[August 9]

Tami leaned over to Eric, "I can't believe he just said that."

They were trying a new church. The pastor had just said that women who worked outside the home were defying their God-given roles.

Eric took her hand and tugged. They were at the far right end of the pew, so it wasn't hard to sneak out and down the side aisle, but Tami still felt as if everyone was staring at them. They went to the church nursery.

"You talk," she said, too upset to want to explain why they were plucking their child halfway through the service.

"Of course," Eric said. "It's my God-given role."

Her eyes were angry arrows shooting at his, but he smirked. He told the nursery workers they'd had a family emergency and they needed to leave. Julie protested. She'd just begun her snack time. "You can bring the animal crackers with you," he told her.

As Eric drove them home, he asked, "So can we go back to the church with the spring football league now?"

Tami sighed. "Yes."

"They have good donuts too."

"Donuts!" Julie agreed from the backset. "Yum!"

Tami put down the sun visor. "Of course, I guess I'm not going to be violating my God-given role anyway, since I can't seem to find a job."

"I bet when we know more people, and you start asking around...someone will know something or know someone who knows someone...Once we get settled in that other church, I bet you'll find a job."

"The primary purpose of a church is not to provide networking opportunities, Eric."

"No. Some of them also provide adult football league opportunities."

"Donuts!" Julie chimed.

[August 14]

Eric threw himself into work in part, Tami thought, to distract himself from his disappointment over his mother. But he was also sincerely looking forward to his new role on the sidelines and the coming football season. Every day when he got home from summer training, he gave Tami a full-report. In the evenings, he drew up both plays and lesson plans for the coming year.

Tami meanwhile continued to receive rejections from her newest round of applications, along with notes that said they were looking for a counselor with more experience.

"How are you supposed to get experience if everyone wants someone who already has experience?" Tami complained to Eric one night over dinner.

"Volunteer?" Eric suggested.

"I'm not going to volunteer! I have over $8,000 in student loans! Would you volunteer for a job?"

"Well…uh…I'm getting $500 for this coaching gig, and I'll probably be putting in about 800 hours on coaching-related work this year, so…uh…"

Tami sighed. "I just want somebody to value me enough to pay me. I have a degree. I did an internship as part of that degree. I know what I'm doing! Sort of."

Eric smiled.

Tami laughed.

"You'll get a job, babe," he assured her. "You will."

[August 15]

On the Saturday when Tami went to buy a family sedan (she was tired of dropping Eric off at work and picking him up so she could have the truck), she took her father-in-law for moral support. She'd never bought a car at a used car dealership before. Her first and only car she'd bought from an ad in the paper. Eric was at a teacher in-service, but he had told her that he didn't care what she bought as long as she liked it and stayed within budget and the interest rate was under 6%. Karen had taken Julie off her hands for the shopping excursion.

"I hope this doesn't take all day," she told Mr. Taylor as she sat in the chair on the other side of the salesman's desk. She'd found a four-door she liked well enough, and it was almost within budget. She'd asked for a lower price. The salesman had gone to talk to his manager.

"This is a little game they play," Mr. Taylor said. "Back and forth to the manager, to make you feel like they're working on your behalf, so you settle for a higher price."

The salesman returned and sat back down at his desk. "Well, I talked to my manager, and I got him to drop the price just a little - "

"- Let's cut the crap," Mr. Taylor looked at the man's name tag "John, why don't we? This is the price she wants." He pushed the number Tami had written on a piece of paper over to the man. "Get it for her right now, or we walk out of here. We're busy people."

Tami tried not to laugh at this authoritative display.

"Uh...I'll see what I can do."

"No, don't see what you can do," Mr. Taylor said. "This is the last time you are walking over there to your manager. The last time. Because if you don't come back with the price we want, there are dealerships all over the DFW area."

"I'll see what I can do." He grabbed the paper and walked over to his manager. When he came back, he said. "I think we can give you that price. Now let's talk about the great financing options we have - "

"- She's paying cash," Mr. Taylor said.

"What?" Tami laughed. "No, we need to talk about financing options for sure. I don't - "

"- This is your birthday present, Tami," Mr. Taylor told her. "From me and Karen."

"My birthday isn't until late fall."

"Then don't expect anything on your actual birthday."

Eric wasn't going to like it, her taking yet more money from his father. "I can't accept that, Garrett."

"Can you get us some coffee?" Mr. Taylor asked the salesman, who promptly disappeared. He turned to Tami. "Why not?"

"It's time for us to start making it on our own."

"I appreciate your independence and diligence, Tami, and I appreciate Eric's drive to provide for his family, but you've got student loans. You've got an apartment that's going to be over $800 a month with utilities. You've got a child, and you've got one teacher's salary between you."

"I'll get a job. Even if I have to swallow my pride and go back to waitressing, I'll get a job."

"I'm sure you will. I'm sure you two can do all this. But you shouldn't have to bury yourself under a mountain of debt when you have family. This is what family is for. Helping each other out."

"I can't, Garrett. Eric will be...it'll…"

"Wound his pride?"

"Yes."

Mr. Taylor shook his head. "How about a loan? An interest-free loan then?"

"No."

"How about lunch? Can I take you to lunch after you sign a loan for this thing?"

"You can take me to lunch. And you can buy me a glass of wine along with it."

She drove her new car home and then got in Mr. Taylor's to go to lunch. He bought an entire bottle of wine for them to split, and when she was on her second glass, she told him, "Garrett, I can't thank you enough for getting Wendy's brother to give her his kidney. Eric has cut off contact now. I'm so glad to have that chapter closed."

Mr. Taylor lay down his fork on his plate of pasta. "Then perhaps you should have persuaded Eric never to open that chapter in the first place."

She pushed her wine glass aside. "I was trying to be supportive."

"One good way to support your husband is to not let him do stupid things in the first place."

"And if Karen told you not to do something you had it in your mind to do, how would you react?"

Mr. Taylor took a slow sip of his wine. When he set his glass down, he conceded, "Fair enough."

"I hope it didn't cost you too much."

He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. "You really want to know, don't you?"

"Yes."

"I agreed to hire his son. Boy lives with his girlfriend in Fort Worth. Dropped out of college last year. Then he couldn't find a job."

"Oh," Tami said. She'd hoped he'd written a check. That was a major ongoing obligation, and with a college drop-out? "I'm sorry. How long do you have to keep him on?"

Mr. Taylor shrugged. "I agreed to take him on for a trial year, but, as it turns out, he's not a bad worker. Not at all. He just doesn't have much work experience and he needs some training. I think he dropped out of college because he's not an intellectual sort. I bet his parents made him go even though he never wanted to. But he isn't dumb. Far from it. He learns quickly, and he follows instructions. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if, six months from now, he turned out to be one of my most productive employees. I guess virtue is its own reward." Tami was relieved to hear of this twist of good fortune. It made her feel less indebted to her father-in-law. "Frankly, I don't know why he didn't find a job sooner."

"Well," Tami said, "apparently it's hard to find a job without experience."

"Still no luck?"

She shook her head.

"If I needed a counselor on my staff...you'd be my first choice."

She chuckled. "Well I appreciate that."

He lifted the bottle of wine and raised an eyebrow.

"You should have the third," she told him. "I won't be able to drive if I do."

"I'm the one who drove here, Tami," he reminded her. "And Karen can bring Julie home to your apartment this evening."

Tami pushed her glass forward. "Well, if you insist."