Chapter 44

Coach Winslow had been in his office going over talent pools and potential recruits to fill holes on his team for the following season when he looked up to see it was 2:55 and he knew from the shuffle of feet outside his closed door that his team was ready to start their prep for their Bowl date in Florida. He would keep his strategy of not being opponent specific in these two weeks of work-outs and scrimmage, just work at staying sharp and improving where it was needed.

When he opened his door to go out and greet the team Barry Wicker was standing, waiting for him. Wicker was the Defensive backfield assistant to Frank Ruffen and left no doubt that he would love to be considered as Frank's replacement should he ever leave. Jared liked his eagerness to learn as well as help out.

"Hi Coach, I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one. We are one short of the full squad right now. Tee Smythe must be running late. I know he's in town, I saw him this morning at The Seattle." Wicker reported as he handed Jared the roster list.

"Thanks Barry, I'm sure Tee will be around. Let's get the rest of the staff and give him a few more minutes to be officially late. I'm not going to come down on a guy for these practices." Coach said as he led Barry to the Coaches room where assistants and staffs were laughing and talking about their Thanksgiving.

As Jared stood at the door, waiting for the group to gather clipboards and the like, a flustered Tee Smythe walked past him.

Coach looked up and smiled saying, "Oversleep?"

"Nah! The damn shuttle runs Holiday schedule until Wednesday when classes are back. I sort of forgot that. I jogged here." Tee said, embarrassed to be the last one in.

"Get changed quick, and we'll be out in 3 minutes. You can catch your breath then." Jared said as he patted Tee on the back and smiled.

"I'm a little surprised we have everyone. It means they're looking forward to this as much as we are. I know a lot of the teams I've had would have had players trying to blow off these types of practices. When they're excited like this, we've ALL done a good job." Jared said to the group of Coaches and staff with a nod, smile, and a wink.

"They's just rubbin the peach on their face and lovin' the feel and smell, but they all want to bite it and taste the sweetness." Frank Ruffin said with a big smile.

Frank loved to impart his down home wordy sayings when they applied and they all chuckled. Frank scrunched up his nose with a grin and a wink, knowing he hit a home run. Each player and coach on the team knew when Frank meant business and when he could step out of his position to inject a little reality and humor into a situation. It wasn't just the players under his defensive tutelage that respected Frank, it was everyone. Early on in the first practices when no one really knew where they might end up with the team he schooled them; "Don't burn no bridges you think you might not need, you might be cutting off the only way to the end of the maze. Sometimes you gotta go back to go forward and to be standin' and lookin' at the trophy across the gorge with no way to get to it is stupid. If you want to see your refection in THAT prize, you hafta be standin next to it."

Whether or not each player actually "got" his little sayings, they all knew the intention was to ease their nerves and remember to use common sense in their dealings. If they served that purpose Frank could wax poetic for hours as far as Jared was concerned.

The series of work-outs, scrimmages and practices that led up to "Bowl Week" preparations became just what Coach Winslow wanted them to be. Relaxed and stress free was the name of the game and all of the players were coming in loose and happy. Although they were all preparing for exams, their sessions with their teammates were easing the tensions and building the camaraderie even more. They all knew their job and came in and did it. It was no coincidence that they were having fun.

Oksana and Jack continued to build their relationship, as did Julie and Gerry. People who knew Gerry were amazed at the changes in him. Who knew that the "Charlie Harper" of the NEAT campus was really a lonely man inside a facade waiting for the right girl to steal his heart? As those two couples relationships grew, the arrangement of June and Marv had changed remarkably since the Thanksgiving break.

June saw her boyfriend Tucker each of the days she was home and stayed with him 2 of the 4 nights she was home. Her parents were not happy with the arrangement, but liked Tucker and the fact he was taking over his family business after his graduation. He was with her family when she flew in and went to the late lunch they had for her at The Cheesecake Factory near their home. She rode with Tucker from the restaurant to her home, but not before a quick side trip "to see the new processing facility" his father had added. In reality they stopped at his apartment where he stayed when supervising the pickers, when they were "in season". With but a flurry of sloppy necking she hiked up her skirt and pulled aside her panties and bent over a counter to get what she had been missing since late August. They would have 2 nights for sensual love making, but this is what she needed right away.

For all of the time spent at home she cherished every moment with Tucker and let him prattle on about the "we" and "us" of their future. While that all sounded so good, her affair with Marv ate at her at times. She wanted to feel tremendous guilt, but couldn't. This made her wonder where he heart really stood. She suggested to Tucker that he come to Vermont after his January graduation and spend time with her as a "vacation" where they could ski and be together around her classes. When he seemed cool to that, she asked if he was going to come for some weekends during the next 5 months she would be away and got another cool "maybe". On Saturday she pressed him on visiting and they ending fighting over it and, although she left on good terms, she spent her last night in her own bed at her parents. She would be home for Christmas to iron out these difficulties with Tucker, but for now she didn't feel the commitment she wanted to "reward" him for with her charms.

