Love in a time of heat stroke

**Story contains sexual references, domestic abuse and the metric system**

The temperatures had been above 30 degrees Celcius all week. Jen didn't like air conditioning for ideological reasons. Air conditioners can’t actually get rid of the heat, they just move it out of your house and apartment, cooling you by warming everyone else. When the temperature was under 30, She would tell herself she was better than that, That she wouldn’t hurt others for her own comfort. When it’s over 30 she seeks shelter in public buildings with AC.

Tonight she sought shelter in the national art gallery. And so did Gary her ex. His muscles were harder than those of the men she dated now. She would give herself a 50/50 chance of beating her last tinder date in a fight. She knew for a fact she could not beat him in a fight. It was a big building, she considered avoiding him, but decided it was better to trust the armed guards who were constantly a shout away.

“Hey… I guess your AC isn’t working?” she asked him, noticing the small cuts on his arms and face as he looked at her. He still worked as a precision demolitionist. 

“Still don’t have one. You were right, we only really need them two or three weeks a year. They’re a lot of money for just two or three weeks”

“God damn it Jen! I work hard! I literally bleed to bring home the bacon, is it really so damn hard for you to cook me some real meat so I have the protein I need to heal ?” Gary growled as he took off his work clothes in the shower. He turned the shower on to wash self and clothes.. 

“Millions of Hindus work as hard as you and are happy on a vegetarian diet” Jen shouted back,not giving him an instant to enjoy his shower.

“Well maybe you should have learned cooking from a Hindi rather than some white SJW with a degree in dance history” Gary shouted back, turning off the shower and heading for the kitchen naked.

“I’m getting sick of your anti-intellectualism”

“As sick as I am of pretending you know how to cook tofu?”

“Look little man. I earn more money than you. You should be cooking for me. And I earn more money than you because my work is more useful. I’m not the type of lawyer that gets featured in courtroom dramas on TV. I’m the type of lawyer that prevents those drama’s from happening by showing my clients how to avoid breaking the law, so I really don’t deserve your blue collar snobbery” Jen said.

All of this was true; so Gary silently mulled over taking over the cooking. It would mean he could at least have meat for supper. Jen however had to go on and snatch Mutually Assured Destruction from the jaws of victory. 

“My friends are right. I should leave you. The gap is too big. You’re proud white trash and I have a university education” Jen said, thus throwing Gary into a blind rage. His hatred of tofu saved her,being hit by tufu hurt less than being hit by a fist.

“You here alone?” Jen asked

“Yeah. What Betty and I have includes neither clinginess, cohabitation or passionate love. She has AC at her place, and I have no desire to visit her place on a work night when I can’t either drink or stay up late.” Gary replied walking into the permanent exhibit.

“You are treating her better than you treated me, right?” Jen said stopping with him at a still life.

“ You were a wife. She’s a fuck buddy. What do you think?”

“ You know what I mean… Is she safe?”

“ I never gambled on her the way I did on you. So obviously can’t hurt me the way you did. I don’t think I’d ever hurt a woman worse than she hurts me”

“So a few mean words hurt as bad being slapped around with a tufu brick?”

“Mean words can hurt a lot in the right context. Did you forget the context?”

Gary got to the bedroom. Jen was at a frosh week event so he was alone this evening. The bed was covered with clothes she bought. They certainly looked like the sorts of things lawyers on TV wore.

He looked at the price tags. They certainly cost prices only skilled professionals could afford. He compared them to the 2nd hand clothes he wore until they were tattered and unusable and got angry. Fortunately they still had receipts so it wasn’t too hard for him to refund them all..

Jen did need some school clothes. Even if he was prepared to let her leave the house naked, he doubted campus security would allow her to attend class that way.

With the money he got from refunding one of the blouses he could pick her out several cheap t-shirts, shorts and sweatpants for her at walmart. The most expensive shirt he got her had the words ‘cum dumpster’ on it.

Jen admired sculptures of classical nudes, working in an air conditioned law office did not satiate her desire to see fit male bodies. Gary enjoyed the blasts of cold air coming out of a vent as working on an unairconditioned demolition site left him with other unsatiated hungers.

“I guess you were always sensitive about me being acting higher class then you? The stunt where you humiliated me by making me go to class in Walmart clothes made your jealousy pretty clear” Jen said.

“Why didn’t you just buy nice clothes again after?”

“You canceled my credit card!

”“I canceled your access to my credit card, yes. ” Gary confirmed.. His voice was more gravelly than when they were dating, most likely because his throat was more damaged from the dust he constantly breathed. How could such a thing be sexy when she knew it was a sign of ill health? Would she also be turned on by cancer patients?

People joked about how Gary and Jen had the most academic accolades of any couple at the prom. Technically true, there were four people in their year smart enough to earn scholarships, but 3 of them were too socially awkward to date, and the fourth was smart enough to realize what he really wanted in a girlfriend was big breasts, not intelligence.

Thinking about how they could pay for university was filling him with dread.

