Glamoured: A Modern Fairy Tale

6. El Caliente

Putting on your makeup or what? I'm in the parking lot, Eleanor texted Brandon. She sighed and leaned back in her seat, turning up the indie rock music. She wanted some time to actually go out after climbing because the whole week had left her cagey. But if Brandon took his sweet ass time, the gym would be closed...and Jo would be pissed. Fun, she thought, checking her phone again.

Getting snax, Brandon texted back. She rolled her eyes and opened her email. No new messages. She yawned, stuffing down the niggling disappoint. You were up to one in the morning talking, she reminded herself. Even flattering creepers had to have some kind of life.

Brandon slouched across the parking lot, eating from a bag of Funyuns. She started the Tracker before he'd even opened the door. He held out the bag, and she wrinkled her nose.

"Didn't know you were stoned," she said.

He grinned. "Not yet."

"I'll take my driver's fee then," she said, shifting gears and ripping through the blind turn onto the highway. Brandon sang along to the music, and Eleanor kept rhythm, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.

Friday at Rock Park was blissfully uncrowded, and no one was behind the desk. Jo and Ahmed climbed with Jo on belay. Ahmed, a tall and lanky Haitian, practiced leading; he clipped carabiners into the metal stays, threading the rope in after him as he tackled the climb. Eleanor watched him work; neither she nor Brandon was up to the point where they wanted to try leading a climb.

She sat down, slipped off her shoes, and laced up her climbing shoes. Brandon examined one of the new walls, which had been reset this week, and neither of them had climbed the new routes yet. Brandon said, "Let's give the pink 5.10 a try."

Eleanor shrugged, silently agreeing to belay first. Brandon tied in and said, "Climbing."

"Climb on—hope the Funyuns don't slow you down."

He flipped her the bird before pulling himself up the first several feet. She grinned and took the slack out of the rope. After Brandon finished, she lowered him back down. He said, "Give it a try."

She cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't turn into Tarzan since the last time we climbed."

"He swung from vines," Brandon said, tossing her the rope. "Wouldn't try that on a rock wall."

She rolled her eyes and tied in any way. Loud enough for him to her, she muttered, "Without a warm up."

Eleanor found the third reach to be too long for her arms and had to jump and hang; during that move, she slipped. She growled, "Lower me down. I'll start over."

She tried again, struggling with the same move, but managed to stay close to the wall, clinging by her right hand. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to use holds from other routes to scramble back onto the rock face. Hand over hand...pulling herself up, Eleanor got two-thirds of the way before she slipped again.

"Take me down," she said, shaking up her arms. It was too early in the night for her forearms to be cramping. The frustration hurt even more.

Brandon lowered her down, a slight frown on his face. Scowling, she said, "Told you I couldn't do it."

"Hey, none of that talk in my gym," Ahmed said, sidling up to them.

"Eleanor likes to whine—we're trying to break her of that habit," Jo said, tucking a stray clump of dark hair behind her ears.

Eleanor glared at her. "I do not whine." The three of them exchanged a knowing look, causing Eleanor to roll her eyes. "Okay, maybe I'm whining right now..."