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Lovers by the Lake Part Nine

More than a Romance

By Bruce J. SpohnPublished 2 years ago 12 min read
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Part Nine

Chapter Nine

First thing in the morning, Paul managed to rekindle the fire and get a kettle of water heating before Amy awoke. He greeted the new day in high spirits. He was happy about how the conversation went yesterday. His dreams were filled with topics he wanted to share with Amy. He was caught off guard when Amy interrupted his train of thought.

“Good morning. I see you managed to get the water without waking the dead today,” Amy teased before planting a kiss on the back of his neck.

“Oh, you’re awake. Yes, I got the water on and collected more wood. Everything’s ready for you,” Paul replied.

“Thank you! While I start making some breakfast, you can get started telling me more about your life,” Amy said while putting the big cast-iron skillet on the fire.

“OK, let me see; where did I leave off. Oh, yeah, I had just found out my football future was over before it began,” Paul reminisced.

I was still suffering a lot of pain, mostly in my hip, resulting in a pronounced limp when I walked. The doctors assured me in time, and with proper therapy, the limp would go away. The real pain was in the knowledge I would never play professional football. All my dreams were shattered, more so than my bones. Now I had to go out into the real world and find a job.

Thanks to the endless hours of tutoring from Tammy, I managed to squeak by with the lowest possible GPA and hobble across the stage for graduation. My football injury caused me to struggle to walk, even with a pronounced limp, but I made it across the stage without stumbling.

I felt lost in space as I reached out to accept the scroll from the dean. Somehow, the room was suddenly silent, and the lights seemed a bit too bright. The very passage of time was distorted to make things appear to move in slow motion. I looked out at the assembled masses of the audience and was sure I could pick out my parents cheering. I moved in this time warp until I managed to find my seat. Once again, reality snapped back to the present.

As promised, Tammy helped with résumés and contacted many of her family’s friends to help me find a job. After all the effort Tammy made to help, I was shocked when she finally told me there was no future for me in her life. Rejection! It was the second time I faced rejection from a woman I really cared for. I had just assumed Tammy would always be there for me.

She explained why, and it sounded like an instant replay of Sue’s speech. I never spent any time talking to her about anything not pertaining to football. I never asked her if there was something she wanted to do. I never thought about the possibility that she might like to go to romantic movies, visit museums, or attend a concert. I wasn’t interested in those things, so they were never subjects I would bring up. I didn’t like going to the theater or the art museums, so I just assumed she did not like them.

It was almost exactly what Sue said to me when she tried to explain why I was not the man she was looking for. I never really took what she said seriously—until now. Now, I heard the same words again. Tammy calmly explained how I only thought about myself. She did make a point of letting me know that in many ways, she was just using me to get into events that only the football team and their dates could attend. For a second time, I was forced to see how my narrow-minded outlook prevented me from seeing the other person’s point of view.

True to her word, Tammy worked her network of business contacts and lined up a series of job interviews. I went to each interview and projected my best image, as I was coached to do by Tammy. She taught me about how to dress and act for interviews. This was all too new for me. I felt lost and cast adrift in a world I did not know. I no longer had the macho football image to carry me. Each interview was difficult. I knew I was not really the best person for the job, but I had to try to project an image of confidence.

After three weeks, going to one interview after the other, I started to feel depressed. This was really the first time in my life I felt the fear of failure. Tammy was no longer there to support me.

Tammy found a man who had a secure financial future. She was dating a guy who was working on his MBA and had already started working as in intern at one of the biggest companies in Austin. She was working on her MBA also and would soon start as a budget specialist in the company where her boyfriend worked. Her future was looking good, and mine was heading for the cliff.

If I had done more reading and paid more attention in English Lit class, I might have seen the irony of the situation. I put my faith in football and thought school was just the training ground for pro athletes. I used to taunt the guys who spent their time in study hall or the library. I did not see any real need to study math or science. You don’t need math or science to carry a football.

I always thought reading books was for girls—or men who were a bit less than men. Now I was floundering in an ocean where brains pulled more weight than muscles. I found my locker-room philosophy was not able to compete with modern theories of business planning, economics, or fiscal management. If I’d paid attention in class, I might have thought I was the victim of “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” but I never read Shakespeare. I lacked the foundations of literature to comprehend the irony of my situation.

“Paul, you really did go through a big change, but you can’t blame Tammy. It looks like you really owe her a lot. If she had not been there, doing your schoolwork, things could have been worse,” Amy interjected as she passed Paul a plate filled with fried eggs and hash browns.

Paul paused to take a deep breath and eat a few bites of the hot food on his plate. “Yeah, Amy, it seems like I didn’t learn my lesson the first time with Sue. This time, it didn’t hurt as much, but I think it made a deeper impact. I must admit, I was really lucky to have Tammy. She helped me through the worst time of my life,” Paul reflected.

After interviews too numerous to count, I fought to avoid depression. I started ending each day of job searching at a local sports bar. I found there were a lot of people who still remembered I played for the Horns. As usual, there were a lot of young women out for a night of whatever fate would bring. My injury had no adverse effect on my ability to attract women. The evenings spent in the bar relaxed my stress, and I could forget about not finding a job.