He couldn’t get government help. His parents were upper middle class. But his parents had no savings to help him, they spent their money as fast as they earned it trying to look rich. 

She couldn’t get government help. Her parents were upper middle class now, but hadn’t managed to save enough money to help her, they spent years pursuing artistic or spiritual careers that weren’t upper middle class earlier.

He was a teenager in love; it was possible to imagine they could be happy together working in loser jobs and living in a tiny rented room. But the same love that allowed him to see this as happy demanded he find a way to offer her something better.

At first it seemed like she won the summer job lottery. She got to work in a nice restaurant, where she got tips and free food. He went into a temping agency each day to work as day labor and do heavy dirty jobs for minimum wage.

A demolition company started hiring him regularly. When it wasn’t safe to use explosives people had to rip walls or even entire buildings apart with hand tools. After the initial novelty of the job wore off it was completely miserable work. The inside of half wrecked building wasn’t pretty. It was too noisy to enjoy music or conversation. It rarely offered major mental stimulation but still demanded too much attention to zone out. The air was dusty, and fragments of gyprock stone or glass flying through the air at high speeds were a common safety hazard. He hated the work and wished they’d stop hiring him. But he couldn’t do less than his best when given a job, and his best was pretty good, so they kept wanting him back.

Near the end of the summer the owner asked to see him. “Do you know the difference between a drunken loser and someone who really likes beer?”

“The beer lover is succeeding at something?”

“Yes. He’s able to give up what makes him happy (beer) for hours or even days at a time so that he can build a career or family or whatever else he chooses. It’s pretty clear you completely hate this job, but you’re good at it, and I noticed you translating translating for the unilingual francophone temps. I’m prepared to offer you solid middle class money if you agree to do it full time. I’m sure with that money you can get something you do want?”

Gary did hate the job. He felt jealous of the workers when he watched YouTube videos about third world sweat shops. He wanted a car… but he couldn’t imagine any car worth living in hell for. It was hard to imagine any material good worth giving up his hope of university...except he didn’t have a hope of university, not really, not without money. If he survived on rice and beans, second hand clothes and furniture scavenged from garbage piles or buildings set to be demolished he could pay for Jen’s university.

 He was a teenaged boy in love. Living in hell for 45 hours a week and in poverty for the other 123 in order to have a happy successful girlfriend who would love him and admire him for his sacrifice (and agree to … because of said love and admiration) seemed like a worthwhile trade to him.

“I don’t really have anyone serious in my life right now. After you I’m used to men in better physical shape then office workers, but also kinda afraid to date men who aren’t office workers. That’s making it hard to fall in love” Jen said looking into Gary’s eyes ignoring the nude sculptures around them

“Sorry for traumatizing you? Sorry for spoiling you?” Gary replied.

“Heheh yeah. My relationship with you is as complicated as my relationship with my parents. Hey, You can’t see it here, because none of these statues date before 1850 but art historians say that male genitals were generally smaller on nudes created before industrialization. Do you have any idea why that might be?” Jen asked with a blush.

“ I doubt it was aesthetics; I can’t imagine anyone who disliked penises paying for paintings of nude men. Maybe nutrition? I’d imagine before canning even the rich would have a hard time getting certain foods out of season”

“We weren’t eating well when I was in university… but I never noticed you lacking in that department” Jen said biting her lip. She was just discussing art, which is a perfectly normal thing to do in an art gallery. Or at least that was close enough to the truth that she couldn’t be convicted of perjury for saying so.

“Hehe thanks. I was fully grown by that point, though; so I’m pretty sure it’s size was already determined” Gary replied blushing.

Jen reached for his hand and held it as they went to study the landscape paintings. “ I really am better than you because of my education. Which you bought for me. Maybe it’s a good thing we split up before having kids.”

“Huh?”

“A good parent devotes their life to making their children better than they are. And if they succeed probably ends up being spit on by said child who rightly feels superior to them. It hurt you so badly to go through that once with your wife; going through that two or three more times with our kids might have broken you completely”

“Everyone ends up broken completely in the end. I’d have preferred to have made a family on the way. “

The intercom interrupted them announcing that the gallery was closing and they had to leave.

“My new place is only a few blocks from here” Jen offered.

“It would be a privilege to walk you home.” Gary replied.

Part of Jen wanted to howl in joy. It was a long time since she had been freaky with her first love and what was between them was mostly love, whatever darker feelings happened to be mixed in.

But as they got outside into 33 degree air and sweltering humidity she found she had to pull her hand out of his because the contact made the heat worse. Gary started speaking when they arrived at her building.

“I think I wanted the same thing you did tonight. It had been a long time since I held anyone I really loved. But we both make heat. If we try to sleep together, we might end up hurting each other with that heat. Perhaps tonight we should choose safety over love” Gary said.

“Yes.” Jen replied. Then added after a moment's thought “ you really did give me everything. Maybe I should write you a check or something to clear that debt”

“I do like money.” Gary replied, smiling sadly.