Chapter 37

Eric slid into a booth across from his brother. He still felt tense from his argument with Tami. Dale had a sixteen ounce strip steak sitting on the table in front of him beside a heaping baked potato. Things must have gone well with Cleo, if he could manage to eat.

"You hungry, little brother?" Dale asked.

"I ate dinner already." Eric ordered a Bud Light when the waiter came by.

"I thought you had better taste in beer than that," Dale said.

"I just get the good stuff sometimes. Tami doesn't like me spending too much money on beer."

Dale made a whip cracking sound as he flicked his wrist.

"That's not funny!" Eric snapped.

Dale held up his hands. "Sorry. I was just joking. You seem really irritated about something."

"Yeah." Eric leaned back into the booth. "I just got an offer for that coaching job I told you about."

"Congratulations."

"But Tami doesn't want me to take it, because it would mean moving to Dillon."

"What's wrong with Dillon?" Dale asked.

"Nothing. Well, it's a four hour drive from here. And it's a small town. Not a lot of…you know, culture. But it's got one huge high school. 5A. And the Panthers have been state champions before. I used to privately coach the kid who's going to be QB on the JV team next season. I could maybe make head coach in two or three years." Eric shook his head. "And Tami just wants to stay here."

"Turns out Cleo just wants to stay in Egypt. Tami was right. All that talk about America…it was because she wanted me to know she was willing to follow me here if we got married. But she'd actually prefer to stay in Egypt."

"So you two finally talked."

Dale nodded and cut into his steak. "Yeah. I thought we should probably talk now so I could avoid the whole romantic movie scene - you know, running through the airport at the last minute in a mad frenzy of love. Especially now that we've got the TSA."

It was funny, but Eric wasn't in the mood to laugh. The waiter clunked his beer mug down on the table, and he pulled it close. "So…what's happening there?"

"I'm still keeping this position," Dale answered. "It'll set me up with better connections for my second career after I retire, and I can't stay in the Cairo foreign office forever anyway. They won't let me. Cleo understands that. She understands how important this position is to me. And now I understand how important it is to her that we get engaged before she agrees to move all the way to Texas." He speared a piece of steak with his fork. "I guess in a way she was just as afraid as I was…I was afraid she didn't feel as strongly about me as I felt about her, and she was afraid of the same thing."

"Communication," Eric said. "It's kind of important in a relationship."

"Duly noted. So that's what we're doing. She's taking the law firm job, moving here, and we're getting married the first Saturday in April."

"Congratulations. That's…soon. "

"Yeah, well, she won't move in with me until we're married. It just makes sense for us to do it as soon as she starts work in the area." Dale took a bite of his steak, and, when he was done swallowing, said, "And I'm not a fan of long engagements. It occurs to me that Cindy was not in a big hurry to get married."

Eric had noticed that, even as a teenager, but he hadn't said anything to Dale at the time.

"Cindy thought she should finish law school first," Dale continued. "She made that clear our senior year of college, which was when I was gearing up to propose. So I waited. I put off the proposal. Then, when we finally did get engaged, she said we should save up money for two years for a nice wedding. But Cleo's in a hurry to get married. She wants to be my wife. God only knows why, but she does." He laughed happily. "She really does."

"I'm happy for you, Dale." He was, but he wished he could feel that happiness more at the moment. He was still too worried about his argument with Tami. "Are you getting married in Egypt?"

"No. Most of her family isn't going to like the idea of her marrying me. We'll get married here in Texas. Maybe at one of the botanical gardens. Will you be my best man?"

"I'd be honored."

"Thank you. I want you to stand up for me. I respect your marriage with Tami. That's a great example for me."

"Doesn't seem like the best example at the moment."

Dale shrugged. "You'll work it out."

"Where's Cleo now?"

Dale finished chewing and swallowing. "With our relator. She doesn't like the condo I bought. So, since we are going to be living together after all, I'm going to rent it out and we'll buy some place that she likes better. We'll probably get a house, actually."

Eric imitated his brother's earlier whip cracking sound.

Dale laughed.

With a smirk, Eric asked, "Is Cleo going to make you get rid of the pinball machine?"

"She loves the pinball machine." Dale pointed his fork at him. "She beat your record this afternoon."

"Like hell she did. I'll believe it when I see her initials on the leaderboard."

"Shelley looking for a condo by any chance?" Dale asked. "I know she's moving to Dallas in a few weeks."

"She couldn't possibly afford your place. And I don't think you want to be Shelley's landlord anyway."

"Can't believe I already have to move again within the next four months," Dale complained. "Would have been nice if she'd put her two cents in earlier."

"Well, she didn't have a proposal earlier."

"Point taken." Dale put down his fork. "I love her. I very much want to be with her. But I admit I'm a little nervous about the whole marriage thing. I always wanted to settle down, since I was in college. But it just never happened. And now….I'm forty-three. I haven't even lived with a woman since Cindy, and that was fifteen years ago. I'm pretty set in my ways."

"Well, you're going to have to learn to compromise."

