We went back out and Dad had Chuck help him cook brunch. I sat down on the couch and let Terri crawl up onto my lap and lay her head on my chest.
“How are you feeling?” I asked her.
“A little tender, but in a good way. Thank you for this morning.”
“Don’t be silly, I’m the one who should be thanking you. You’re an amazing woman,” I said, kissing the top of her head.
We chatted and flirted until Dad had brunch ready. After we ate, I spent some time with Dad. We talked about everyday stuff and just caught up. I was glad I’d made the trip. There were plenty of hugs and kisses when it was time to leave. I was pleasantly surprised to find I had been upgraded to business class. Not quite first class, but the seats were larger and I was comfortable. Poor Chuck was stuck in coach. The flight was full and he was in between a couple of ladies who were talking his ear off. Better him than me.
I GOT HOME TO FIND our house empty. There was a note saying that Greg, Angie and Kyle were having dinner at her mom’s house. I was excited to see that there might be reconciliation in the works. I knew this had been bugging Angie. I don’t know what I would do in her situation.
They left me a code for my apartment since I had a new door. It was a slick setup. You entered a code to unlock the door, no key needed. What was even cooler was that the door was self-closing, and when it closed it automatically locked.
I sent a text to Tami, and we were both on video chat in a flash.
“You just get back?” she asked me.
“Yep, Greg and Angie went to her mom and dad’s. I hope that’s good news.”
“Kyle will seal the deal. He’s too cute for them not to want him in their lives,” she said. “Did you hear they solved your stalker case?”
“Don’t tease me, tell me who it is,” I said, suddenly very serious.
“Tommy Cox.”
“I will kick his ass on Monday. No one threatens my family,” I hissed.
Tami’s eyebrows shot up. She rarely saw this side of me.
“I think you’re too late. Greg went over there Friday night and jerked him out of his house. I guess he kicked the shit out of him in the front yard. When the cops showed up, your security people explained the situation. Tommy’s mom and dad were shown the messages. When they saw that he’d threatened Kyle and Angie, his dad had to be restrained from helping Greg finish what he started.”
I had calmed down once I heard that Greg had taken care of it.
“Dang it, why do I miss all the fun?”
“Yeah, right,” Tami snorted. “Speaking of fun, I’ve been a bad girl.”
“I can’t imagine you being bad. Let me guess, you have someone else doing your dirty work.”
She gave me a look of mock horror. We both knew that it was normally me that was made to be her evil minion. Then she chuckled.
“I may have gotten Missy involved in your evil plans.”
“I knew it. What did you get her to do?”
“We mixed up some foul-smelling lotions and told everyone that it had your ‘essence’ in it. Girls have been begging for your boob cream. Missy is quite the saleswoman. She tells them that she plans on getting a direct injection when you come up.”
“Dang it! The next two weekends I’m in New York.”
“Don’t rush it. Come up the day after Valentine’s Day. You can take the bus and stay the night. I’ll make sure you have a good time.”
“As long as we get to spend time together, I’ll have a good time.”
We kidded around for a while and then suddenly the conversation got serious.
“I’ve noticed that you’ve changed. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what it is. So we’re going to play ‘Tell me a secret,’” Tami told me.
I hated this game. Tami normally already knew all my secrets. Every once in a while, she would make us play. We both agreed to tell a secret that the other one didn’t know. The sad part was that I invented the game; therefore, I had no room to complain.
When we were twelve, Tami was sad for a full month. I’d made up this game to find out what was wrong. I don’t remember what my secret was. Hers was that she finally met her dad. He and her mom had gone out in college. Right before graduation, her mom found herself pregnant. She never told Tami’s dad, because he’d made it clear that come graduation, they were done. He was going home to work at his dad’s firm and marry his high school sweetheart.
Tami finally convinced her mom to let her meet her father. He made it clear that he had his own life and family. She has two stepbrothers that, to this day, she’s never met. We played this game so that she could tell me her secret. It seemed to help her, sharing her pain with me. Thereafter, every time one of us felt the other was holding something back, they could ask to play.
“Since you started it, you have to go first,” I told her.
“Just so we’re clear, the rules say the other person cannot be mad when a secret is revealed.”
I nodded. This was our ritual. We always made it clear that this was a safe zone. Anything said was okay.
“Last summer Bert and I became more than friends. We actually dated all summer. That was why I acted goofy when you came back. I felt like I betrayed you.”
That was what I was missing. I suspected it, but she talked me out of thinking that was going on. Come to think of it, she lied to me. I had never even thought that was possible. I felt shaken to the core. The one person I trusted above all others. We told each other everything. She had lied to me!
She could see I wasn’t taking her news well.
“David, we promised that we wouldn’t get mad.”
“I’m not mad that you went out with Bert. I understand,” I said in a deadpan voice.
“You seem mad,” she observed.
“No. I guess I owe you one. I slept with my mom’s friend.”
She looked stunned. Before she could respond, I made some lame excuse and logged off. I just sat on my couch and stared off into space. My phone chirped. It was a text message from Tami: ‘Call me. I have to talk to you!’
I turned my phone off and plugged it into the charger.
It was still early, but I was tired. I headed to bed. Another big chunk had been taken out of the pedestal I kept Tami on. This one made me sad.
Monday January 20
I WOKE EARLY AND NEEDED to run. As I stepped outside, I found that the temperature had plummeted. It was good that Sandy Range had sent me their prototype thermal sweatpants and shirt. They’d made a few improvements on my ideas. The core was the same material as their thermal sweatshirts that I liked. They came with a removable outer layer that was rain- and wind-resistant. Range Sports sent me a set in their winter camouflage design. They clearly planned to introduce this in the hunting line first.
The snow had melted off over the weekend, so running wasn’t too bad. I could see a front rolling in from the west that promised a good snow later today.
I settled into a comfortable pace that soon had me in the zone. I wasn’t mad at Tami for dating Bert. I might have had a problem if I suspected that she slept with him. I could even understand her not wanting to tell me. Where I had the problem was the lying. Had I been such a terrible guy that she was afraid to tell me? Even if I got mad, how long did she think I would stay mad?
Then I went off on another track. Was my getting over issues quickly really in my best interest? The reason I could come to grips with something like this was that I tried to see the other side. It seemed like I was the one always making nice; I was always the one swallowing my pride. I was always the one to let everything slide and, in the end, I was the one who always got hurt.
Tom was a perfect example. He was instrumental in Tracy’s and my breakup. He even made some hurtful accusations. Had I confronted him about it and cleared the air? That would be a big no because the longer I let that eat at me, the longer I’d be resentful. I needed to change or I’d always be a doormat. I had to make sure I didn’t swing too far the other way, though. I didn’t want to become the guy who always had to get his way. What I wanted was to be the guy who at least got a fair hearing, the guy who was open and honest about how he felt.