Tabitha let out a mildly offended scoff just as the photographer in question moseyed back. “Menus for the ladies, and I got a phone number.” She grinned.
Frankie looked over Lark’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of the mystery man. “Which one?”
Lark pointed out a good-looking guy in his late thirties or so. He caught all three of them looking and gave a little wave.
“He’s cute,” Frankie said.
“I thought so,” Lark agreed. “We bonded over the specials board. He highly recommends the tuna surprise.”
Tabitha cringed.
The server came by to clear the table and take their orders. While Lark and Frankie went with the questionable special, Tabitha took the safer route and ordered the vegan bowl. Despite the crowd and Frankie’s insistence of the restaurant’s quality, she still felt a little sketched out.
“So,” Frankie began, turning toward Lark. “Tell me about the bouldering excursion yesterday.”
“It was uneventful,” Tabitha tried to cut the whole conversation off at the pass. “Really. There were rocks. We climbed them. Lark took pictures for the magazine. The end.”
Frankie narrowed her eyes and hummed. Turning back to Lark she said, “I’d like your version now.”
“Gladly.” Lark tied her mass of blonde curls in a high ponytail and jabbered about the whole day. She included every detail and even produced photographic evidence of a few key moments. Their food arrived, and Tabitha grumpily dug into her tofu bowl while the others ignored their tuna surprise time bombs. “Then, when she climbed by the river, she fell in and Muscles McGee went in after her.”
“Which route?” Frankie asked, completely enthralled with Lark’s animated narrative.
“The Beach Arete,” Tabitha offered through a bite of tofu, then added more sriracha.
“I love that one.”
“I did too.” Tabitha nodded in agreement. Before Zac had swooped in, she’d really enjoyed the climb; even the fall into the river was fun in its own way. But then their guide had to go all panicked hero and “save” her when she clearly didn’t need it.
“Hello,” Lark interrupted. “You’re missing the best part. This leggy lady fell in and Zac dove in after her. He barreled into that water like a firefighter into a flaming building to save a little old lady and her fifteen cats. It was heroic.”
Tabitha added, “I didn’t need the heroics. The water was, like, four feet deep—”
“And then,” Lark cut her off and continued, chest heaving in excitement. The woman needed to take a breath or she’d pass out from lack of oxygen. “He scooped her up in his tree trunk arms and carried her to the shore to inspect her for injuries.”
“No!” Frankie stopped mid-bite, once again ignoring her not-so-fresh bowl.
“Yes! She was clearly fine, even I could see she was, but he went all caveman on her. ‘Woman, sit. Man check for injuries.’” She lowered her voice in imitation.
Tabitha chuckled. “That’s pretty accurate, actually.”
“So, he’s got his hands on her, right? Skimming over her body from the tips of her ears to the tips of her toes. And then he’s like, ‘lay down, I need to check your hips,’ and proceeds to push her knees apart and up against her chest.”
“It wasn’t as bad as that,” Tabitha groaned then looked to Frankie. “Really, it was all very clinical. He was acting like a first responder.”
“Yeah, a first responder in a porno, maybe.” Lark guffawed as she elbowed Tabitha in the ribs. “For a minute I thought they’d forgotten all about me and were going to throw down right then and there.”
Frankie barely blinked once through the entire story. “Awkward. What did you do?”
“I snapped a bunch of pictures.” Lark fired up her camera again and turned it to their new Leavenworth friend. “Naturally.”
“Lark,” Tabitha scolded with much exasperation.
Frankie leaned in, gasping and laughing as she scrolled through the pictures. Lark shrugged and said, “That’s journalism.”
Letting out a low whistle, Frankie turned the camera to Tabitha. “I’ve never been into Zac and never will, but this one of the two of you is hot.”
“Scalding,” Lark agreed.
