Day 1: Trust
Jess runs her hand through her hair, the beads of sweat clinging to her forehead for dear life gather up and glide into her hair. The sun is too hot but at least the cliff face is beautiful.
Her morning has been stolen by a group of corporate city lawyers, getting in their HR enforced team build for the year. She’s got the ropes set up and her colleague Jo is at the bottom of the cliff guiding the abseiling group to the safe embrace of the ground.
Max, her other colleague, the one who’d been sending her details of queer mixers in town and telling Jess to get out more, is standing about a metre and a half away from her, guiding her portion of the uptight lawyers down their safe scenic journey.
A sweaty middle-aged white man with a bad attitude is first up and Jess secures him, wishes him luck and ignores how he judges her with his eyes. City pricks. She directs his steps and helps him over the edge and away from her. She’s glad to see him go.
She’s been doing this for the better part of a decade, on top of odd jobs on the weekends, whatever it takes to keep her body active so her mind doesn’t have the luxury to wander. She’s been doing it longer than anyone else on the team and she gets certain supervisory perks. She’s seen men and women and children and adventurous folks and homebodies and people ticking items off their bucket lists. She’s been doing this a while, but she has never seen a customer who looks like …. That.
The woman looks frightened, but god almighty is she beautiful.
She’s got thick dark curls which peek out from underneath her helmet, her eyes not only look beautiful but they somehow feel warm on Jess’ as she looks at her. Jess realises all of a sudden that she’s stopped breathing.
“You help her, I’ll take the next one,” Max declares, giving Jess a wicked smile.
“Convenient” Jess mutters to herself but is secretly glad that she might get the opportunity to hear this woman’s voice.
“You can’t abseil from over there.” Jess says playfully
“You sure?” The woman says, and wow she sounds like how a hot bath feels.
Stop it McCready, do your damn job
“Pretty sure,” Jess shrugs.
Jess reaches over the space between them and guides the woman without touching her to come in closer. The woman’s feet shuffle at a painfully slow pace and it might just be the sweetest thing Jess has ever seen.
“I’m Jess,” she tells herself that she’s telling the woman this to make her feel more at ease but it's only half true, she really wants to know this woman’s name and she’s hoping she’ll offer it in return.
“Lupe.” She nods. “You think I could just walk back down the way I came? We’ve already paid and everything” Lupe says.
“You could” Jess says, looping the rope through Lupe’s harness “but I have a feeling you’re gonna be good at this” It’s flirty and she shouldn’t be doing this, but the angel has a name and Jess’ logical brain has taken a running start and flung itself over the ledge to where Jo is helping the middle-aged man out of his binds.
Lupe breathes shakily, there is fear in her eyes and Jess can tell by the way her throat twitches that she’s swallowing repeatedly, her mouth must be dry.
“How long have you been a lawyer?” Jess asks, guiding Lupe closer to the edge in a way that feels incidental, like they’re just leaning closer to her out of interest. It works and Lupe goes pliantly, shuffling back and looking at Jess’ lips.
She’s a lesbian! YES! Maybe she’s just curious Jess thinks. Jess is happy either way.
“4 years, I hate it.” Lupe says
Jess makes an empathetic noise before continuing, guiding Lupe with a gentle touch to her elbow.
“I’ve been an abseil instructor for 9 and a half, and I love it.”
“Yeah? Why?” Lupe asks.
“Because I get to see beautiful things every day,” Jess tries and fails not to have her eyes wander over Lupe’s face when she says this, but Lupe smiles “it’s also really safe, kinda feels like flying.” Jess says.
“I hate heights.” Lupe says, and Jess can feel the tremble of Lupe’s body ripple through her elbow where Jess touches her.
“Do you trust me?” Jess says, there’s no reason for Lupe to trust her, they know a fraction of each other’s work history and each other’s first names, but there’s something about Lupe’s orbit that makes Jess feel safer in her own skin that she hopes she can radiate back to her.
Lupe looks like she considers this, her eyes darting between Jess’.
“Yes.” she whispers, wiping an absent tear from her face, fear of heights must be really bad for her.
“Good, step back.” Jess whispers gently.
“But the ground is that way.” Lupe pouts but does so.
“You’re doing so good. Take another step.” Jess prompts, she can feel her smile big and painful on her face, enjoying seeing Lupe be brave.
“Tell my Abuela I love her. She’s my emergency contact.” Lupe says, nodding like she’s accepting her fate, her breathing rapid and unsteady.
Jess can feel Max’s energy off to the side, she knows she’s watching them and that she is simply giddy with delight. Jess is going to have to shut that down later. But for now, she couldn’t care less because now she knows another thing about Lupe.
“Ahh Spanish, there’s a nice Cuban restaurant about 20 minutes from here. If you don’t die you should let me take you to dinner, Lupe.” Jess says, if Lupe says no then she’ll be on her way to Jo and Jess will be able to distract herself with the other 8 lawyers waiting to climb down the cliff.
“Are you asking me on a date?” Lupe asks, her eyes sparkle and Jess thinks she might not be as afraid as she was a moment ago.
“You saying yes?” Jess asks.
“Absolutely.” Lupe laughs, and takes another step back over the edge and just like that, she’s free.