Chapter 25
CADE
One Friday night I was off, but Brooke was working. I called Bryan to meet up and go rock climbing at an indoor climbing gym not too far from our part of town.
We slipped on our harnesses and chalked up our hands.
“So, wilderness training?” Bryan asked as we started our ascent.
“Yeah, part of the SAR program. It’s really cool. So is fighting fires, but this is like, next-level. The team seems great so far. It’s a combination of law enforcement, emergency medical, and volunteers.”
He paused, his hands a few rocks higher than mine. Bryan had me in height, but I was definitely brawnier. Overall we were pretty closely matched as climbers.
“What about you?” I asked him as I closed the distance. “How’s the company going?”
“It’s going great. We are working on implementing this new technology that’s essentially a rapid-alert system.
It could be used for emergency notification in schools, public buildings, that sort of thing.
I actually might have some questions to toss your way at some point.
” He stopped speaking, grunting with effort as he pulled himself up on the next hand-hold.
“I mean, yeah, anytime. I’m no genius or anything . . . ”
He rolled his eyes down at me. “There are different kinds of intelligence. Don’t downplay yourself.”
I chuckled internally. Bryan was such a good dude, and a great friend.
Before I knew it we were clambering towards the top, fighting to be the first to ring the bell. He beat me by seconds.
“I’m going to ask Nic to marry me.” He met my eye, called down to announce his descent, and began to auto-belay. In a flash he was on his descent back down the fake indoor mountain, leaving me speechless in the wake of his admission.
When I touched down and we began to remove our harnesses, I clapped him on the shoulder.
“No way, man. Holy shit. That’s amazing. Congratulations.”
“I think—I mean, I hope—she’ll be excited.” Poor guy looked genuinely nervous.
I gave a soft laugh. “She’ll be excited,” I said with full confidence. This was the right segue into the big news I wanted to share with him. “And I . . . started dating Brooke.”
His eyes flashed in shock before he schooled his expression.
We grabbed protein smoothies from the snack stand at the front, and sat down on chairs in the lobby.
“How does that work exactly?” he inquired. “You drive to Boston?”
“Sure, I drive to Boston, she comes here. It’s still long-distance, but it isn’t that bad. We went to New England Aquarium and Fenway, then she came over for an outdoor movie night.”
“Like old times, hm?”
“Like old times. Except not,” I said with a half grin.
“We could all do something together,” he suggested. “I know Nic would love it. Unless it’s too soon,” he finished
My body tensed slightly. The suggestion made me feel . . . possessive? I honestly wanted our limited time all to myself, but I also thought Brooke would be really happy spending some time with our old friends.
I relaxed my posture and smiled at my friend. “Let’s make it happen.”