“I don’t know why I put up with you. I have friends who are nice to me,” I complained.
“You’re such a baby sometimes. Admit it, if you could have pulled that on me, you would’ve done it in a heartbeat.”
Tami was right. It was a pretty good prank.
“You’re not going to bring me down. So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked.
“I talked to Tim and Wolf, and they don’t want to hold you back if you really want to go to Ohio State.”
This time I really was in shock. When we played the ‘secret’ game, it was supposed to be confidential.
“I knew you would never talk to them, so I did you a favor,” Tami said helpfully.
Oh! My! God! Tami Glade had gotten me twice.
“You are so dead to me,” I threatened to her peals of laughter. “Why do I even bother having a serious conversation with you?”
“Because you love me.”
“I’m starting to rethink that.”
“Do you really want to go to Ohio State?”
“Kind of,” I admitted. “I have to admit that Alabama was great, too.”
“Tim did say that he wished they’d offered all of you. He told me you worried they wouldn’t use your full talent if you went there.”
“Their coach said he would, but I have my doubts. Most likely, I would spend the majority of my time handing the ball off and making safe passes. I can’t blame them, though. They have crazy-good talent. Their ideal quarterback is like an old-school point guard who distributes the ball. They aren’t looking for someone to create on their own and score,” I explained.
“If you had to pick right now, who would it be?”
“It would come down to Oklahoma, USC, and Michigan. Ask me next week, and I’m sure it’ll change.”
“You do realize Oklahoma isn’t in the same league as the other two, academically.”
“I’ll admit I forgot about that. It’s too easy to get caught up in football. Thank you for reminding me; I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
“Tell me about Babygate.”
I caught her up with everything. Of course, I was sure my mom had filled her in, but Tami wanted to hear it from me. I’d noticed that lately, she would listen but not offer her advice. So, when I finished, I asked her about it.
“I’m sure you’ve thought it out, and if you needed my advice, you’d ask for it.”
“Are you teasing me?” I asked.
“No, I’m serious. I talked to my mom about it. She pointed out that you’d started to grow up, and if I ever wanted you to be the kind of man I wanted, I had to let you become that. That doesn’t mean I don’t keep tabs; I do. I realize you’re not going off and doing things just to do them. For the important decisions, you bounce them off people you trust. In the end, you still decide on your own, which is what I’ve always wanted for you, even if I didn’t always show it,” Tami shared.
Tami and I had drifted apart over the last couple of years. I had a list of grievances that led me to question where we were even as friends. Those included her and Tim trashing my apartment, and her being upset when I went to Brook for advice instead of her. Her comment about me finally growing up brought up some of the same issues that had caused me to pull back.
I had to ask myself, what did I really want from Tami? Over the past couple of years, I’d allowed her to get away with a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t put up with from anyone else. I realize that from the outside, it probably looked like I was a complete idiot. I’m sure that if I had seen how things had gone for the two of us in another set of friends, I would’ve advised the guy to walk. The logical side of me said I should cut my losses and move on.
The problem was that Tami was more than just a childhood friend. Of all my friends, only Tracy could drive me as crazy as Tami could. The reason those two could get under my skin so much was that I cared. Tami and I had a history. When I was growing up, I was closer to her than anyone else, and that included my family. That was why I’d almost lost my mind when she told me about her and other guys. As hard as it was to admit, even I realized that wasn’t healthy on my part. That was why it was such a big deal that I finally had gotten to a place where I could think of her with Tim and not worry about it.
As much as I cared for Tracy, she and I would never ever get back together. Did I want the same with Tami?
I expect this contemplation had come from my uncertainty earlier this week when Brook wasn’t sure about our relationship. The thought of losing her made me face some hard truths. I might not be with Brook for the long haul. I knew for a fact that we would most likely not go to the same college. She was considering schools like the University of Chicago, and Penn and the other Ivy League schools, none of which had a football program worth a damn. We both recognized that once high school was done, we would part ways.
Almost losing Brook made me realize that I couldn’t take Tami for granted. With that in mind, I asked her a question I never imagined I would, at least not now.
“You ready for us to go out?”
Tami took a moment to answer. I expect she was doing the relationship calculus like I’d just done.