One thing weighing on me was the fact I was running out of money. I still had some money from the insurance claim, but it was running out fast. I knew I spent too much at the bar. I tried to justify the nightly bar stops as “networking” to find a job. I knew I only had enough money to pay the rent for two more months and still be able to bar hop. By the end of the month, I had to get some kind of job just for some income.

I still had contact with some of the younger players from the team. Some of them invited me to the home games. I could sit up in the VIP lounge and rub elbows with some of the wealthy alumni. I loved to attend the games because I still loved the sport. It did give me access to some important people. Going to the games did make me feel uneasy, though. I still loved football, but sitting up in the VIP lounge made me feel strange, like a fish out of water. I really wanted to be down on the field.

It was a bit of a shock when I ran into Tammy at one of the games. During halftime, Tammy came over to greet me. She was gracious enough to introduce me to her boyfriend, Mike. While we talked about how the game was going, Mary, one of Tammy’s longtime friends, joined the conversation.

Mike suggested I should join them at the table while he got some more beer. He knew I was one of the big-time running backs for the Horns last season and was eager to hear what I had to say about the game from the standpoint of a player. Tammy endorsed the idea and indicated I should sit next to Mary. I was deep into a discussion of how UT needed to start using their running backs more on third down and short when Mike dropped four six-packs on the table.

“That should last thru the third quarter,” Mike proclaimed as he slid up next to Tammy. “Hey Paul, I remember the last game you played. You had some great moves. The last touchdown was one for the record books. No one could believe you made it over the line. It looked like the entire opposing team was on top of you,” he continued.

I averted my eyes and just shook my head, grinning a wide, hometown Texas grin, and said, “It sure is good you remember it, because I can’t. Last thing I can recall is the sloppy hand-off and then someone turning off all the lights.”

Marry sat next to me. I did not know what to do when she touched my hand in a jester of sympathy. “Tammy told me all about how you were injured, and how long you were in the hospital,” she said. “My daddy was a big fan of yours. He said he was sure you were going to be playing for the Cowboys. He goes to all the games. He always said great things about you,” she purred in her heavy south Texas accent. “You need to come up to our box and meet Daddy. I just know he would be honored to shake the hand of the man who made the touchdown defeating OU,” she continued.

Before I could reply, Tammy kicked my shin under the table. She gave me a stern look as if to say, “Better get going, and don’t pass this opportunity up.” Tammy then turned to Mary with a sweet smile and said, “Oh, what a perfect idea!”

Mary took my arm and, with her free hand, hooked a six-pack, and we headed toward the VIP Box her daddy owned.

The private box was full of elderly gentlemen wearing expensive suits and even more expensive boots. Each wore a Stetson and had a big Cuban cigar producing a thick blue haze in the room. There was a big bar attended to by two black men wearing white dinner jackets.

Overwhelmed, I just stood there, trying to take in the scene. I never met these men before, but I knew all of them from the news. They were the real power in Texas. They did not hold elected office, but they made things happen.

“Oh, Daddy, come here. I have someone you really want to meet. You know you always talked about that football player, the one who got injured during the OU game?” Mary said to a tall, distinguished-looking man standing near the bar, holding a large glass of Scotch and blanch water.

Mary’s father gave me a quick visual appraisal before he motioned for me to join him at the bar. “You were number forty-eight; you are…you are Paul…”

“Granger,” I prompted as the man settled onto one of the bar stools.

“Yes, I remember, Paul Granger, number forty-eight. You were the best running back I ever seen play for UT. The last touchdown was one for the record books, for sure. No one in the stands realized how seriously you were injured until the news reports later that night,” the senior gentleman continued. “I’m really happy Mary thought to bring you up here. Glad to see you are up and around again. I heard you never got picked up by a pro team. You would have been great playing for the Cowboys. So tell me, what are you doing now?”

I smiled a broad Texas grin, took a long drink from my beer, and turned to look Mary’s father straight in the eye. “Well, thank you, sir. I did not know so many people knew my name. I just thought I was number forty-eight. Believe me, you were not as shocked about how bad the injuries were as I was when I woke up in the hospital. It made me make a lot of changes to my outlook and what I want for my future. Right now I am looking for a job. My daddy always taught me to never give up, and to always give one hundred percent at whatever I do. I’m sure I can handle any job and be a real asset to anyone who gives me a chance,” I explained in my thickest small-Texas-town drawl.

Mary’s father sat back and looked me over again while he swirled the ice around in his drink. I could almost see him making calculations; his eyes squinted for a second before he crushed out the cigar he was smoking.

“You take this card, and report to the personnel office Monday morning. I am sure we got a place in our PR office you might like.” Mary’s dad said as he tucked the card into my pocket. “Nothing better to have on a team than a football hero. Now come on over here, have a seat, and tell me what the coach is doing wrong.”

“OK, Amy time for me to take a break. I’ll help you clean things up while you let me know more about you and Mark,” Paul said, standing up slowly, trying to relieve the kinks in his back.

“Oh, my, another woman in your life! Do you think Tammy arranged this ‘coincidence’? I think you really owe a debt of gratitude to Tammy,” Amy exclaimed.

They both busied themselves cleaning up. Paul could not resist grabbing Amy around the waist, pulling her up close, and kissing her with deep passion.

“Well, when you use arguments like that, I think I have no choice. I guess I will have to continue my story,” Amy said.

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