Page 131 of Full Contact

On Thursday, I let myself into his condo a little after six with a bag of groceries.

Peaches met me in the entryway, which meant she was hungry. Trier was crouching in front of the cabinets. “I’m looking for the large skillet.”

“You lent it to Varga in January. He wanted it for the short ribs he was going to make to challenge Kieran and didn’t.”

Trier sat back on his heels. “Then it’s at Rook’s. Can you do the chicken on a sheet pan?”

“If I start it skin side up and leave it alone.”

“You never leave it alone.”

“I’ll try harder.”

I unpacked the groceries. Peaches climbed the little wooden chair to inspect the chicken and was redirected to the floor. Trier filled her bowl and found the sheet pan with the good rim.

I’d thought about what I needed to say all the way through the grocery trip. The first version, drafted in the produce section, opened with “In the interest of everyone’s long-term climbing—“ I’d left it with the lemons.

I leaned back against the counter. “I’d like the next few climbing Tuesdays to be just me, Dana, and Felix.”

Trier stopped with the sheet pan in one hand and looked at me.

“Okay,” he said and waited for me to say more.

“I miss how those evenings used to go. I’d climb until I couldn’t hold on anymore and fall off the same route twenty times. Dana and I would talk on the bench between turns. When you come, I enjoy having you there. I mean that, but I watch you instead of climbing. Dana and I keep getting halfway through a conversation and stopping.”

“You didn’t have to stay with me,” he said. “I had Tess. And Dana.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“You didn’t. I did it anyway, and I’d probably do it again. I want the old Tuesdays back for a while.”

I could have mentioned Dana and Anders. That was part of it, and it would have made the request sound like a favor to a friend. Trier would have accepted that immediately. It also would have let me avoid admitting that I wanted those evenings for myself.

Trier set the sheet pan on the counter. “All right,” he said. “The next few Tuesdays are yours.”

“Thank you.”

After a moment’s pause, he said, “I liked coming with you.”

I heard the disappointment.

I wanted to fix it. I could have offered him the Tuesday after, or a Saturday morning at the gym, so the space in his calendar wouldn’t sit empty. I had three versions half-drafted, but I didn’t say any of them.

“I liked bringing you,” I said. “I still want the next few Tuesdays with my friends.”

He looked at me a moment longer. Then he nodded once.

Neither of us said anything. The oven clicked. Peaches finished eating and walked out of the kitchen with her tail up.

***

Dana pointed at the orange route before I had my shoes on. “It’s still up.”

“I can see that.”

“You’ve been looking at it since you walked in.”