The worker who had helped me stop, looked down at my raw left hand.
“We need a medic.”
“I’m so sorry,”Eli repeated for what must have been the hundredth time.
“It’s not your fault,” I said again, cradling my bandaged hand.
We were in a room that reminded me of a high school nurse’s office. I sat on a cot while Eli hovered over me. The medic had already treated my rope burn and wrapped it up, but she had told me to stay there as long as I wanted to recover from the mild panic attack. Eli had offered to leave, but the set of his jaw informed me that he really didn’t want to.
“I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard.” He raked his fingers through his hair and paced the room. “We should have backed out as soon as you wanted to. I forced us through, and for what? Some stupid game show? I should have listened to you.”
I thought about how expertly he had calmed me during the beginning of the course. How I had been able to compartmentalize my fear and move forward.
“Maybe it was a good thing,” I said, staring at the floor. “I’ve always been the kind of person to back out of something as soon as I was scared.”
Eli appeared unconvinced. I distracted myself by playing with the crinkled paper layer covering the cot.
“One time when we were kids, my mom tried to take mysister and I to the top of a skyscraper. I was terrified as soon as we got off the elevator. I just waited in the middle of the room, away from all the windows, while they enjoyed the view. As soon as we got down, I regretted not looking.”
“That’s different. You can’t get injured walking around a building,” Eli said. “I could tell you were panicking and I just shoved you off the edge. This is my fault.”
“It’s not,” I insisted more forcefully. I scooted over on the cot and patted the spot next to me. Eli sat down carefully. “You got me down. That was what I needed. What if I had just been stuck up there panicking for hours? It was only going to get worse.”
“If I had given you the time you needed, you wouldn’t have hurt your hand.” He reached out and brushed the bandage with his thumb. He had been stealing little touches here and there, and I didn’t mind it. I almost looked forward to it.
“If I had listened to you about which hand to use, then I wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” I said.
“I could tell you were in no place to hear instructions and I went on with it anyway. I just wanted to get you down as fast as possible. I didn’t even consider that you could get hurt.”
It seemed there was no convincing Eli that my injury was no one’s fault. We sat in silence for a few moments before my lip curved up.
“Bet you regret picking me for a partner,” I joked, only half kidding.
“Not even a little,” he said immediately. Finally, after a few more seconds, he chuckled. “Although I definitely don’t see many extreme sports in our future.”
Grinning, I looked back at him. “I could have told you that the first day. I like books. And shutting myself in a roomfor hours to write. If you want someone outdoorsy or adventurous, I’m not your girl.”
He leaned closer. “Good thing I don't care about those things.”
His proximity had my head spinning.
“So, whatdoyou want?” I asked bluntly.
Eli’s eyes widened, clearly caught off guard by my question. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“You thought you’d be here to act in a movie, yet you seem totally unfazed about the change of direction. I would have thought you might be angrier, or something, but you seem pretty resigned to this whole process.”
“I guess I felt like it was pointless to fight it. My dad was right, I do have a shitty reputation. I never really cared much about it before, but now...” He studied my expression. “Now, I’m realizing maybe I should have cared more. I want people to take me seriously.”
“With your script?” I pressed.
He narrowed his eyes. “Sure, that to start.”
A loud knock interrupted my train of thought before Brady burst into the small room.
“There you two are! Hurry up and get changed; we have something special planned for this evening.”
Chapter Eleven
