Fit for the Job by Darien Cox

bring them up for you if you want.”
    He waited. A minute passed with no response, then the volume on the television lowered. Seconds later, the door opened. Sassy smirked at him. “You think you’re funny, but you’re not,” she said.
    He smiled. “Come on. Let’s go rock climbing. It’ll be fun.”
    “I don’t know how,” she said.
    “They have instructors. And they hook you up with ropes so you can’t fall.”
    “Sounds like about as much fun as a root canal,” she said.
    “I’ll do it with you,” he said. She hesitated, looking at the floor. “I’ll even make Bodie and Evelyn try it first so you can laugh at them.”
    “Yeah, right!” Sassy huffed. “That’s supposed to convince me? Of course they’ll be able to do it, Muscle Woman and G.I. Joe. And you , Mr. Aerobics Queen. I’m not that strong, I’ll be embarrassed.”
    “Hey!” Jay did his best to look offended. “Why do I get queen in my name? Evelyn and Bodie might be buffer than I am, but there’s a little something called the cardiovascular system, a category that I’m certain I excel in.”
    “Evelyn does triathlons,” Sassy said.
    Jay frowned. “Oh. Well. Anyway, the rock walls aren’t that difficult, I promise,” he said. “If you at least try it, I’ll take you out for pizza afterward.”
    “I’m not five. You can’t buy me with pizza and ice cream. I have sophisticated tastes.”
    “Come on,” Jay said. “You’re killing me here. I don’t want to hang out with your security team downstairs all day. I’m bored. I want to go rock climbing.”
    Sassy sighed and rolled her eyes. “Quit whining like a baby. Okay, I’ll go. But I want lobster after. Someplace nice. With lots of people. I never get to people-watch being locked up here all the time.”
    Jay beamed. “Deal. Get changed and meet me downstairs.”
    With a final eye roll, Sassy closed the door.
    When he got back down to the first floor, he found Libby alone in the kitchen wearing rubber gloves, hauling hunks of smashed cake off the floor and dumping it in a trash bin.
    “Hey Libby, where did they go?”
    She looked up, a smear of frosting on her cheek and across her chin. He tried to tell himself she’d gotten it from cleaning, but suspected she’d been eating it again. “Oh...ah, I think they’re down the hall, in the sitting room.”
    “Thanks.”
    Jay made his way back to the sitting room, and found Bodie and Evelyn in there, chatting softly as they stood at the window, watching the rain.
    “Okay,” Jay said, and they turned around. “We’re going rock climbing!”
    Evelyn blinked. “We’re doing what now?”
    “Indoor rock climbing. There’s a place not far from here. So get ready.”
    Bodie stepped away from the window. “And Sassy too?”
    “And Sassy too,” Jay said. “She’ll be down shortly.”
    Evelyn shrugged, and headed for the door. “Guess I’ll go change my shoes.”
    After Evelyn had gone, Bodie moved slowly toward Jay, his dark brows pinched in a scowl. “You talked Sassy into going rock climbing,” he said skeptically. “You actually got her to agree. After cake-pocalypse.”
    “It wasn’t easy. But yes.”
    Bodie stopped directly in front of him. His frown slowly turned upward into a sexy smile, and Jay’s heart rate accelerated a bit. “Guess I’ll go change my shoes, too,” he said, and brushed past Jay toward the door.
    “I’ll be here,” Jay said.
    Bodie reached the door and turned back, looking at Jay.
    Jay grinned as he sat down. “What?”
    “I think I’m starting to like you,” Bodie said, then walked out of the room, and was gone.
    Jay sat alone in the room, staring at the open doorway where Bodie had gone. His heart thudded, heat climbing up his neck.
    He didn’t mean anything by it , he admonished himself. He didn’t mean it the way you think he did. The way you hope he did .
    Something occurred to him as he sat waiting for the others to get ready. Jay had come into the house, gone up to