"You're gonna have to dyno it!" Valerie yells from below.

"Yup!" I answer, squatting against the wall and preparing to propel myself upward. "I'm going for it!"

"You got this!"

I lock that handhold in my sight, playing out my leap toward it in my head. Just swing, jump, stretch, and grasp. I didn't project this route for weeks just to fall on the last move. No fucking way.

Alright. Swing the hips.

Swing.

Swing.

Swing.

And jump.

My left hand stretches to its limits as I fly toward that thing. As soon as it hovers over it, I close it around the thing, my legs swinging like a pendulum as my momentum propels them sideways. I swing them back before they get too far, placing my feet against the wall and grabbing the handhold with my free hand, matching both.

Fucking finally.

"Whooo!" Val screams, "Fuck yeah!"

More cheers and claps come from below. Clipping my rope through one last time, I can't help but laugh. "Okay, take!"

The rope tightens as she takes the slack out, allowing me to sit back in my harness.

"Holy fucking shit I fucking sent it!" I yell, throwing my head back and looking over my shoulder at my best friend forty feet below me. She's sitting like I am, hand on the rope under her GRIGRI and looking at me through her prism glasses. She got two for me and Sienna last week, and they're game changers. No more neck pain when watching each other climb.

"Yes the fuck you did!" She yells back.

People around her cheer for me, too. That's the thing about this sport: there's always someone to see you accomplish something. Sometimes you're even the first person they've seen do it.

"Alright, get me down!" I yell, and she begins lowering me. When my feet touch the ground and I untie myself, I'm showered with fist bumps and high-fives from the small crowd around us. And Valerie, of course, jumps like a squirrel on crack and wraps her arms around me.

"Thirteen C!" She screams. "You just sent a thirteen C! Imari, you're a fucking god!"

"I'll be a deaf god if you don't stop yelling," I tell her through my smile.

"Sorry." She pulls away, but I yank her by the arms and bring her in, squeezing her against me like my life depends on it.

"I actually fucking did it."

And man, does it feel amazing. All this time projecting, falling, debating... and I finally fucking did it. The highest grade of route I've ever done indoors. This... this feeling right here is why I love this; why I got her and Sienna into it.

And it'll feel even better when I do this on a real cliff.

"You did," she chokes, "just one thing. Can I breathe?"

"Sorry." I pull away.

"No, you're not."

"Fuck no, I'm not."

She playfully shoves her fist into my shoulder and steps back. Cool fingers then cover my eyes, and a pair of lips press to my cheek with a resounding "Mwah!"

"Damn," I say, "you wanna do that here?"

"Maybe." Sienna giggles, wrapping her arms around my neck. "That was fucking amazing, Imari."

"If I had a dime every time I heard that..."

Rolling her eyes, she releases me and kisses Val. With tongue. A lot of tongue.

I can't help but smirk. "So the meeting went well."

"Very well, looks like," Val says as she pulls away, raising an eyebrow at her, "you're hornier than the Cretan bull."

"No shit," I laugh, "good reference, though."

"Thanks."

"I... um..." Sienna begins, chewing on her bottom lip as she eyes the two of us, "may need some help. Like... right now."

Valerie looks at me questioningly, but my eyes dart to the loft above us where the boulders are.

"All you," I tell them.

Their eyes follow mine to the shirtless man swinging off an overhang, the muscles of his back and biceps flexing as he leaps halfway across the thing with nothing but his arms.

"Suit yourself," Valerie shrugs.

"Yeah, have fun!" Sienna smirks as she drags her away.

"You too!" I yell after them and make my way upstairs. By the time I reach him, he's dangling off his route's last handhold.

"Not bad," I say as his feet hit the ground, "you should try that blue next. It's pretty fun."

"Imari." He smiles at me, black hair damp with sweat, muscled light brown chest heaving. He looks at the only blue route. "It was my warm-up."

"That's not the one I meant."

His brown eyes lock with mine, confused for an instant before they find my dark blue shirt.

"Fun wouldn't do it justice," he says, chuckling.

"You would know."

"I would." He walks to a bench and falls into it, unscrewing a bottle of red Gatorade. "Give me a minute."

I sit next to him as he drinks. "Still pushing your limits?"

"Gotta catch up to you somehow." He offers me a sip, which I take. "I saw you send that lead climb. Congrats, I'm happy for you."

"Thanks." I smile. "Your turn next."

"Please. I'm a boulderer, my endurance is pathetic."

"I think you can last long enough."

He raises an eyebrow. "Are we still talking about rock climbing?"

"What do you think?"

Smiling, he shakes his head and looks me over. There's something about the way his brown eyes take me in that makes my pants that much tighter.

"Sure you don't wanna shower first?" He asks.

