They didn't turn on the radio right away when they got home, but when they finally did, the final score was Tigers 13, Pirates 7, and the announcers were chattering about Mo McArnold's unexpectedly spectacular performance in the second half of the game.

Now, the defense carried this game for the Tigers, Jimmy, so let's not fail to credit them. The Pirates are known for their stellar offense, and the Tigers got in a lot of great stops today. But without Morris McArnold, the Tigers would never have gotten past that initial seven point deficiency. God knows Taylor wasn't throwing any touchdown passes during the first half of the game. Coach Tanner had a powerful second string in McArnold, and one wonders now why he didn't play him more often throughout the season.

Tami hated that she could be in such misery, while her cheating boyfriend was being lauded.

Taylor saw nothing but the bench for the entire last half of that game, the announcer was saying. And rightly so. Lucky for the Tigers, McArnold picked up his slack. I bet Morris McArnold's parents are proud of him today!

And his girlfriend, Jimmy, assuming he has one.

Well, if he doesn't, he's going to have plenty after this game!

Tami switched off the radio, twirling the knob violently enough that it broke off in her hand.

[*]

Mo called that night form the hotel, after the game, but Tami's father answered the living room phone. He was sitting in the arm chair, as rigid as the wooden floor boards beneath his feet, as he told Mo, "Let me see if she's available." He mouthed Mo, and Tami, who was curled in a blanket on the couch, half watching mindless television, shook her head.

"Tami has been very ill, Mo," her father said, "and she's resting. May I take a message?"

[*]

Tami thought a great deal that night about how she was going to break up with Mo. She had a hundred scenarios in her mind, each more dramatic than the last, and yet none was dramatic enough to satisfy.

After all of her many break-up fantasies, she decided she would simply end the relationship over the phone with a forced calmness.

"I'm going to be the better person," she told Kimberley, who called her Saturday morning to check after her health and finally learned the real reason Tami had missed State. "I'm not going to let him see me break down. If he wants Anita, then he can have her, but I'm not going to go all crazy on him so that he congratulates himself when I walk away."

"Are you going to do it in person?"

"No. I'll probably end up strangling him if I do," she said.

"Tami, I am so sorry. So very sorry."

"Don't tell Jack any of this, if you talk to him before I talk to Mo."

"I won't."

"I guess Eric hasn't told him anything yet," Tami said, "or Jack would have told you."

"Eric knows?"

"He was the first person I saw after I found out. That's why he was hugging me. I was a mess."

"Well, Eric's as silent as the grave," Kimberley told her. "You don't have to worry about him."

That was true, Tami thought, and that was her one relief when she considered that she had told him about Boone.

[*]

Mo called Tami about an hour after the team bus got home from Abilene on Saturday afternoon. When she answered the kitchen wall phone, he launched right in: "You feeling better? You ready to party tonight, gorgeous? Did you listen to the game? Did you hear how well I did? I was on fire out there, baby! Fire!"

"I listened," Tami said. She breathed in and out once, slowly, through her nostrils, in an effort to calm the rage that was welling up within.

"Well, what did you think?"

"I think you probably already celebrated by screwing Anita Nisbeth, you two-timing, ungrateful, useless piece of shit."

That was not how she had originally planned the conversation to go.

At first Mo pretended to be shocked by the accusation, which he called "totally unfounded. Crazy. Ridiculous. Why would I want Anita when I have you?"

"I wondered the same thing." Then she told him what she'd seen.

"That could have been anyone. You can't see the second flight from there. You just saw some guy in uniform pants. Hell, it was probably Taylor. And you told me yourself that Anita offered him the best blow job of his life."

"It wasn't Eric. I saw Eric on the practice field. And I recognized your voice, Mo. I know that groan. Do you know how many times I've heard that in your bed, giving myself to you, while all the while, you were getting it on the side!"

When continuing to deny it clearly wasn't going to work, Mo switched tracks and began to grovel, claiming Anita came onto him so hard, and he tried, really tried, to push her off, but in a moment of weakness…."It was just the one time. Just the one time, baby. I swear it will never, ever happen again. I love you, Tami. I don't want to lose you. Please forgive me."

"I know it didn't happen just the one time," she said. "I heard what you said. I'm sure you've been sleeping with her for a while. But even if it had just happened the one time, that would be enough!"

He groveled some more, and when it was clear that wasn't going to work, his repentance morphed to accusation. "Don't think I don't know about you and Eric Taylor. Don't think I don't know you've practically been dating him behind my back!"

"What are you talking about, Mo? Dating him?"

"I know Eric's been calling you up behind my back, following you around like a love-struck puppy. Tony saw y'all. He saw y'all walking along Main Street at night, holding hands. And then he saw y'all hugging in the parking lot!"

"We were not holding hands. And he was hugging me because I was wailing because I just saw you in the stairwell with Anita!"

"Aha! So you admit it!" Mo said in his gotcha voice. "You guys have been seeing each other!"

"Eric's walked me home from the coffee shop in the evening a few times. We've talked. That's it."

"Okay, so we've both done some things we regret. It was a mistake. I'm sorry. You're sorry. Let's put it behind us."

"Eric was just talking to me, Mo. Anita was doing something very different with her mouth. Do you really fail to see the distinction?"

"Tami, baby, come on, give me a second chance. I'll make it up to you, I swear. You're my queen. Let me – "

"- Fuck you, Mo! And fuck the horse you rode in on! Don't ever call me again!" Tami slammed down the phone. It rattled in the cradle against the wall.

When she turned, she discovered her mother standing in the kitchen, a look of complete shock across her face. Mrs. Hayes blinked twice, and then swallowed. She took in a breath, and exhaled it. "Tami," she said, and Tami braced herself for a lecture on language, on how good Christian girls did not swear, not ever, and especially not with the f word.

"Tami," her mother repeated, "You can do a thousand times better than Mo McArnold. Fuck him. And fuck the horse he rode in on."