Chapter Five
Eric's team won the state championship, and there was much rejoicing in the stands. The entire extended family went out to celebrate that night. Tami stayed with the Taylors for much of Eric's winter break. He continued to sneak into Tami's bedroom for late night lovemaking and to sneak out again before his father rose early for daily mass.
Tami went to a candlelight service with the family on Christmas Eve, but she was confused about when to stand and kneel. People kept crossing themselves in the strangest way. She stayed seated when the entire family - including all the cousins - went up for communion, and she felt like everyone in the church was looking at her, even though they probably weren't.
On Christmas morning, with Mrs. Taylor's permission, she made a long-distance call to wish her mother and Shelley a Merry Christmas. "I can't believe you're spending all of winter break with Eric," Shelley said, "or that Mom is letting you!"
"There's no letting anymore, Shell," Tami said. "I'm on my own." And she was, supported by her scholarship and her waitressing and no further contribution from her financially struggling mother.
"She's kind of upset you didn't come home for Christmas though."
"I was there for Thanksgiving. I'll be there for Easter."
"I'm kind of upset too," Shelley admitted. "I miss you, you know."
Tami was a little touched and resolved to write Shelley more letters.
The Taylors' tradition was to eat a late Christmas breakfast, which they trotted over to Uncle Andrew's house to attend. There was a lot of football watching after that, and also some throwing of a football in the living room, which Mr. Taylor remarked would not be tolerated in his own house. Presents were, to Tami's relief, not exchanged among the two families. It was not until they returned to the Taylor's house at eight in the evening that the nuclear family traded gifts.
Eric's parents gave him a rolled up piece of paper in a box inside a box. On the scroll was a note saying that the last three payments on his pick-up truck had been made for him as Christmas gift. Tami gave Eric the new Rolling Stones album, Steel Wheels, on CD, since she knew his family had just gotten a CD player earlier this year.
To his parents, she'd given books that were on a list of approved titles Eric had drawn up for her. "Such a thoughtful gift," Mrs. Taylor said, turning the book over in her hands. "I've been really wanting to read this Amy Tan novel. I've heard it's so good."
Mr. Taylor removed the wrapping paper on his gift carefully, folded it neatly, and then looked at the book. "Hmm," he said. "John Grisham. Never heard of him."
Tami's eyes flitted to Eric. He'd put A Time to Kill on the list of approved titles. "You'll like it, Dad," Eric said quickly. "It's a suspense thriller. Right up your alley. Tami picked good."
"She picked well," Mr. Taylor said.
"Thank you," Tami said, momentarily mistaking his grammar correction for a thank you.
Eric's gift to her was a gold chain, but there was nothing on it. She took it out of the box, a little puzzled, and looked at it against her hand. "It's lovely," she said. "I'm sure I can find something to use with it."
"It's for my state ring," Eric said. "When I finally get it."
Mr. Taylor raised an eyebrow as though he wasn't sure he approved of Eric offering Tami his state ring.
"I mean..." Eric muttered, "if you want to wear it." He looked at her a little sheepishly. "If you're not embarrassed because it's...you know...a high school thing. And you're in college and all."
She knew Eric was a little self-conscious about their age difference. When he told guys he had a college-age girlfriend, they wink-winked and nodded knowingly and gave him an atta-boy! smile. But the same thing didn't happen when Tami told her fellow college students that she had a boyfriend in high school. They looked at her like she was naive and just a little bit pathetic. High school relationships never survive the first year of college, her roommate Jenny had told her once. So I just broke up with my guy before I left. Otherwise, Tami, honey, you're just wasting time. You're going to miss out on the good ones, holding out for Eric. Tami had told her Eric was one of the good ones. The best.
"I'll be so very proud to wear it," Tami assured him. "Thank you, sugar."
Eric colored a little. She'd forgotten that he didn't want her calling him sugar in front of his parents.
"Of course she wouldn't be embarrassed, Eric," his mother assured him. "There are grown men who still wear their high school state championship rings." She glanced at her husband.
