The incident at Tom's gym with the jacket - (Na)BloPoMo Day 16

When Tom was done running his three miles on the treadmill, he went into the locker room to retrieve his jacket. He had hung it on a hook on the far wall.

Except his jacket, not on a hook. He stood there for just a second before he realized the terrible truth: He had not hung his jacket up in this locker room.

He must have turned right instead of left in the hallway and hung his jacket up in the women's locker room.

Tom hatched a clever plan. He would loiter outside the women's locker room and wait until someone came out. Then he would tell her that his wife had hung up his jacket in the women's locker room, but then I had apparently left in a hurry and forgot my husband's jacket hanging on a hook in the women's locker room. Admittedly, it was not the perfect story, but he felt it was good enough for the situation.

Unfortunately, Tom never got the opportunity to test out his ploy. No one came out of the women's locker room and he gave up. There were like zero women in the entire gym. He went up to the front desk and said to the two employee dudes, "I did something really stupid."

Both of the dudes turned around and their eyebrows went up, just waiting for the stupid thing that they'd probably have to go wipe up with rubber gloves.

After Tom related the tale, the one dude said, "You can just go in and get it."

Tom immediately felt tremors of PTSD. He vividly recalled the sheer terror of the only other time he'd accidentally walked into the women's locker room. He was 12 at his dad's racquet ball club. "There were ladies in there," was all he said when he explained the incident to me.

Tom told the employee dude that he didn't feel comfortable marching into the women's locker room. So the dude went with him and knocked on the door. They waited awhile and then he sent Tom in to get the jacket.

Tom got his jacket. He left right after that.