The Lift

9

A few days later David was meeting Preston at the climbing gym to film the video for his second channel. He'd never been climbing before and to say he was worried was an understatement. Preston tried to convince him that vlogging would help reduce his anxiety. She knew being behind the camera could calm him down, so she couldn't say no when he asked about filming for his main channel too. They still agreed to keep her out of the main videos for the time being.

David walked inside and looked around furtively, searching for Preston who had texted him that she had arrived about 10 minutes ago. He finally saw her at the check-in desk talking to the guy behind the counter. He hadn't recognized her at first. She was wearing black shorts that hit mid-thigh, a black racerback tank top, a different style of sandal than he had seen before, and a teal and white snapback. Wow, she had great legs, he thought. And arms. And back muscles.

Preston then turned around while laughing at something the blonde desk guy said and spotted David. She waved him over and he slowly walked over, feeling awkward with his camera in hand.

"David, finally," Preston said. "Let's get you checked in. Sign this waiver." She handed him an iPad with a document to fill out.

While David filled out the info, Preston chatted with the blonde guy about routes and grades and other things David didn't understand in the slightest. He was really out of his element. And it only made him more uncomfortable to see Preston so at ease with the guy at the desk. Now that he was finally admitting to himself that he had a crush on Preston, he needed to lock down his feelings and not fuck things up.

Preston then introduced him to the desk guy; his name was Braden. He got David a pair of rental climbing shoes, "on the house" as a favor to Preston. Preston then said her goodbyes to Braden and clapped a hand on David's back, guiding him over to the wall cubbies.

"Okay, David," Preston said excitedly, "time to get climbing. Toss your shoes in here and put on the climbing shoes."

David obeyed, tossing his black Vans into a cubby with her sandals, apparently called Chacos, and backpack. She grabbed her beat up climbing shoes, a small bag, a water bottle, and her own camera. She took a moment to look David up and down; he wore his signature black outfit, trading skinny jeans for running shorts and his hat for a bandana. He smiled goofy, making her laugh.

Preston took him over to the bouldering area.

"Okay, I can tell you're nervous," Preston said. "Normally you can't shut up, but you're dead silent tonight."

"I mean, yeah, I guess," David shrugged.

"Dude, you're so dumb," Preston said. "It's fine to be nervous and scared and everything in between. I still get scared. It's normal. Now start vlogging to calm yourself down."

David took out his camera, took a deep breath, and got into a monologue.

So I'm at a local climbing gym tonight. And I know what everyone is thinking, "David, you have no physical abilities." To which I say, you're not wrong. This video I'm partnering with Go Pro. I'm here with Preston, a Go Pro photographer and climber, so she's going to help me learn. Get ready for plenty of footage of me falling on my ass.

David then shot a little B-roll footage before turning off his camera, looking visibly relaxed.

"Good, now that your climbing intro is out of the way," Preston said, "let's get started."

David then filmed Preston as she explained all the basics of bouldering and did a couple easy routes for David to watch before telling him to jump on the wall. She took his camera and filmed his first ever climb. It was not easy, and he fell off a couple times. There was definitely cursing involved. Preston was nothing but encouraging. ("You can just put weird music over this in the edit, right?" she asked.) When he got to the top, he celebrated like a little kid. Preston wasn't sure if it was for the camera's sake or his own.

"This is not the worst," David admitted when he came down.

"That's what I want to hear!" Preston said and pointed to the wall. "Now do another one."

David saluted her and climbed another route Preston had picked out for him. He knew the routes he was doing were easy, like stupid easy. But he still felt accomplished. After a few routes, though, he was gassed. Preston made him take a break.

"When do I get to see you climb?" David asked between gulps of water from her water bottle.

"You already saw me climb," Preston said.

"Yeah, but like, I want to see you climb something that's actually difficult," David said.

Preston sighed. She loved climbing and she'd worked really hard to get to where she was, but she wasn't really that good and she still got self-conscious. David wouldn't know whether she was doing things right or wrong, though that didn't seem to make a difference.

"Go on," David nudged her with his shoulder. "I want to see you do what you love. You get to see me vlog every day."

Preston stood, chalked up her hands, and approached the wall. She looked back at David who gave her a double thumbs up. And then she climbed.

Bouldering routes were short enough, but time slowed down even more on the wall. Preston moved from hold to hold with confidence even though this wasn't a route she had done before. She hadn't chosen the hardest route she could possibly do, but this wasn't a warm-up for her either. She didn't know how long it actually took to climb, but by the time she came down it really did feel like multiple minutes had passed.

David couldn't take his eyes off Preston as she climbed (and not just because climbing made people's butts look great). Compared to her, he was a gangly monster on the wall. He followed her every move back down and maintained eye contact as she walked back.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Preston asked as she sat back down, pulling her knees to her chest.

"I'm not looking at you like anything," David tried to brush it off.

"Uh huh, if you say so," Preston grabbed the water bottle and took a swig, giving him a sideways glance. She was happy to sit in comfortable silence. She loved sitting at the gym.

"You're really good at this," David finally said.

Preston shrugged. "I've been doing this a while. I took up climbing after my move to Colorado. It was a way to work through... feelings."

"Am I allowed to ask what sort of feelings?" David asked hesitantly.

"Ah, fuck, I didn't think this would come up for a long time," Preston said. She took a moment and then turned to look at David. He looked over at her. "I was engaged."

David's brow furrowed and he squinted at her a bit. "You were getting married?" he asked carefully, unsure of really what to say.

"Yep," Preston said shortly. "We dated the last 2 years of college. Got engaged a year or so after graduating. Broke things off about a year after that."

"So when you were 22, you were going to get married," David said. "To some dude."

"I mean, he wasn't just some dude, David," Preston laughed shortly. "We dated for years."

"I can't even really comprehend that," David said.

"Well, you're only 22," Preston fake comforted him. "There's still time to give up on love. I'm kidding. Kind of."

David looked at her and couldn't help but smile a bit. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Press. It sounds like that sucked. And I'm sorry."

"Eh, thanks, I guess" Preston said. "It was almost a year ago now. I'm definitely over him and the relationship. But it's still weird to talk about. And think about. Those kinds of things can really fuck you up mentally and emotionally. Sometimes I just can't believe that was my life."

"Am I allowed to say that I'm glad you didn't get married?" David kept up with the pattern of questions. Preston laughed and nodded.

"I'm glad I didn't get married, so you definitely can," she said. Preston then took a deep breath and stood up. "Alright, enough talk about feelings. It's time to climb. Let's try a different style of route."

Preston helped David up and led him to a new area of the gym. The rest of the evening went great, and David showed slight signs of improvement. He was going to be very sore in the morning, that's for sure. But it was all worth it for Preston.