Page 72 of Free Heart
“Butmybullshit is neither here nor there,” Sailor says, getting back to business. “Yourbullshit is what matters. How about this? How about I come by at the start of the week to do an interview with you? I’ll run that on my channel, split the ad income with you, and promote your channels too. If that performs well, we can make a regular thing of it.”
“Yes. I’m up for that.”
“Great. I’ll also ponder how to go about documenting your recovery more professionally. At the very least, I definitely want to be there with a good camera the first time you climb again.In the end, if we edit everything together nicely, we might even have a rough indie movie we can sell to Reel Rock, or The North Face, or maybe Nat Geo.” She smiles, a whammy of shine. “If Jimmy Chin can do it, so can we.”
I don’t know if Sailor has the talent or skill to be as good as Jimmy Chin, but she doesn’t lack confidence. Neither do I. Not when it comes to the thing I’m best at—climbing.
Sejin turns from the bonfire, his beer bottle empty, and heads into the house. His shoulders are slightly slumped, and he sends me a strange glance. Something’s wrong, but I don’t know what.
Sejin doesn’t make me wait long to find out once Sailor, Rye, and Lowell have said their goodbyes and driven off into the night.
“She’s a lot,” Sejin says, closing the door on them.
“Yeah, she’s great.” Muggs rubs against my ankle, purring.
“Youwouldthink so with the way she was practically on her knees worshipping you.”
I snort softly, leaning against my crutches. My leg is throbbing after all the moving around and exercise of the day, but it’s been good to be active again. “If anyone was doing any worshipping, it was me. She’s amazing.”
Which is the wrong thing to say, because Sejin’s eyes flash. He turns to walk away without another word, going into our bedroom and shutting the door behind him.
Well, fuck.
I hobble after him and find him in the bathroom, undressing to get into the shower.
“What’s the problem? You don’t like her?”
He shrugs. “I want to like her, but something about her…” He doesn’t go on, even though I wait for several long, steamy minutes as he thinks about it under the hot water.
I grow impatient and prompt him again. “Something about her what?”
“Rubs me the wrong way.”
“You don’t trust her?” Does he see something I’ve missed? I lean back against the bathroom door, taking the weight off my crutches. “You don’t think she really wants to help me?”
“No, I do.” Sejin sighs, and I can hear him scrubbing himself with soap and the brush we keep in the shower for that purpose. “I think she knows a lot about social media success, and she does seem genuinely eager to help you. But don’t you think it’s strange? It was like she was a fan of yours already.”
“I do have fans,” I say.
Even before I started this social media experiment, I hadsomefans. People who admired my climbing and what I was doing. People who thought I was worth watching and keeping track of my accomplishments.
“I think I’m jealous,” Sejin finally says.
“Of a lesbian?”
He laughs, but it sounds sour. “I know. It’s dumb.”
“It really is,” I agree. “It’s not like I can even have her.”
He goes quiet again.
“But I don’t want her!” I exclaim into the steamy bathroom air. I shove off from the door, maneuver over to push the shower curtain back. My gaze meets his dark, slightly angry eyes. “For fuck’s sake, she’s not even my type.”
“What is your type? When it comes to women?”
I sigh. “I don’t know. Soft ones.”
“She’s soft. Her boobs looked plenty soft.”
