“I’m going to be on one side of you and Sasha’s going to be on the other. We’ll coach you the entire way up, okay?”
“Okay.” She tried not to sound afraid.
“Reach up for those two handholds, and lift your right foot onto that jug.”
Vic did what Eric told her to do, her heart thrumming. She was a whole six inches off the floor now. “What next?”
His hand pressed against her lower back, pushing her hips toward the wall. “Keep your pelvis tucked in. You’ll create a lot more work for yourself if your center of gravity is hanging out in space.”
“Try to use your legs as much as possible,” Sasha told her. “Women’s legs are as strong as men’s when you take body mass into account. It’s our upper bodies that tend to be weaker. Let your legs do the work.”
Vic did what they told her to do, the two of them following her up the wall, neither of them exerting much effort, while she was sweating and out of breath, her arms and shoulders soon exhausted.
“Let’s just hang out here and rest for a minute,” Eric said.
“Shake it out. Like this.” Sasha let go with one hand, turned that shoulder away from the wall and shook her arm out, then did the same with the other side.
Vic tried to do what Sasha had done, but dizziness rushed over her when she saw how high she was. She grabbed onto the holds again, pressing her body against the rock wall, her eyes squeezed shut.
“I didn’t know you were afraid of heights,” Eric said.
“Neither did I!”
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe.” Eric’s calm voice cut through some of her panic.
“You can do this!” Lexi shouted. “You’re doing better than I did my first time.”
Vic found that hard to believe.
As usual, Sasha was nothing but sunshine. “Don’t look down if it scares you. Your height on the wall doesn’t mean anything. You could be five feet up or five hundred feet up, because even if you fall, all you’re going to do is swing.”
Vic looked over just in time to see Sasha let go. Her stomach dropped, but Sasha simply sat there in her harness, swinging in mid-air.
Sasha shrugged. “See? No problem.”
Vic nodded, still trying to recover from her rush of vertigo.
Pull yourself together.
Eric and Sasha knew what they were doing. Lexi wouldn’t let her fall. No one would let her get hurt.
She drew a breath. “Okay. I’m fine. Keep going.”
She looked up, reached for the next hold and the next, doing her best to let her fear go, Eric and Sasha coaching her each step of the way.
“That’s a ledge hold. Curl your fingers like this.” Eric held out his hand to show her how to position her hand. “Perfect.”
She was so focused on her movements and on the sound of Eric and Sasha’s voices that she didn’t realize how close she was to the top until her fingers hooked onto that last hold. She drew herself up on a rush of adrenaline to the sound of cheers and shouts. “Oh, my God! I did it!”
Eric chuckled. “You sure as hell did.”
She let go, swung into his arms, and kissed him.
From the floor below, she heard Gabe say, “Who’s getting married again?”
* * *
“Ican’t even openthe door. My arms are noodles.”