I heard my dad mumble that he needed a scotch, which sounded like a good idea.
“Actually, we didn’t get lunch. We’ve been here since eight a.m., and it’s now two. Do you think they can get us some food?” Mom asked.
“I didn’t realize. Let me see what we can do. Of course, since this isn’t an official visit, we can’t really feed you. You would need to pay for it,” Coach told us, and then he caught my mom’s look. “Never mind, let me get some sandwiches brought in.”
While he was ordering food, I made an appeal to my mom.
“Can we just go?” I asked.
“Not until I talk to him,” Mom said.
I looked to Dad for help. He gave me a one-armed ‘hang in there’ hug. Crud.
“Tell us why David should come to Oregon to play football?” Mom asked.
Coach Faber went into his standard recruiting spiel. He continued until the food came. I was starved, so I grabbed the pastrami. Mom and Dad split a lobster roll. Between bites, Mom interrupted Coach Faber.
“How do you see David fitting in at Oregon?” Mom asked.
He started telling us how Oregon had a quarterback-friendly offense. Mom stopped him.
“Can I ask you a question? Do you even know who Dave is?” she asked.
“I was told you just competed at the Elite 11 camp this week. I’m afraid I don’t have many more details. We had a mix-up, and I want to apologize.”
“I can understand a mistake. If Dave was Dave Watkins or Wilson, would you be talking to him right now?”
“Probably not. I’m ...”
“Before we continue, go look up my son so we can have an intelligent conversation,” Mom said.
He left the room to get more info.
“Mom, please. Let’s just go. I’ve seen enough,” I said.
“David, I promise not to embarrass you. I just want to make a point, and then we can go.”
I knew it wasn’t worth fighting. I went back to the sandwich tray and found a Rueben. I cut it in half. I didn’t want to ruin my dinner.
About twenty minutes later, Coach Faber came back with five other coaches.
“First of all, I’d like to apologize on behalf of Oregon football for the mix-up. If possible, I would like to go back and start over. Today has been a bad day, and you made it better by walking in our door. It’s not every day the top quarterback prospect in the nation shows up to make a visit. I would like to think we would do better than we did. Obviously, we need to fix a few things.
“Mrs. Dawson, it shouldn’t matter if David was David Wilson or Johnson. He, you, and your husband made the trip and were deserving of my time. I would consider it a favor if you’d give us a second chance and an opportunity to get to know you and your son.”
Coach Faber made the right choice talking directly to my mom.
“David, you and your dad go talk to these men. Coach Faber and I need some time together,” Mom said.
Dad and I and the rest of the coaching staff left the room. They took us on a real tour of the athletic department. I tried hard not to let how poorly they had treated me cloud my opinion of the university. I think it was an honest mistake which was handled badly; shit happens.
WE WERE SUMMONED BACK to Coach Faber’s office. When we went back in, Mom was laughing at something Coach Faber said. I took that as a good sign. The coach went up in my estimation if he could win my mom over after today.
“David, Mr. Dawson, please join us. How was your tour?” he asked.
“Very nice,” Dad said.
“I was just telling your mother how much we would love to have you here at Oregon. We’d like to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak, and offer you a scholarship to come play football for us. I know it’s early in your recruiting and we don’t know each other very well, but I would like to open the door to a dialog. What do you think?”
“I would like that, sir,” I said.
“Excellent.”
We left shortly after that and headed to the airport. I was looking forward to getting back to normal, and home.
I had one more football camp and then I was done for the summer.
Chapter 14 – Woman Troubles
Sunday July 12
It was good to be home and to sleep in my own bed. I was sick of dorm and hotel beds. I just seem to sleep better at home. I was also happy to see Duke. You’d have thought I’d been gone for years by the way he acted when I got home. I would have to have a talk with Brit and Precious about what they had done to my poor boy.
As I walked down the stairs to go run, I went through a mental checklist of what I needed to do before I left for my last football camp. I wanted to get the oil changed in both the Charger and the Jeep. I would ask Tami to drive one of the cars to Sullivan’s. I’d have them detail the vehicles while they had them.
I saw the grass was out of control in the yard. Wolf could call my mom or dad to see if there were any other yard jobs that needed to be done. My apartment had to be cleaned and the laundry was piled up. I needed a housekeeper. Hang on, that wasn’t such a bad idea. But if I hired someone, Mom would want them to work on her house, too. She would never allow me to get one just for me.
After I stretched, I put Duke on his leash and began my run. Duke was turning into a good running partner. I mentally kicked myself because I’d forgotten to call Tim and let him know I was back. I’d made a commitment to run with him. Well, it was too late now. I was glad, in a way, because I wanted to think. Specifically, I had to think about Tami.
Our relationship was too much of a roller coaster for me. In the last year we had gone from best friends who planned to someday marry; to being so mad at each other we took a nine-month break; to ‘should we be friends?’; to jumping into bed; to me loving her again; to, I don’t know what! I needed a scorecard to keep it all straight. I knew if I asked my uncle, he would make some smart comment about us being teenagers. Sometimes I wished I was as old and decrepit as he was.
The whole ‘let’s be friends until we get out of college and then get married’ sounded too much like ‘I’ll hang on to you until I find someone better.’ There was too much that just didn’t add up. Tami sometimes thinks I don’t listen or pay attention; I do. What didn’t add up was our sex the last time we were together. The way she used her internal muscles to massage my member had to be taught to her by someone who had more experience than she was letting on.
The problem was I couldn’t prove it. Tami would become a doctor, after all. She knew about the human body, and how it worked. Tami was also very smart. It was possible she learned it herself. But how would she know it would make me feel so good if she hadn’t been doing it to others? She had to have had a lover who taught it to her; and, from everything I heard about Simon, I didn’t think he was the kind of person to teach her. I got the impression he would just be worried about himself. Then again, who knew? Gawd!
If Simon hadn’t taught her, who had? Tami broke up with me almost a year ago, which had laid the groundwork for me to be more jaded. Some other events had contributed to my being that way. When Devin had broken his trust with me with Nancy, it had been a big first step. Then Peggy went off with Mitch and promptly got herself pregnant, after holding me off for the whole time we dated. Finally, there was Harper and her old flame. I simply wasn’t ready to accept things at face value anymore. Something in the back of my mind told me that more had happened in the UK than I knew.
I honestly didn’t know if I wanted to know. What I did know was I needed to figure out what I felt for Tami. I wouldn’t be held hostage for years to come with the possibility that maybe, someday, we would get together. The way she acted the other night with the receivers told me she wasn’t planning on being celibate over the next few years. I needed to wrap my head around the possibility we were through as a romantic couple.