On Monday, an orange and black banner stretched across the main hallway of Ranking High bearing the words "Go Tigers! Bring Home the Ring!" The principal congratulated the football team over the loudspeaker for its play-off win to whoops and whistles and wads of paper tossed across homerooms. Eric was getting high fives in the hallway all day long, and he was actually returning them with a smile. In Government class, Tami watched girl after girl congratulate him on his performance, each one finding it necessary to put her hand on his shoulder or one of his arms when she did so. Tami wanted to ask him about his ex-girlfriend, but she could hardly do so, surrounded as he was by such a cloud of admirers.

So that evening, she went to Bo's Coffee & Bakery to study. At the counter, when Eric took her money for her usual decaf coffee, she said. "You were quite the highlight at school today."

"Yeah. That was a bit much."

"Well, enjoy it while you'll can. These are your glory days, right?"

"God, I hope not." The cash register clanged open. "I hope this is not the last thing I ever accomplish."

She took her change from him and put it in her purse. "I just mean…it's a big deal, making it all the way to State."

"It's not my first time making it to a State Championship, you know."

"I'd almost forgotten," she admitted. "But it's the first time in a small town." She smiled. "Just try not to let it go to your head."

"Yeah, well, don't worry. My dad won't let it go to my head. He makes sure I know everything I achieve is not quite good enough. He - " Eric fell silent, and Tami sensed that another customer must be drawing up behind her. She grabbed her coffee, whispered bye, and found herself a table. The shop was unusually crowded, perhaps because people were out starting some early Christmas shopping. She'd have to wait until the walk home to ask about Lisa.

This time, when the clock struck 6:52, she helped him put up the chairs.

"You didn't have to do that," he said when they were done.

"Well, you know," she said as they headed to the shop door, "I appreciate that you take the time to walk me home. And today it occurred to me I've never said thank you for that."

He held the door open for her. "It occurred to me, too," he said as she walked through, "but I wasn't going to mention it, even though…" His voice took on the tone of a voice-over for a horror movie advertisement, "in the dark, I might be the only thing standing between you and…" He let go of the door handle, and it swung shut just as he concluded, "The Thing!"

Tami laughed. "Did you see that movie last summer?"

He turned and locked the door. "Yeah"

"Did you go with your Houston girlfriend?"

"Yeah." He began walking beside her. Red and white Christmas lights twinkled along Main Street. "It's a great date movie."

"I know. I was clinging to Mo like crazy. But speaking of your Houston girlfriend, was that her you were kissing after the game?"

He nodded.

"I noticed you weren't at the party after."

"She had her car, so we went out to eat after the game. Then we..uh…went back to her hotel room."

"Oh." For some reason, Tami didn't want to hear that. "So you're back together?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "No. I don't think we can work long-term. I just don't think she's committed to it. So I told her that. I told her I'm going to move on."

"Wait." Tami stopped walking. He was two steps ahead of her before he noticed, and he stopped and turned. "You had sex with her and then told her you were moving on?" That seemed like a bit of a jerk move to her, not at all what she had come to expect of Eric.

"Who said we had sex?"

"You said you went back to her hotel room."

"Yeah. So I could tell her we weren't getting back together. In private. In case she started crying."

"Oh." Relieved, Tami resumed walking. "How did she react?"

"She started crying." He fell in step with her. "And then she said she made a huge mistake breaking up with me, and yada, yada…wanna get back together…and I said…I think you just want me right now because I'm right here, but when I'm not…" He shrugged. "Anyway, she didn't try too awfully hard to convince me, which kind of confirmed that I'd made the right decision. I think with her, you know…I don't think it was specifically me she loved. She just loved having a regular boyfriend. But if I'm not there, well, someone else will do just as well."

"But it wasn't like that for you," Tami said softly.

"I don't know. Maybe it was. I thought I loved her. I was committed to making it work long distance. I was really hurt and angry when she broke it off. But the more I think about it…we weren't really that close. We spent a lot of time together, sure, and we…you know…" Tami smiled that he couldn't bring himself to say they had sex. "We did everything steady boyfriends and girlfriends do. But we weren't that open with each other. I mean, I didn't even talk to her like I can talk to you. You were right. I do need to move on."

"Then you're going to start dating?" she asked.

"Yeah. I think once State is out of the way, and that burden is off my mind, I'm finally going to ask someone out."

Tami felt guilty for steering him toward her teammate. "I think Kimberley's with Jack now."

"I know. He's been sweet on her since Homecoming."

This surprised Tami, but it helped to explain why Eric was, from the start, so determined not to be interested in Kimberley. "Why did Jack take so long to ask her out then? Is it the Catholic thing?"

Kimberley was a Baptist, and she was pretty involved in her youth group. Tami was sure Kimberly's family had no prejudice against Catholics, but some of those parishioners over at First Baptist did. Tami had gone to a Vacation Bible School there once in fourth grade, because her mother needed someplace to deposit her and Shelley for a week while she painted the walls of the parsonage. Tami had come home one day and asked her father what a "papist" was and why they were so "superstitious," and he'd sighed heavily.

"I guess that can be a problem if both people are devout," Eric said. "Me, I don't care about religious differences at all, but that's maybe because I don't care that much about my own religion."

"Well, I do care about my religion, but I still don't care about religious differences. At all."

"Really?" he asked skeptically. "Would you date an atheist?"

"Sure. If he agreed to hold my hand in church every Sunday."

Eric laughed. "And I bet you could get an atheist to do that for you, too."

Probably not, she thought. She couldn't even get Boone to say hello to her in the halls of Rankin High the Monday after he took her virginity. Where was he now, she wondered? Still hanging out at high school parties somewhere, charming younger girls? He'd graduated her sophomore year and never come back.

"You a'ight?" Eric asked. "You look upset all of the sudden."

She shook off the memory. "I'm fine." She began to walk faster.

Eric caught up, but the conversation lagged until he, for a change, was the one to revive it. "When do you earn your car?"

"Christmas," she said. "My work at the church pays for half. The rest is my present."

"You get to pick it out?"

"Within a certain price range." They were at the parsonage now. There was an Advent candle glowing in the downstairs window, and she could hear her mother practicing Christmas music on the piano in the living room. The smell of evergreen drifted from the fresh wreath on the door. "I'll have to think of some more girls to fix you up with," she said. "But there are plenty of fish in the sea."

"There are you know," he told her. "Plenty. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm telling you."

"But do you know that?" he asked.

"I have a steady boyfriend. I'm not looking to go fishing."

"Yeah." His eyes spoke a language she couldn't quite understand. "See you tomorrow," he said, and with that little nod-bow of his, he was gone.