Perhaps they were too heady from their homecoming victory, but the Rankin High Tigers lost the next football game. Tami won her Saturday morning volleyball game, however, a rare victory against a team her high school lost to most years. Mo took her out for a victory lunch at Fatty's Barbecue afterward, but the celebration was somewhat dampened by his grumbling about Friday's game. He kept saying that the Tigers were robbed by two of the ref's calls and that if only coach had put him in to play more instead of Eric...
"We're supposed to be talking about my game, not your game," she said.
"Sorry, honey." From across the bright orange booth, he put a hand on her lower arm. "You played great. I'm proud of you. The way you spiked that ball? They're lucky to have you on that team."
Tami smiled.
"More brisket?" Mo asked.
Fatty's was all-you-can-eat. Tami never ate her money's worth, but Mo ate enough for both of them. She didn't know where he put it. He was as lean as could be. Deliciously lean. Her boyfriend was pretty good-looking, if she did say so herself.
"No, but get me some more fired okra, handsome," she told him as she pushed her plate his way. "And some sweet tea." She smiled. "And maybe I'll give you some sugar after you bring me all that sugar."
[*]
"Refill?" Eric asked, grabbing Tami's empty ceramic mug.
"Yes, please." When he returned the mug, she asked, "You're in Trig, right?" He nodded. "Think you could help me with this Algebra II problem?"
He looked around the shop. There were only two other patrons, who were engrossed in conversation with one another. "I'll try." He pulled a chair up next to her and talked her through it step by step, and she thanked him.
As he was putting the chair back on the other side of the table, she asked, "Where did you learn to dance?"
"Uh…nowhere. Why?"
She smiled. "It shows. Or were you just afraid to touch Kimberley too closely at the homecoming dance?"
"I didn't want to give her the wrong impression. I'm not really looking for a girlfriend right now."
"Okay, fine. Suit yourself. But you're missing out. Kimberley's a great girl." She returned to her studies, doing twice as many problems as had been assigned, just to make sure she understood the material. Later, she heard Eric putting up the chairs and began packing up her stuff.
Once again, he offered to walk her home. As they strolled silently side by side, Tami looked in the lighted windows of the closed shops. She paused for a moment in front of a pair of brown leather cowgirl boots, which were on display in the center of a lasso. "Wish I could afford those," she said. "Mine aren't nearly as nice."
Eric looked down at her feet. "They look functional to me."
"A girl wants to look pretty, not functional!"
He shook his head. "You don't need those boots to look pretty."
She smiled at the compliment, but she didn't get the impression he was flirting with her. He had said it so matter-of-factly. "Do you have cowboy boots?"
"No. But I have hiking boots. I have work boots, too."
"Eric, trust me, in this town, you've got to get yourself a pair of cowboy boots. Don't wear a cowboy hat though. That'll just make you look like a douche."
"Doesn't Mo wear a cowboy hat sometimes?"
"Yeah," she said, "and it makes him look like a douche."
He laughed. Tami was still a little surprised by how transformative his laugh was. It flashed across his face the promise of a more relaxed and playful person.
"That's okay, though," she said. "Mo hates it when I wear my sequined jean jacket. He thinks it's too sparkly. But a good relationship requires mutual tolerance." After a little more walking in silence, she said, "I saw you running out of the homecoming dance when Anita came your way."
"I didn't run."
"You walked quickly. Does she scare you?"
"She's pretty aggressive," he said. "But she;s left me alone since the dance."
More silence. Tami broke it again. "Is your older sister coming home for Thanksgiving?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so. She got engaged recently, and I think she's going to his parents' place."
"Do you like him?"
"I've only met him twice. He seems okay. She says he treats her really well, which is all that matters to me. But she hasn't come home much since she left for college, and now that she's graduated and working, she comes home even less."
"Don't you miss her?"
"Yeah, but I've visited her in Dallas a few times."
"I've never been to Dallas. Is it exciting?"
"Not unless a lot of concrete turns you on." He smiled. "They do have some nice art museums. And a decent zoo. And you can look up at the window Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK out of."
"That's morbid. Why would anyone want to do that?"
"Lots of people want to do it. They're talking about maybe turning the 6th floor into a museum."
"It must be cool to have a big sister you can visit," she said "who has her own place and everything. Are y'all close?"
