Page 69 of Free Heart
But Sailor’s is all lit up, beautiful and excited. “It’ll be easy.”
“Cool,” I say again. For some reason, she’s interested in helping me, and I’ve never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Sejin
Ican’t decideif Sailorreallycame to Yosemite to “fix” for a film of her uncle’s or if she came to seduce my boyfriend. Or if she came to convince him to work with her. Her behavior makes the most sense if it’s all of the above—seduce my boyfriendbyconvincing him to work with her while doing her uncle’s job too.
But why? I mean Dan’s hot, obviously, and worth seducing, but why is she focused on him when there are plenty of other climbers, equally good-looking, who aren’t recovering from a broken leg and living with their boyfriend?
As she keeps talking, it becomes clear to me, though, that Dan’s broken leg is part of the appeal for her…or rather for her channel. She’s been doing videos for a few years now, focusing on her own climbs and exploits, and she’s even sponsored by WhipSmart, a new sports clothing company.
But lately, she says, she feels like her channel is getting a little stale. She needs to add a new angle to it. She says teaming up with other climbers has been on her list of things to do for a while.
“But too many have issues the size of El Cap,” she says, chuckling before taking a swig from her second bottle of beer. “But don’t we all? That’s not the problem. It’s that too many of these guys…” She clucks her tongue. “Well, they want to sleep with me, and that gets awkward.”
Rye huffs, and I catch his eye. What’s her game? It seems like she’s been putting the moves on both Lowell and Dan tonight, so what’s going on here? Is she laying a trap? Will she say, “Oh,thoseguys want to sleep with me, but I don’t want to sleep with them, which makesyouspecial, baby,” or some shit like that?
Would either of our guys fall for it if she did? I don’t know. It’s unnerving. It’s never bothered me that Dan’s bisexual, but I’ve never had to compete with a beautiful, successful, ambitious woman before either.
Not that I’mcompeting.
If Dan wants her instead of me, then he can have her.
I flush, annoyed that my first Thanksgiving as a host has been so derailed, and I’m growing unfairly pissed at Lowell for that. He’s the one who’d asked if he could invite Sailor. It was originally supposed to just be the four of us. I’d imagined it’d be laidback and fun. But this? This is something different.
This is pissing me off.
“Awkward how?” Dan asks, because of course he does.
“She’s a lesbian,” Lowell says into the silence that follows the question. “No men.”
“Ever,” Sailor says with a rueful smile. “Give me a gold star, baby.” She pokes her forehead as if applying a sticker.
I should be relieved, but I’m not. If she’s not seducing Dan, then what’s she want from him? Why is she giving him so many shiny, bright smiles and so much ego-inflating attention?
“Here’s the thing, Dan. You’re a bit of a mystery, aren’t you?” Sailor says, leaning forward and swirling her beer bottle around. “Everyone wants to know who you are and why you’ve been so closed-off in the past, and why you’re opening up now.” She keeps her eyes on Dan, her expression earnest. “I want us to work together, you and me. I can help you build your following, and you can bring some fresh content to my channel. Everyone loves a comeback story, don’t they?” She lifts a light blonde brow. “Especially the comeback of someone who, in the viewer’s darkest of hearts, they truly enjoyed the downfall of.” She leans back and pats the table. “Think about it.”
“Sure,” Dan says without hesitation.
“Sure?” She blinks, clearly not understanding how quickly Dan’s mind operates.
“Yeah. Let’s do it. When do you want to start? Tonight? I can get my computer and—”
“Whoa, it’s Thanksgiving,” Lowell says.
It’s a good thing he objected, because I swear Sailor was going to say yes, and she and Dan were about to disappear into the house and get right to it.
“It” might not be sex, but I’m not ready to reconcile my feelings about her yet. So what if she’s a lesbian? That doesn’t mean that she hasn’t waltzed right in here tonight and captivated Dan entirely anyway.
“Right,” Sailor says. “Sorry. I get intense when I’m talking shop.” She looks my way. “Back to you, Sejin. You never answered. Is learning Korean your passion project?”
“I’m going to get pie,” I say, rising from the table with my almost empty plate. I’d eaten it without even really noticing, too tangled up in trying to figure out Sailor’s angle with Dan. This annoys me even more, since I’d spent a lot of money we don’t really have on the dinner, and I’d been looking forward to it so much.
“Me too,” Rye says, and we both head inside, leaving the interloper with our men. Both seem enraptured by her in different but similar ways.
“Can you believe her?” Rye says as we stand by the pies and pretend to be deciding which we want.