"Don't look at me," Mr. Taylor said. "This is an AFL Championship ring." He toyed with the ring, turning it slowly around his finger.
"I know, darling. I was just thinking of when you gave me your high school state championship ring." She smiled.
Mr. Taylor, to Tami's surprise, smiled back, a little mischievously, and with a twinkle in his eye. Tami was used to seeing Mr. Taylor looking stern or at least serious. She had never seen this sort of expression on his face before. He looked like a different man.
"Well," he said, still holding his wife's eyes, and still smiling lightly, "I suppose now that we've traded gifts we should be getting to bed. It's been a long day, hasn't it?"
[FNL]
After spending a full week with Eric, Tami missed him more than ever when she returned to MWU for her second semester. Her volleyball season was over, at least until spring training, so she didn't have that to distract her. Instead, she threw herself into studying and waitressing, and she tried not to be bothered that they could only afford a long-distance call twice a week. They took turns calling each other, but it was hard for either of them to spend 23 cents a minute when they both made less than $5 an hour.
So when the phone rang this evening, Tami leaped for it. It might be for her roommate, who was constantly getting calls from members of the neighboring UH baseball team, but she hoped it was Eric. She was a bit disappointed to hear Shelley on the other end of the line.
"Mom's going to be pissed you made a long-distance call, you know," Tami told her. Ms. Hayes called Tami once a week, for precisely five minutes. Anything more than that was not in the budget.
"She can deal. I need to talk to you. I have big news." Shelley said big in a breathy, dramatic way, and Tami found herself praying – please don't have done anything stupid. Shelley had just turned 14 and thought she was ever so mature. She was completely boy crazy, and their mom worked too much to be able to supervise her adequately. Ms. Hayes preached to her daughters about chastity and purity, but she didn't know what either of them was really up to.
"What?" Tami asked cautiously.
"Mom finally filed for divorce."
"Really? Why?" Their parents had been separated for nine years. Tami hadn't seen her father in three, when he'd shown up drunk to wish her a happy sweet 16. He'd given her a dozen carnations and embarrassed her in front of her friends by falling over on the cake.
"I don't know," Shelley admitted. "Maybe she's given up on him ever - " Shelley mocked their mother's voice " - getting right with the Lord. Or maybe she wants child support for me, you know, for the next four years, and this is how she can finally make him contribute something. Or maybe she wants to date again."
"Mom? Date?"
"Crazy, I know," Shelley said. "But I got up for a glass of water at midnight the other night and she was talking on the phone. She was laughing, Tami, and saying, Oh, don't! You don't mean it! like she did want whoever was on the other end of that line to mean it. And when she saw me, she said goodbye really fast."
"Who did she say she was talking to?"
"Someone from the Women's Bible Study."
"At midnight?" Tami asked.
"Suspicious, right? Anyway, just wanted to tell you she's done it, since I'm sure she's not going to tell you. She didn't tell me either. I just found the papers."
"How did you find them?"
"Looking through the desk drawers in her bedroom for clues about the mystery man on the phone."
"Shelley, you shouldn't rifle through Mom's drawers. And, who knows, maybe she really was talking to some woman from her Bible Study."
"Not the way she was laughing," Shelley insisted. "Not the way she hung up so fast."
"Well, tell me if you find out anything else." Shelley was right. Their mother certainly wasn't going to tell them. Ms. Hayes told her daughters how to live their lives. She didn't talk about her own life. Tami had always assumed that, other than work and church, she didn't have one.
They talked a little longer, Tami about her classes and then Shelley about her secret boyfriend, a 15-year-old on the high school wrestling team that she sometimes met outside the DQ when biking home from school. Tami warned her to be careful. "He's too old for you. And boys are only after one thing, you know."
"The thing you're always giving Eric?" Shelley asked.
"Eric and I have a real relationship, Shelley. I'm just saying…wait. Wait until you're at least 17 or 18."
"Did you?"
"Wait until you know the guy really well, until you love him, and you're sure he loves you."
