Summer Heat

By Jeff Adams

Ethan is a grad student stuck in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the summer. Though he's thrilled about his teaching assistant position at the university, he's not at all excited about the record-breaking heat wave that's plaguing the area.

 

In the midst of an oppressively hot summer night, Ethan meets fellow grad student Marcus. While their initial encounters are scorching, can two busy students have more than a heated seasonal fling? Or could it be the beginning of something that will last beyond the stormy southern nights?

 

Summer Heat was previously published under the title Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Big Gay Media
• Release date: Sep 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201979508

Jeff Adams

Jeff Adams is Professor of Education at the University of Chester, and the Principal Editor of International Journal of Art & Design Education, as well as Programme Leader of the Centre for Research in Education, Creative and Arts through Practice.

Book preview

Summer Heat

SUMMER HEAT

AN M/M ROMANCE

JEFF ADAMS

Big Gay Media

SUMMER HEAT

Ethan is a grad student stuck in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the summer. Though he’s thrilled about his teaching assistant position at the university, he’s not at all excited about the record-breaking heat wave plaguing the area. 

In the midst of an oppressively hot summer night, Ethan meets fellow grad student Marcus. While their initial encounters are scorching, can two busy students have more than a heated seasonal fling? Or could it be the beginning of something that will last beyond the stormy southern nights?

Summer Heat was previously published under the title Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa.

JEFF’S NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to Jeff’s Newsletter to get serialized stories, sneak peeks of new books, find out what he’s reading, and more. Plus you’ll get a free ebook of The Hockey Player’s Snow Day.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Summer Heat Fun Facts

Acknowledgments

Big Gay Fiction Podcast

Try Something Different from Jeff

Also by Jeff Adams

About the Author

ONE

This was my second summer in Tuscaloosa and I hated it.

Not the town.

The summer.

It was hot and steamy, and beyond a stereotypical Southern summer. Last year I caught the tail end of it, trying to get settled before starting the first year of my master’s program. That was bad enough.

This summer was far worse.

So far we’d spent July in a record heat wave with thirteen consecutive days over one hundred, and that didn’t count the humidity. The previous record was eleven days in 2007.

I’m from Seattle. Yes, it can get hot there, but not this hot and not for this long. My original plan was to head back home to the cooler Pacific Northwest, and work on my thesis for the summer. But the opportunity to become a teaching assistant for Dr. Robert Mayer kept me on campus. I admired his work in journalism ethics and he was the major reason I came to the University of Alabama to do my graduate work. When his teaching assistant put her program on hold, my advisor recommended me for the open position.

Staying in town to teach and write sounded like a solid plan, until the heat wave hit. There were plenty of super-hot days last summer, but it never lasted long before going back to merely scorching. The past two weeks felt like a steam room outside. My apartment wasn’t much better. The air conditioner couldn’t keep up with the heat because I couldn’t afford to run it all the time.

To avoid being a sweaty mess as much as possible, I spent most of my time on campus. Luckily the library, my office, and classroom all had cool air I didn’t have to pay for. Sadly, sleeping in any of these places wasn’t allowed.

A knock on my cubicle frame broke me out of my heat wave lament. I looked up from the papers on my desk to find Luke Reinhart from my freshman reporting class. Like the rest of the student body these past few weeks, he wore as little as possible. He stood before me in shorts, a tank top and flip-flops, which he wore in a cute, twinkish way.

I kicked myself for thinking of a student like that, but what could I do? I had eyes and he was adorable.

Hey Luke, come on in.

Hi, Mr. Holden, sorry I missed office hours. He sounded apologetic, even though only a couple of minutes had passed since top of the hour. I hadn’t even packed up yet. Do you maybe have a minute to talk about this week’s assignment?

Sure. And please, I’ve told you guys, call me Ethan. Have a seat.

My office was barely bigger than a closet with walls going almost up to the ceiling. Besides me and the desk, a second chair and bookshelf were jammed in the space. I reached over and took books off the chair and stuffed them onto an already overloaded shelf. There wasn’t much privacy as sound traveled easily between the thin walls, but the space got the job done.

You wanted us to do an article with different takes on the heat. He took an iPad from his backpack and flipped it open. I want to go off campus to find how people are coping if they have to work outside or don’t have air conditioning at home.

Absolutely! I might have sounded overenthusiastic. I’d love to see stories that don’t just have a campus perspective. I know that’s easiest to get, but if you can get off campus, please do.

Cool. He typed as he looked between me and the tablet.

Why were you hesitant to just do it?

I heard what some of the others are working on and it made me doubt my idea.

You’ve got good instincts, Luke. I saw that in your first assignments. Don’t let yourself be swayed. You’ll make mistakes sometimes, but you’ve got to figure that out for yourself. If you let someone else dictate what you report, you might miss out on a key angle. As for your classmates, I suspect they’re trying to keep you from one upping them.

Bastards. A devilish grin formed on Luke’s lips.

"You gotta watch