“Thanks.” I chuckled. “My name’s Harry Davis.” I spouted off my number as she typed it onto her keyboard.
“Cool. I’m going to text you right now so you’ll know who’s calling you tomorrow. My name’s Faith, by the way.”
My breath whooshed out. “It’s what now? Faith? Are you sure?”
She quirked an eyebrow at me. “Pretty sure. It’s been that for over twenty-one years. Why do you look shocked?”
“Uh, nothing.” I shook my head. “It’s just kind of an unusual name, I guess, and I met someone last month with the same one.”
“Ah.” She gave a knowing smile. “I’m going to guess you didn’t have a good experience with the other Faith. Well, hopefully, I can . . .” She winked at me. “Restore your faith. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
I laughed along with her. “I’m sure you’re nothing like her. You don’t hate Christmas, do you? And you didn’t pretend to have a broken-down car just to meet me, right?”
Faith’s eyes widened. “No, and hell, no! Who would do that—and who hates Christmas? My mom is Jewish, and even she loves the holidays. She’s the first one to put up a tree.” She looked back down at her phone and sucked in a breath. “Crap, I really have to go now. Sorry to get a jump and run, but I can’t miss this class.”
I waved her off. “Go on. Good luck. Catch you later.”
* * *
“No way. That was not her name.” Preston gave me a small shove and wagged his head. “Dude. That must’ve thrown you a digit. How whacked is that?”
“Pretty whacked,” I agreed. We were sitting on the mats, watching as Sophia tackled a new problem, pulling herself from hold to hold and then swinging her lithe body across the wall. “But she seemed totally different than the other Faith.”
“Faith One.” Preston nodded. “That’s good. Faith Two is a whole different kind of yee. Good deal.”
“Yeah, she’s a yee.” I shrugged. “But I’m not sure I can handle another Faith. Anyway, I have a good feeling about this Tyla chick I’m seeing tomorrow night. She’s got it all together.”
Preston reached for his chalk bag. “This is the one you met through Soph?”
“Kind of, I guess.” I hunched over and lowered my voice, my eyes still on our climbing friend. “Hey, Preston. Speaking of Sophia, have you noticed she’s been acting a little strange lately?”
He frowned. “Like what?”
“I don’t know.” I stretched out one leg. “Just . . . weird. Like, she mutters shit under her breath. And she tries to talk me out of dating any of these women I’m meeting.”
“Does she...?” Preston gave me a half-grin. “That’s interesting.”
“Why?” My stomach clenched uneasily. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing.” Preston waved his hand. “Just . . . interesting.”
“We have a different opinion on what’s interesting and what’s annoying.” I scowled.
“Maybe she’s threatened. Did you ever think of that?” He shrugged. “Girls . . . they’re not like us, you know. You can’t just throw a bunch of them together and expect everyone to get along and crap. They have, like, all these expectations and stuff. And they see each other as the competition, I think.”
“Sophia’s never been like that,” I protested. “None of us has. It’s never been weird between us, from the first time we started hanging out.”
“We never dated anyone seriously. You and me, we never tried to bring another girl into the group. And Sophia hasn’t brought around a guy, either.”
I wrinkled my forehead. “Does she even date? Has she ever talked about it?”
“Huh.” Preston looked thoughtful. “She’s talked about lusting after dudes. Remember that one who used to climb here—he was blond and kind of a giant. I think he moved to the beach and opened his own gym.”
“Yeah, I guess I kind of remember that.” Actually, I remembered that very clearly. His name had been Corin, but I used to make fun of him by calling him Thor, just to piss off Sophia, who worshipped the ground he stomped over. He had taken a special interest in her climbing, hinting that maybe she could take it into a professional competitive career, and I’d scoffed that he was only saying it to get into her pants. It was one of the rare times that Sophia and I had had a serious, scary fight.
“But any of us bringing a sig ot into the mix—that’s never been done. Maybe it’s kind of daunting stuff.” Preston nodded gravely.
“A sig ot—oh.” Understanding dawned. “Significant other. Got it.”