"I'm not losing my virginity tomorrow, Tami! Geez. We've only kissed. You're so paranoid."
"I just want to make sure you know you don't have to rush into anything."
"I gotta go," Shelley said. "Mom's going to blow a gasket when she sees this bill."
[FNL]
Eric officially signed with the Houston Cougars at the end of January. Tami didn't think too much about whether or not it was the right choice for him. She just wanted him nearby next year. Already, she was counting the days until spring break, when they could finally see one another again. It was only the second week of February, and mid-March seemed a lifetime away.
Valentine's Day was the worst. It fell on a Friday night, and she had to wait on tender couples who held hands across tables and stared fondly into one another's eyes. She was getting off at eight today, and she'd promised Eric Valentine's Day phone sex when she got back to her dorm room. Fortunately, Jenny had a date and would probably be spending the night with a guy at UH, so Tami would have the phone and the room to herself.
Eric had promised Tami a present too, which he'd said would arrive today, but it hadn't. The mail always came by two, but there had been nothing in her box when she left for work at four. She tried not to let it bother her. It was the mailman's fault, not Eric's, she assured herself for the fourth time that evening as she came to the bar to pick up some drinks. She had just put her tray down next to a some guy, without really looking at him, and was leaning over to signal the bartender when she felt a hand slide into the back pocket of her slacks. And then the jerk actually squeezed her ass. What kind of establishment did he think this was? Tami whirled and smacked him across the face.
"Ow!" he yelled, and put a hand to his cheek.
"Eric!" she gasped. "Oh God! Sorry! I didn't know it was you."
The bartender strode over to investigate the scene. "Everything all right here, Tami?"
"Yeah, John, this is my boyfriend, Eric. He just surprised me."
Eric nodded to the bartender.
"I need two martinis," Tami told John. "One apple and one normal." The bartender nodded, eyed Eric curiously, and then went back to mixing drinks. "What are you doing here?" Tami asked Eric, and then she squealed, jumped, and threw her arms around him. Tami kissed his cheek where she'd smacked him.
"What do you mean, what am I doing here? I'm your Valentine's Day present, of course."
She squealed again, hugged him, and kissed him properly on the lips this time. "You drove seven hours to see me? But what about school?"
"I skipped my last three periods and drove real fast. I'm a senior now. I deserve a skip day. I don't think I'll get in much trouble. I got Jimmy to cover my paper route tomorrow morning. I've got to leave by tomorrow evening, though, to drive back. My dad will be pissed if I miss Sunday morning mass."
"I understand." She clapped her hands together excitedly.
The bartender returned, tapped her tray, and said, "Busy night, Tami, you know."
"I know," she told him. "I'm getting right back to work."
The bartender shook his head and wandered away to the other end of the bar.
"I don't get off for another hour," Tami told Eric.
"I know. I'll sit here an drink root beer and wait for you. I made better time than I expected. I already got us a motel room."
"A motel room?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, I know we can't stay in your dorm." MWU was very strict about the no opposite sex visitors after nine policy. Tami could get suspended for violating the rule.
"So you're expecting sex?" she asked. "Why?"
"Please tell me you're just joking."
She chuckled. He smiled.
"But can you afford that?" she asked. "All the gas money and a motel room, with just your paper route money?"
"I shoveled a lot of snow in January. No one expected that blizzard." It rarely snowed in Texas, and, when it did, it usually melted by the next day, but they'd had five inches in January, and it hadn't melted. "And I'll start mowing lawns again in late March." He nodded at the bartender, who was eyeing them with a hint of irritation. "You better get back to work."
Tami had a really hard time concentrating on her work. She kissed Eric every time she came to pick up a drink from the bar.
One customer asked her, "Is a kiss included in the price of the special?" when she came back with his drink. He nodded across several tables to where Eric sat at the bar.
Tami did not find his comment amusing. Neither did the man's date. But Tami smiled anyway. She wanted a good tip, because she fully intended to treat Eric to breakfast in the morning.
