wasn't very smart of me."
"Actually, it was exactly the right thing to say. I shouldn't have been giving you cheap advice on a practice climb."
"So you are interested?"
"Madelaine McCarthy. That's a nice Irish name and you fit the name real well. But I had a bad experience last year and I'm sworn off female climbing partners."
"I heard about that. Sally Collins? It's none of my business, but what happened?"
"We were on the Nose and she panicked. I had a hell of a time roping us off. She cried the whole time. Taught me a lesson."
"Like, don't believe women who say they are strong enough to climb with you?"
"Something like that."
I drove silently for ten or fifteen minutes. Finally, she said, "I'm different."
After another couple of minutes, I said, "You're different?"
"I know, you're thinking I've got the same parts Sally Collins has, so what's different?"
I looked at her and grinned.
"What?"
"Don't tell her, but I like your parts better than hers."
"My roommate would say you are just a sexist hound dog." She was grinning too.
"My pain about Sally hasn't gone away. Climbing partners have to be able to trust one another."
We were almost to her dorm when she said, "If I can come up with a way to show I'm different, would you change your mind?"
She was standing in the open door, looking at me intently. This was one tough minded woman. Pretty too.
"I might."
She took my phone to put its number into hers.
"Give me your hand." I kissed it gently. "I like your smell."
She wrinkled her nose and said, "Before or after?"
"Both."
She slammed the door and laughed going up the walk.
Chapter 2 - A First Date Gets Wild
A couple of days later, I had my nose in a textbook when my phone chimed.
"When you go on a first date with a girl, what do you usually do?"
I liked the sound of her voice. Musical, edgy when she wanted.
"Well?"
