This week, the first week in August, has been just blazing hot, pushing 100°, (37° C), almost for 9 days so far. Here in NJ anything above about 85F is uncomfortable this time of year because the humidity is usually above 90% as well, so it was just miserable and everyone was irritable.
Tuesday morning (yesterday as I write this) was no different and I was soaked by the time I got on the train. Tracy wasn't in much better shape when I found her scowling in one of the back seats. With a look like that on her face it was no surprise that nobody tried sit next to her..Even though the AC was on it couldn't keep up with the heat. She had on white stockings with her brown boots, a very short skirt (which she's making me mention because her legs looked amazing), and a somewhat skimpy tank top. I could see small patches where she had sweat through them behind her knees when she stood up to slide into the window seat.
"Why are you wearing stockings today? If there was ever a time to take to option of going bare legged, this is it. If I had the choice I'll be wearing shorts right now."
She agreed, but was very curt. "I know, I just prefer wearing something over my legs"
"That fine with me" I said. "You know how I feel about stockings so I'll never argue if you want to wear them, not that I have any right to have a say in it. But don't let the heat get to you so much, you look like you're about to kill someone."
She gave me an angry glare and then just deflated, her appearance changing from a mug shot to a kid who dropped her ice cream in a matter of seconds. "It's not that. My parents decided that it's too expensive to stay here and are going to move to North Carolina. They're putting the house on the market next week"
"Oh man, that sucks. I'm so sorry."
She thanked me, and then went on to explain that her folks had her in their early forties so we're older and already retired. Although they accepted that she's gay, they never really accepted it as part of their lives, pretty much just saw it as how she lived when she was out on her own. Needless to say, her relationship with them was strained. It's not that they fought about anything, they just swept everything under the rug and hardly ever talked. She would sometimes go four or five days without even seeing them, even though they lived in the same house. I felt really bad for her, I had no idea.
She thanked me for being a good listener when we got to the city and we said our goodbyes for the day.
Late afternoon I got my first ever text from Tracy, just saying "can you wait at the station, I need a drink".
Of course I would wait for her.
So after work I sat at the train station bar with a beer until she showed up. I started to order a Cosmo, but she wanted a cold beer. She had a really bad day at work, the mess with her parents house was grating on her, and was in a rotten mood. The Hoboken train station is open air, so there's no air conditioning except in a small lobby. There's a long covered walkway with stores and the lobby on one side, the other has the train platforms running out from it and is open to the elements. The bar is at the end of the platform and has big, shutter style windows that are opened for circulation when needed, but they just don't help in weather like this. We hung out there, sweating while she unloaded about her day, had a couple of drinks, and got on a later train. Tracy had calmed down a bit and even started to joke around
"Good thing for you it's Tuesday and not Wednesday, huh?"