In early May, Tami came home from school one day and pulled the mail from the battered, gray mailbox. When she saw the letter from TMU, she dropped the rest of the mail on the dusty ground and tore it open. She read it twice to make sure they'd really accepted her.

Tami's own story was one of the many that would one day inspire her to be a different kind of Dean of Admissions. She'd gotten lucky; someone in that admissions office had seen the change in her, the potential for future performance, and had taken a chance on her.

After she'd dropped her stuff inside the house, she drove straight to the gas station to tell Eric. The used car she'd bought last week with her waitressing money hitched and sputtered sometimes, and she had to press the brakes extra hard to make sure the car stopped where she wanted it to, but it got her from point A to point B.

When she arrived at the gas station, Eric was checking some woman's oil, so Tami nodded at him and then waited for him in the quickie mart.

"What's up?" he asked when he entered the shop. The first two buttons of his gray uniform shirt were unbuttoned over his white undershirt. Red cursive letters spelled out Eric on a white label just above his breast.

She held up the letter. "I got into TMU."

He smiled broadly and hugged her. When he drew away, he said, "Hey! Amazing coincidence. That's where I'm going!"

Her smile wavered. "What? But you got an offer from UT."

He shrugged. "Yeah, but TMU offered me a better one. UT only gave me 50%. TMU is offering a full-ride."

"But TMU's team sucks."

"Why be a small fish in a big pond when I can be a big fish in a small pond? Better chance of getting playtime and making an impression on a lesser team. Better chance of getting noticed by the NFL."

Tami didn't think that was how that worked, but Eric should know more about the recruitment process than she did. "Well…uh….I better go tell Mo."

"You haven't told him yet?" Surprise passed through Eric's eyes first, and then something like delight. "You told me first?"

"Just because…yeah….I mean….I'm going to tell him right now."

She drove straight to Mo's house and found Mary Beth walking out the door. "What the hell was she doing here?" she asked when Mary Beth had driven off.

"Hey, baby doll," Mo said, and kissed her quickly on the lips. "How are you doing?" He opened the front door wide.

Tami strutted in and whirled. "I said, what the hell was she doing here?"

"We were planning," he said. "You know….for the spring fundraiser booster thing."

"What fundraiser?"

"The fundraiser, Tami. What is this? The Spanish Inquisition? Do you want me to ask you what you were doing hanging out with Eric when I came into the diner Saturday morning?"

"I was on my break. And he stopped in for coffee. And we talked. Because we're friends." She shook her head.

"Yeah, like me and Mary Beth." He pointed to the letter. "What's that?"

She decided to let the argument go for the moment. She didn't feel like fighting. She'd just gotten into college! And a four-year college too. She held up the TMU letter. "They accepted me!" She did a little jump.

"Wow," he said. "Does this mean I don't get to see you strip after all?"

She couldn't believe she had ever entertained such a possibility. She felt like a different person than the one who had said she planned to do that, but not terribly different, because even while she had said it, part of her knew she didn't mean it, that she was only pretending, lashing out, crying out for someone to tell her she was worth more than that. And someone had. Eric.

"I'm kidding, baby doll!" Mo exclaimed in response to her sour expression. "Congratulations! I'm proud of you." He bent down and kissed her. He pulled his lips away a little and jerked his head in the general direction of his bedroom. "Parents are out," he said.

She sighed. She didn't want to believe he was cheating. If he was, would he really suggest sex immediately after Mary Beth left? By now Tami had given Mo over twenty months of her life. She loved him, at least as much as she knew how to love at this point. He'd stuck with her longer than any other guy had. He'd said he loved her, more than once. He'd been the first and only guy ever to say those words to her, other than her dad.

She stepped further inside. Mo grinned and shut the door.

[*]

On the drive home from Mo's, Tami thought about how horribly wrong the sex had felt.

As she showered, she thought of the hints Eric had dropped, more than once, about Mary Beth.

As she brushed her teeth, she thought about how much she'd grown this past year.

In bed at night, she thought about the fact that she'd earned her way into college.

At breakfast the next morning, she thought about how Eric had believed in her even when no one else had.

On the drive to school, she thought about how Eric was actually a lot better looking than Mo, if you didn't count the last two pimples he hadn't quite shed.

All through first period, she thought how Eric really wasn't as boring and she'd initially assumed him to be, how he could be truly funny sometimes, even if it was a sort of gentle, goofy funny, and how he must have the capacity for passion, because she'd seen his passion for football.

All through second period, she began to put together the pieces of the puzzle as she thought about the strange way Eric had sometimes acted toward her in the recent months.

And all through third period, she thought about how she shouldn't need a father to tell her she deserved better than Mo.

Ten minutes into her lunch period, Tami strode into the cafeteria and found the football players seated at their usual table eating their usual food in their usual places, Eric straight across from Mo.

Mo raised his head in a half nod to her as she neared the table and began to push out his chair, as if he expected she was coming to sit on his lap, but instead she walked right past him to the other side of the table, leaned down, and planted one straight on Eric Taylor's lips.

She left Eric sitting there with a befuddled, half-smiling look on his face.

[*]

The heels of Tami's cowboy boots clicked decisively against the marble floor, but her steps slowed when she reached the hall lockers. Eric's mouth had been soft and warm, but there hadn't been anything exciting about the kiss.

She wondered if she'd made a horrible mistake.

She was a few feet down the first row of lockers when Eric caught up with her. He grabbed her from behind and pulled her back against himself, his breath hot on her neck. He whirled her around, backed her against a locker, and kissed her passionately. It didn't feel anything like the kiss in the cafeteria. She was glad he was holding her against the locker, because she wasn't sure her own legs could hold her.

Eric broke from her lips only long enough to mutter, "It's about damn time." They continued kissing. Someone passing by shouted, "Get a room!" and, a second later, Eric's warm, hungry lips were ripped off of hers.

Mo had him by the collar of his shirt. He shoved Eric's face straight into the locker next to Tami. The metallic thud was so hard that Tami let out an instinctive scream. Eric was too dazed to start fighting back, and so his face came away from the locker and then right back against it. When Mo pulled him out to have a third go, he was stopped by the assistant principal.

When the assistant principal let go of Mo's collar and ordered him to settle down, Mo turned to Tami. "Eric told you about Mary Beth, didin't he?"

"No, actually you just told me. Just now. That confession just came out of your mouth."

Mo snarled. "Way to go, Columbo."

"In my office, gentlemen. Now!"

Eric straightened his shirt and glanced at Tami, who winced on his behalf before he followed the assistant principal down the hall.