Affinity

July 8th, 2023

"Love, I hate to say it, but I think you're crazy," Lindsey huffed with a sarcastic smile on her face. I couldn't help but laugh at the way that she had been looking at me for the past few minutes. It wasn't an uncommon reaction- in fact, it was probably the most common reaction, but there was just something about the way that she was so interested but at the same time seemed so scared, that was making me chuckle a little more than normal.

Our department had started doing weekend hikes around mid-May, which I had never heard of a job doing before, but I was completely on board. I grew up hiking all of the trails and small mountains around my town when I was younger, and during college, most of my breaks were centered around hiking and camping and whatnot, so I was completely content with the idea. That wasn't to say that I wasn't completely an anxious mess when it first started, but it's actually become something that I really do enjoy. I was just scared at first that even though I had done it my whole life, I was going to be the worst and most out of shape one there, but there were so many different groups that you could have never hiked a day in your life and could have still had fun.

Over the last few weeks, I had learned that if there was a hard trail option, it was probably going to be me, Karl, Grant, and Lindsey trekking it together. At first, it was a little weird to be spending my weekends with my manager and the people that I worked with, but honestly, after a few times it wasn't that bad. Sometimes, if Erik was available because he had such important things to do on the weekends, he would come with us, of course. But normally, he was gone, which saved me from a headache, and I was grateful for that. I usually looked to hiking to clear my head, and sometimes when he was there, I felt like it was going to explode, and if that doesn't sum up what I think of him, I'm not sure what does.

I really couldn't place why I was so against this man that I had really just met. I'm typically really good about giving people a fair shot- I'd like for people to do the same with me. But I genuinely just couldn't stand him. He was pompous, ignorant, definitely a far-right republican, and his pride and joy was neither of his kids, not his marriage, and not his home... but his truck. His beat up, 2009 Ford F-150. And personally, as somebody who owns a truck, I found that to be quite pathetic. But boy, did Lindsey, for whatever reason, dig it. It was my biggest red flag for her. From what I had known of her over the last few months was that she's the world's biggest sweetheart. She'd drop anything to help you, was always there to listen, and knew how to turn a bad situation good. But for whatever reason, she seemed to really gravitate towards him- she hung onto every word that he said. Apparently, he was friends with her husband too? But they had only met when Lindsey started at the company, which wasn't so long ago, so it was all just really confusing to me. I still really didn't know what he did, but all I knew was that I didn't like him. But he wasn't even here, so I just needed to stop wasting my breath.

"I get that a lot-" I told her, pulling up the bottom of my shirt to wipe the sweat off of my forehead. We were only a mile to the top of the mountain we were hiking, and although I could run that normally in about six minutes, it felt like it was going to take us a whole lot longer at the rate we were going. I could only think of a handful of inclines that I've hiked steeper than this one, so honestly, there hadn't been much talking on the way up. But it looked like it was leveling out a little bit, which was great news to my legs.

"I mean, you come in every other week limping, or with huge bruises on your arms, or sore out of your mind, I just can't but sometimes think, 'What in the world is she doing to herself?'" she exclaimed, taking a second to look back at me with the same cheeky smile stuck on her face. I blushed briefly, looking back down at the ground.

"You know, it looks like it hurts, right, and don't get me wrong, it totally does when it's over. But, you'll never understand how alive you feel when you're in the middle of a game. How clear your mind gets, it's like something you'd never imagine.