Marv Hudson, on the other hand, barely gave a thought to June once Samantha stepped off the bus she rode to Vermont for the last leg of her trip from Ohio State. They hugged and kissed at the station, necked in his car until she said they best be going, it was a long trip and she had to pee. They drove to her family home and the two of them spent the rest of the day before Thanksgiving with her family, talking eating, laughing, and celebrating her being home for the first time since mid-August.

As the day progressed Samantha began to look at Marv with the soft eyes he took to be her "love eyes" and suddenly the need to be alone with her began to affect him. He suggested they go out to meet with other friends home for the Holiday and she concurred, telling her Mom not to wait up, but she would be home at a decent hour to meet relatives who were arriving in the morning for the Thanksgiving Feast.

As soon as they were alone in the car Marv suggested they go to his dorm room to take care of their "miss you, miss me" blues.

"Oh, you want to love me in the same bed you satisfied your urges with your concubine?" She said snottily and unexpectedly.

"Uhh, we were never in MY bed Sam, I would always go to hers, and I thought we wouldn't discuss this once you got home." Marv said with the urgency of a man who wanted to get laid, badly.

"When you brought it up I was sure guilt would make you not go through with it, and if it didn't then, it would after you thought about it. I didn't think it would be a weekly thing, maybe just once to teach yourself how much you wanted ME!" She said getting more and more agitated and closer to tears.

"You said you would do the same thing and then wouldn't feel so bad about it!" Marv defended.

"I could NEVER look at any other man as a sexual tool without guilt. When I want you and you're not around ... I masturbate, just like all normal couples do. Did you really think I could go out and find a guy, suck his dick and then hold his head between my legs and not think I had betrayed you in the worst way?" Samantha said as she cried and turned away from Marv in the car, causing him to pull over.

"Sammie, I never, EVER, meant to hurt you. I had so much tension and pressure built up that I HAD to release and going behind your back was not an option." Marv said thinking he made a great case for himself.

"So cheating was OK, as long as I knew about it. I really thought you would come to your senses." She said as she broke out into hard bawling.

"You didn't protest too..." Marv started to say until Samantha bolted up straight and turned thrusting a finger to his chest.

"Did it ever occur to you, you prick with no conscience, that I loved you so much that I might do anything to make you happy, but giving you to another woman wouldn't be part of that? I thought once you got to the moment of truth you might think of me and stop. In fact, I was SURE of it. I stupidly sat in my dorm waiting for my phone to ring and hear you profess to me how you couldn't be with anyone else. I WAS A FUCKING IDIOT!" She said through tears and the drool that comes from trying to yell and cry at the same time.

"Then I have to admit something else, something to hurt you more, but I love you and have to be honest. It was going on before I talked to you about it. I only talked to you when it became more than hand jobs. Please understand, at the time the woman and I had nothing more than contempt for each other. We both just knew we needed the outlet. I was selfish, but I swear, no feelings were exchanged. It is now, as it was always, YOU." Marv swore while admitting more guilt.

"Sure, ME, while I'm sitting here in front of you. You go away to school and I'm not handy and it turns to "Poor Marv, he needs to get laid to cope." Well, FUCK YOU! You tell me right now that it's over or I'm through. I love you, but I hurt either way. I would just as soon move on than think of you with someone else, and don't give me that 'no feelings were exchanged' horse shit." She demanded while putting a finger to his chest.

Marv Hudson was taken aback by the ferocity of her demand and the passion she showed. It was at that moment that he realized the how and why of a love relationship. He shrunk back into the seat and put his head in his hands to hide his welling eyes.

"How could I have been so stupid to not know how much you were hurting? I feel so fucking stupid!" He said with a broken voice.

"Don't go for the 'Poor Marv" again. It's not going to work now. Bring me back home and if I decide I can forgive you, trust you, and look at you without being disgusted, I'll call you. I thought I could put it all aside, but I can't get over the fact you've made this relationship all about your dick. I thought it was about us." She demanded, sitting back up straight and looking out the window so as not look at him.

"But Samantha ... we have..." He started to say.

"Another word will just get you deeper and deeper. BRING ME HOME!" She shouted at the window, still averting her eyes.

Marv spent the next few days home in a heart-sick state realizing what he had done, what Samantha had meant to him. He stayed away from the campus and waited at home for the phone to ring. Just after getting home from Church on Sunday he got the call he had been waiting for.