"We're five years apart, and I'm a guy, so it's not like we painted each other's nails." His lips twitched. "Okay…once. Once I let her paint my nails. When I was five."
Tami chuckled.
"Since Kathleen left, we've talked on the phone a lot. I think I talked to her more after she moved out than I did when she was living at home. She gave me a lot of advice about girls when I was in 8th grade. I used to be really socially awkward."
"Used to be?" Tami asked.
He frowned. "What's that mean?"
"I'm just teasing you. Did it help? Her advice?"
"Well, I got a girlfriend."
"Yeah? How many did you get?" she asked with a teasing smile.
"I went on a few dates with a few different girls my freshman year, but I didn't really hit it off with anyone until Lisa. We dated all of my sophomore and junior year. My dad tried to talk me out of it. Said a girlfriend was a distraction at that age, and I should be focused on school and football." He shrugged. "Maybe I should have taken his advice. Would have saved me a lot of time and money, since she was just going to dump me eventually anyway."
"Oh, come on. You wouldn't throw away your good times together just to avoid the pain, would you?"
"You don't know what it's like." He narrowed his eyes at her. "And how do you get me to talk so much?" He sounded almost offended, like he thought she'd tricked him somehow.
"You know, it would probably help you to get over her if you would just start dating again. Why don't you ask Kimberley out?"
"Do you work on commission or something?"
"I'm just trying to help you out."
"Look, I don't even have time to date. Monday through Thursday, it's wake up early, run routes with my dad, go to school, go to practice, work at the coffee shop, eat, study, then crash into bed. On Friday, it's wake up early, run routes, go to school, and then go to the game. On Saturday it's wake up early, run routes, study game tape, do my chores - you should see the list of chores my dad gives me – and play taxi boy at the bar until seven. On Sunday, it's wake up early, run routes, go to church, watch the games – study the games, and then more chores."
"What about Friday night after the game? Saturday after seven?"
He just looked at her.
She sighed. "Do you think I go into counselor mode?"
"What's counselor mode?"
"I don't know. Apparently it's something I do that annoys Mo. I thought maybe I was going into it now, and that's why I just annoyed you."
"You didn't annoy me. Having too many responsibilities annoys me. Having a dad who won't cut me any slack annoys me. And Lisa dumping me really annoyed me. But you're just…you're trying to be helpful. I'm sorry if I came off like Oscar."
"Oscar?"
"The Grouch."
She smiled. "You do kind of remind me of Oscar the Grouch."
"My house is way nicer than a trash can, though. My dad makes sure of that at least. Nothing is ever a mess, and nothing is ever in disrepair."
They slowed to a stop in front of her house. A light was on in the living room window, and in the kitchen. "Say hello to the Reverend for me," Eric told her.
"I heard you taxied him home from the bar the Saturday after Homecoming."
Eric seemed to be trying to keep his lips in a straight line, but they didn't quite stay put. "I can neither confirm nor deny."
"It's okay. I heard it from him." She tried the door. It was unlocked.
Eric nodded, the way he had the first time he walked her home, that almost-a-bow nod, and then he was on his way.
[*]
Another week came and went. The Tigers barely eked out a victory in Friday's football game. Mo played only in the third quarter, and he didn't throw a single touchdown pass. He was sullen when he and Tami went out for dinner afterward, not his usual happily energetic self after a team victory.
"Y'all won," Tami told him from across the booth at Tasty 44. "Smile!"
"How are the scouts ever going to see me if Coach hardly ever plays me? And he only puts me in when it's impossible to score! If Eric had just never - "
"- Cheer up, handsome. You're on a winning team that might even make it to State this season. You're graduating this year. And you're about to get laid in an hour." Watching a close game like that made her horny. She didn't know why. Maybe it was the way the tension mounted slowly. "Seriously laid."
His frown morphed into a smile. "I do get laid a lot more often than Taylor," he said. "And I've got a hot girlfriend. He doesn't even have a girlfriend."
Tami sighed. "You are not in competition with Eric, Mo. He's your teammate."
Mo's grin grew a little bigger. "Did you hear how I beat him at Red Light, Green Light?"
"You mean that game kids play in kindergarten?"
"Coach Wylie makes us play it in in P.E.. Yesterday, I was the first one across the finish line. Worlds ahead of Taylor. That guy can't run nearly as fast as me."
Suddenly, Tami was feeling a lot less horny.