"We can multitask."

"In a public bathroom? Didn't know you were that freaky."

"I own the place, Hassan. You think I don't have a personal shower?"

"Right. How can I forget?" Chuckling, he gets up. "After you, then."

I was right, of course, his endurance is longer than he gave himself credit for. But I already knew that.

"I've been meaning to ask," he says in my office bathroom as he puts his pants back on, "you wouldn't wanna, like, go out sometime, would you?"

I freeze with my head halfway through a fresh shirt, my heart coming to a screeching halt for a worryingly long second. "Huh?"

"I mean..." He blushes as I pull the shirt through. "We've been doing this for a while now, right? I really like you, and I was thinking we could... You know..."

Oh great. Another one of those.

"And your very conservative Muslim parents?" I ask.

"I'm a grown man, Imari, they don't have to know everything or everyone I do."

I eye him standing there, hope and conviction in his eyes.

Why does this always happen to me?

"Look." I sigh. "Hassan, you're very cute, and I like fucking you, but I'm not looking for anything serious."

He opens his mouth to speak.

"And," I interrupt, "I'm not interested in being anyone's secret boyfriend. Sorry, that's just not me. If you want to continue this, we can, but I won't take it any further than that."

Well, there goes the dejection. He steps back as if I slapped him and looks away from me, shoulders dropping. Reminds me of a sad puppet whose strings were cut.

"Right. Yeah," he mumbles, "sure, uh— my bad. Forget I said anything."

I nod at him. He returns it with a stiff smile.

"I should get going," he adds and, saying nothing else, leaves.

Dammit. And I really did like fucking him.

By the time I reach the floor, Hassan is shouldering past Sienna, who is belaying Valerie on lead.

"Hey!" She smiles at him. "How's it—?"

"Hey." And he's out the door.

"Damn," she says, watching Val through her prism glasses as I approach, "another one bites the dust?"

I groan. "What is it with the hottest guys always wanting relationships with me?"

"Well, let's see," Sienna says as she feeds slack into the GRIGRI, "you're hot, you're smart, you're funny and charming, and you give dick almost as well as you take it. Can you blame them?"

"Take!" Valerie yells from the top. Sienna obliges, taking out slack and sitting back.

"Almost as well?"

"I said what I said." At Val's signal, Sienna begins lowering her.

"You know, I— No. We'll revisit that later. I just need to understand why I can't have a normal fuck buddy without all this baggage. Guys are supposed to be easy about this."

"Apparently not when they're fucking you. First world problems, Babe."

I roll my eyes. "You're no help whatsoever, you know that?"

"Here's some help," Valerie says as her feet hit the ground, "maybe instead of running from commitment, try it out."

My stomach turns. "I'd rather die alone."

They exchange eye rolls and shake their heads.

"Oh, fuck you, cunts."

"Already have." Valerie winks.

"Right." Thankful for the opportunity to change the subject, I turn to Sienna. "Speaking of. Which one of them had you overheating faster than my old PC?"

"Try all of them," she says, "why did no one tell me they're as hot as they are? I barely kept myself from melting at their feet."

"She means that somewhat literally," Valerie informs me, "I need to reupholster my car seats after that stint."

"First world problems, Babe," I tease.

"Laugh all you want," Sienna says as she leads the way to the lockers, "but they may or may not be coming to Apollo's at some point. We'll see how long you two will last."

"Hey," Val says, "if you want us to share one or two or all of them, I'll be more than happy to. And before you worry about me disapproving like I did Tyler, I won't. Last I checked he's never got you this horny, and I trust your body, if not always your judgment."

Sienna shakes her head, but her smile only grows.

"Apollo's, huh?" I interject. "It all worked out, then?"

"Mhm." She takes her harness off. "We're just doing some housecleaning first. See if you can find any other moles when you have time, Imari."

"I can start now."

"No, my dad is having this celebratory thing at your uncle's bar." Her climbing shoes come off next. "And there's something I need to talk to you guys about."

"Yeah, Val mentioned you wanted to talk here earlier."

"Make that my place after. We don't have time."

"When is it?"

"An hour."

"Well." I sigh. "Would've been nice of Tio to let me know, but I guess that works too."

"No, it was pretty short notice. Plus, it's just a small thing. Inner circle only."

"We're not in your dad's inner circle."

"You're in mine." She smiles. "Now, come on. We need to make ourselves presentable."

"You sure do." I eye my friends' sports bras and yoga pants. "My house. The better half of both your closets is there anyway."

"Didn't know we signed up for Queer Eye," Valerie says as she takes her gear off.

"I can put on my pantsuit. It's still in my car," Sienna adds.

"Please don't wear Chanel couture to my uncle's speakeasy. Spare me my dignity."

