“You ready?”
“Yes,” I answer, not even thinking.
The faster we get done, the faster I can put this problem behind me.
We step off the platform and my stomach drops as wefly down the line. Chloe’s shouts echo in my ears as I tighten my grip on her.
“Fuck!” I shout.
The sun flashes through the tops of the trees as we speed toward the second platform, kicking our feet onto the landing pad.
“Holy shit!” Chloe squeals as we get untethered from one line to the next. “I can’t believe we did that.”
Her face is full of excitement.
“Not as bad as I thought.”
She smacks me in the chest. “Could have fooled me.”
“The first one is always the hardest.” The guy on the platform moves us into place as another couple takes off in front of us. This platform is bigger, with a few more people in front of us to go. “The next ones are shorter and get progressively closer to the ground. Nothing to worry about.”
Chloe flits her gaze to mine. Those damn blue eyes of hers that I can never say no to. “See? It’ll get better.”
“It really wasn’t that bad.”
She pecks me on the cheek, not helping my earlier problem. “I know you didn’t want to come, but I’m glad you did.”
“Care to tell me what happened with Duncan?”
This close to her, I can feel the fury coming off of her. “He still wanted to get back together. Acted like it would be so magnanimous of him to take me. All I wanted was for him to admit he was cheating on me and he couldn’t even do that. Until he said no one is loyal.”
“He seriously said all that?”
She nods. “Yup. Said if I wanted someone loyal, I should go after you.”
“Why was he bringing me into it?”
“I don’t know. Jealous maybe?”
“Jealous of me? Never.”
We move forward, hooking ourselves in again. The time for conversation is over as we take off again.
But this time, my brother’s words ring in my head.
Why on earth would he tell Chloe to be with me? He couldn’t have meant it. He must have meant someone like me.
That’s all. No need to spin out about it.
It at least helps distract me as we fly through the trees. Each zip line gets easier as we get closer to the ground. By the time we’re heading toward the last one, I’m actually enjoying myself.
Maybe I could use an anti-boring list to get out of my rut too.
“I can’t believe I’ve never done that before,” Chloe says as we descend down the stairs on the last platform, having finished the course. “That was so much fun.”
“I don’t know aboutso muchfun, but I enjoyed it.” I unclip my helmet as we walk back to the equipment return booth.
“Only because you were with me.”
