Nobody Ends Up Dead in a Bathtub, Everyone Keeps Their Organs

Chapter 15

Leo made sure he was punctual and on his best behavior. Damián had picked out a nice shirt for him to wear and begged him to keep it tidy. It was like Leo was still a child in Damián's mind. Like he was sure Leo hadn't matured past seven when he would try wrangling worms out of the mud while in his church clothes.

It could have been that Damián was nervous that Leo was going to make a heterosexual spectacle of himself. Leo could see the way Damián was almost holding his breath before he left the apartment. It was the classic "straight people are around" rigidity. Leo saw it often when Damián tucked a part of himself away when they left some bubble of safety Leo couldn't see.

Leo considered asking Damián if he should stay away from the lecture, if it was best if he didn't try to force himself in, but then Damián told him he was happy he was going. That maybe in the future, they could go to stuff like that together. There was no shortage of queer events in the city. When they both had the time, Damián had said fixing Leo's collar, they should think about the next one to go to together.

Leo showed up 15 minutes before the lecture was set to start, waited patiently in the back of the lecture hall until Eve shuffled in, and found a seat with her in the middle of the audience.

He looked around the lecture hall. It was a sea of multi-colored hair cut short or grown long. Eve wasn't the only one with an undercut, and she wasn't the only one rocking an academic goth look—large black sweaters and Doc Martens were all over the place.

In the corner of the room, the guest was speaking to some faculty member Leo had seen a few times around campus.

"Who is this woman?" Leo asked.

"You didn't look her up?" Eve asked, a bit of judgment in her voice. "Jo Sheryl?"

"I asked my brother, and he didn't know, and that was the extent of my research."

He should have put forth a little more effort, but he had thought if he knew everything about her, the lecture would be underwhelming. He didn't want spoilers. If she had any great anecdotes, Leo wanted to hear them from her in person.

He also might have neglected to look her up in favor of working on grad school applications. He had finally sucked it up and applied to the out-of-state schools he had been looking at. Michigan had a well-respected, competitive applied math program, and Michigan wasn't too terribly far away. It was cheaper than living in New York, too.

There were also programs in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Leo submitted the applications when Damián was gone on a date with his new, weird client. It was the only way to distract himself when Damián had texted him to say he'd be out a little later than planned.

"Yeah, well, Damián is a little older than her target audience," Eve said. "He probably hasn't seen her stuff because's a guy in his 30s."

"Damián isn't all that old."

Wait.

What?

Leo turned in his seat, infuriatingly small for him. All the seats on campus felt like they were made for someone three inches shorter than him. Complaining about how his legs were cramped in the small space between him and the seat in front of him only got him eye-rolls from people who didn't seem to realize that while being tall was nice, there was such a thing as being too tall.

"How do you know Damián?" Leo asked.

"He didn't tell you?" Eve said it so easily. "We're in a gay book club together. I saw him last night, and we connected the dots between you and me and him."

"Oh, yeah, his book club."

"I actually run it."

"No shit."