Dirty Laundry: A Tucker Springs Novel #3

probably.” One more breath and he was able to open his eyes back up. “Seriously, thank you.”
    “Everything okay here?” Adam looked up into the face of campus security. Brad must have called them, worried.
    Brad’s worry made him feel shamed, and he ducked his head.
    “He’s okay now, thank you,” the woman said. Her voice was strong and sure. The security guard left, and the woman held out her hand to Adam. “Louisa. And you’re welcome.”
    He took her hand. “Adam.” Nodding at the cafeteria line, he added, “Can I buy you lunch?”
    “Absolutely, but not until you convince me you won’t fall over when you try to stand up.”
    “Give me a minute then.” Adam patted the space beside him, and Louisa sat. “So. What are you studying?”
    “Gender studies. Maybe a walking stereotype, the trans woman going into trans counseling, but it’s the way it’s all gone down for me. I’m finishing up my master’s in social work too, a career choice I made when I thought I’d marry my work and avoid facing the truth about who I was that kept trying to bang its way out of the closet. Though it all fits together in the end.” She smoothed out her pencil skirt as she crossed her ankles and tucked them to the side. “You?”
    “Entomology grad student.”
    “Lovely. Do you TA?”
    “Yes, though I’ve had to cut back because I’m trying to finish up my dissertation so I can review next summer.”
    “Ah, yes. Such fun, I’m sure.”
    Adam nodded and drew a steadying breath. “Okay. I think I can stand now.” They rose together, and the room only spun for a moment. He nodded and sighed. “Yeah. I’m cool.”
    “Excellent.” She indicated he should go in front of her, and he knew she watched him carefully as he eased his way over to the line. “Ooh, they’re having vegan mac and cheese.”
    “Are you vegan?” Adam asked as he reached for his tray.
    “No, but have you had that stuff? It’s amazing. Pricier than the other, though.” She waggled her eyebrows at him. “Sorry, I’m not a cheap date.”
    Adam laughed. “It’s okay. You’re worth it.”
    They chatted idly as they made their way through the line, and Adam noticed her voice was much more modulated now that she wasn’t trying to coach someone through a panic attack. He noticed too that Louisa garnered plenty of lingering glances. Few of them were friendly.
    They sat together near the windows, where Adam fell to his lasagna for several minutes. Clearly half his attack had come out of hunger.
    “Thanks,” he said again, sighing into his food. “I knew I was going to run into Brad, and I tried to get myself ready, but clearly I need to give myself better prep.”
    “The one who was shouting at you in the hallway?”
    Adam nodded with a grimace. “Yes. He’s my ex.”
    “Oh, those. Aren’t they fun?” She sighed. “And that, I guess, answers my question of whether or not you’re a single adorable entomology grad student who isn’t put off by a trans woman.”
    “I’m single, but I’m gay too, yes. As in, total Kinsey six. Sorry.” Adam tipped his head with an apologetic smile. “My lab building is next door, though, and I love lunching at the quad. With or without beautiful women.”
    Louisa laughed and pushed playfully at his shoulder, and in that moment she was so lit up, so feminine, so beautiful, so warm and open and good that Adam was truly sorry he didn’t swing her way.

    Tiny’s Gym was a local’s kind of place. It didn’t have the bells and whistles of the LA Fitness near Tuck U, nor was open twenty-four-seven like the Anytime Fitness centers and other chain workout places scattered throughout the town. It was a basic gym. Treadmills by the windows, rows and rows of free weights in the middle, weight machines along the back wall. Ten years ago, Tiny had bought out the Mexican grocery next door and gotten himself a serious classroom space for all the hippie kinds of group fitness that repaid his investment within the first year and now did nothing but roll in the dough. Tiny’s didn’t have luxury locker rooms or ambience, but it was friendly, it was located on a side street off the Light District, and it validated its members’ parking.
    It was also run by an openly gay, burly little bear who worked the gym floor like a used-car salesman. Everybody loved Tiny, including Denver.
    When Denver hit the gym Saturday afternoon, it was even more packed than usual. Every treadmill and elliptical was