"Is the dignity in the room with us?"

I snort. "Touché."

 •─────•♛•─────• 

With my impeccable efficiency and punctuality, we arrive at the bar right on time. Sienna was right about the gathering being intimate. My uncle, having closed the place for the evening, personally escorts us to the smaller VIP section in the back.

"You should've called me, Tio," I tell him as we walk in, "I could've helped."

"Ah, fuhgeddaboudit, as Pete likes to say." He claps me on my back. "It was no big deal. I didn't wanna distract you from your climbing. By the way, how'd it go?"

"He just climbed the hardest route in the gym," Valerie brags.

"The one you've been working on? That's amazing! Looks like we got more than one thing to celebrate today, eh?"

We find Vasilios Rex, his son, and his consigliere by the bar. By a closed door that is always reserved for Rex stand two men, twins, each as wide as two of my shoulder spans, bald, and with identical spider web tattoos on their necks. Their hooded eyes stare straight ahead, but you'd be mistaken to think that they don't see, hear, or smell everything. You'd also be mistaken to think they'd kill you quickly should you breathe at Sienna's father wrong.

The Navarros. Rex's bodyguards.

"Imari. Valerie." Sienna's dad nods as he shakes our hands. "Good of you to join us."

Costa is stiffer than a mannequin when he shakes my hand, his face blank as if frozen in time. On our way here, Sienna mentioned that what she wanted to talk about had to do with him. Whatever it is, it's clearly big enough to make him drop the nonchalant act. Or maybe it's just the two grim reapers by that door.

"They'll always give me the heebie jeebies," Val whispers in my ear when Sienna goes to get our drinks.

"You're not alone," I assure her as a new face appears. "But, suck it up, Buttercup, your dad is here."

She stands tall as Giovanni Sartorre greets Rex, shaking his hand with warmth that only decades of partnership could bring, or so I'm told. When he approaches us and looks at his daughter, his smile turns cautious.

"Valerie." He nods at her, tentatively reaching out. "How's your mother and sister?"

"Fine," Val answers, averting her eyes.

He glances at me as if asking for help. A mistake on his part; I give him nothing.

Still, he tries again. "Has Selene started college yet?"

"Why?" Valerie snaps. "Wanna broaden your dating pool with one of her classmates? Your last girlfriend turned thirty already?"

My eyes dart to Sienna, who might as well have walked into a wall behind Giovanni as Valerie said those words. Her awkward shock travels to me when she meets my eyes. I can practically hear her calling me away from this, and I'm all too happy to oblige.

"Would you excuse me? I need to help Sienna with the drinks."

Neither of them even looks my way as I power walk out of there.

"Did I ever tell you that you have an impeccable sense of timing?" I ask my friend as I take a glass of champagne from her. We walk off, eyes still on them.

"You think she'll be okay?" Sienna asks.

"She's Valerie. I'm more scared for him. That black eye barely healed."

"I don't mean physically."

"I know what you meant. I'm doing this thing called dodging your question because I don't know the answer."

Sienna says nothing to that, and I sigh as I watch them. Val is much calmer than the last time her dad came around. Granted, she hasn't had any alcohol in her system yet, but progress is progress.

"I think she just needs time," I say, "it's easy for you and me to ignore the parents we hate. She has to work with hers."

Sienna sighs into the silence that follows as we watch Valerie walk away from her dejected father and approach us.

"I hate it here already," she says, snagging Sienna's flute and chugging it.

"Okay, here's what you don't wanna do," I remark as I hide my flute behind my back, "you don't want him to get under your skin. Again."

"Imari's right. I know it's hard, but try and pretend he isn't here, okay? Think of something else."

"Like what?" Valerie presses the empty flute against Sienna's chest.

"Like..." the other one looks at me as she takes it, head shaking slightly as her mind works.

"Like how our girlfriend over here could've watered my lawn when Gage frisked her earlier," I put in.

"Sure," Sienna says, "I knew telling you this would bite me in the ass sooner or later, so why not?"

"Fine, fine." I sigh. "Maybe think about the set list for this Friday. I'm thinking 2000s club hits."

"That's a good idea! Imagine the decor."

"Or what to put the go-go dancers in."

"Or—"

"Tyler," Valerie snaps.

"What? No, that's the last person you want to—"

"No." She spins Sienna around, and my eyes follow. "Tyler."

Surely enough, there stands Tyler in the doorway, craning his neck as if looking for someone. When he spots us, he beelines toward Sienna.

"Am I hallucinating," I ask, "or did your father's inner circle just get a little wider?"

Sienna doesn't answer me. Instead, she freezes, eyes darting from her boyfriend to her father and back. It's like she's seen a ghost.

Well. This should be fun.