"What sort of compromises have you made for Tami?"

"Well, I…." Eric felt suddenly on the spot. His mind reeled to think of something. He could think of several compromises Tami had made for him, but he was having trouble coming up with one he had made for her. "I would have bought a smaller house," he said at last, "if it wasn't so important to her to have that extra bedroom." He smirked. "And I'd have a pinball machine."

"That's it?"

"No, that's not it," Eric insisted. "It's….well…it's the everyday stuff. Once you get married, you have to give up your right to make your decisions by yourself. You have to take her opinions and feelings into account."

"Like with your Dillon offer," Dale said.

"Yeah. And with the little things, like how late you can stay out."

Dale chuckled. "Do you have a curfew, Eric?"

"Not an official one. But every half hour past her preferred time reduces my odds of getting laid by fifteen percent. Not that I go out that often anyway. Except for work." He gestured to his brother. "And now with you."

"Well, you're an introvert. Always were."

"I'm not shy," Eric insisted.

"I didn't say you were shy," Dale replied. "But unless we're talking about a football crowd, you'd rather just be with your family, or one or two close friends."

Dale wasn't wrong. Eric had never really liked parties or other such social functions. They often bored him. He could talk for a long time with Tami, but he didn't like small talk. Small talk was a slow torture for him. In fact, he'd never really seen the point of going to a party unless it involved one of two things: getting a girl or getting money from the boosters. He hadn't needed a girl for a long time, but he was aware that taking Tami out to social functions increased his chances of getting laid by her. He was also aware that barbecues and parties could help his players to bond and form a tighter team. But if it weren't for some utilitarian goal, or social pressure, or the necessity of not seeming rude, he'd probably never go to a social gathering.

"I'm more like Tami," Dale said. "I love being around people. All sorts of people. How do you two balance that? Is that one of your compromises?"

"I guess it is," Eric said. "I go out more often than I want, and she goes out less often than she wants. When we're out, we stay longer than I want, and we leave sooner than she wants. She can read when I've reached my outer limit. She also goes out by herself a bit. She has her friends and I have…my game tape."

Dale laughed. "I'm looking forward to getting to know you better, brother. Even if you're in Dillon, we'll still be in the same state. We can do holidays. Summer vacation."

"See, you get it. You get that Dillon's not that far from Dallas." Eric sighed. "I wish Tami got it."

[FNL]

On the 27th, when Tami got home from work and set her briefcase on the kitchen bar across from where Eric was cooking dinner, he mentioned the contract to her again.

"I told you I'm thinking about it!" she snapped.

"But did you read it?"

"Of course I read it. What's for dinner?"

"My famous chili. Did you notice the Panthers stipend is higher than what the Owls will pay me?"

"I'm going to change out of my work clothes before dinner." She walked down the hall.

[FNL]

On the 28th, after Julie had cleared the dinner dishes, Eric said, "It's a good deal, Tami, that contract. Teacher salary is the same as I'd make at Oliver Loving, but I'll have an extra planning period, and no academic classes. Just P.E. and football."

"Well I'm sure that sounds good for you." She pulled her wine glass closer. "Have you thought of me? Or Julie?"

"Have you looked online at real estate? Houses are at least twenty percent cheaper. We could get something nicer. Bigger. You'd like that."

"You know what I'd like? Being near my sister."

"Would you really? Because you get kind of annoyed with her when she visits."

"Because she stays with us when she visits," Tami insisted. "When she's living near us, she won't ever have to stay with us. I can see her an hour here, an hour there. She's fun for an hour at a time."

"We can still visit my brother and your sister. It's just four hours! We could take a summer vacation here."

"Or we could just live here," she said. "And you aren't driving four hours each way on weekends from Dillon for the Cowboys games, you know."

"I could for the occasional game."

"During football season? Being gone all weekend? I don't think so, Eric." She picked up her wine glass and studied him over the top. "Season passes, Dale has. And a suite. You sure you want to give that up?"

[FNL]

By the 30th, Eric was extremely tense. He'd felt like he was walking on egg shells with Tami over the contract, so he hadn't tried for sex since Christmas.

Most of their marriage, Tami had known better than to let him go more than three nights without releasing that stress valve. There'd been longer stretches - during her pregnancy and those torturous weeks after Julie was born - but usually, no matter how busy they were, he could at least count on a quickie by the fourth night.

There had been no quickie last night, and he was pretty sure there wouldn't be one tonight either.

He couldn't even release any stress by shouting on the practice field, since it was winter break, and football season was over anyway. So he called Dale and said, "I want to go shooting this evening. Take me shooting."

"Brother, I have plans with Cleo this evening. She's only here until January 2nd. And I have to work tomorrow. I need to spend time with her."

"Just a couple hours, Dale."

"You know she has to go back to Egypt and I won't see her for almost three months."

"One hour," Eric bargained.

"I love you, brother. I do. But I love her differently. And I need to store up nuts for the winter."

"I really need to blow off steam."

"Go for a jog."

There was a click on Dale's end. Eric hung up the phone and changed into his running clothes.