Life with Tommy

The holiday season was fast approaching and with it came the all-important relationship checkpoints; would we spend the holidays together and where would we do it? It was a major achievement that Tommy was on speaking terms with his brother Brendan and could acknowledge his father’s existence, but sitting down to share a meal or holiday cheer was definitely out of the question. That left my family. Tommy and I had been together now for about 8 months and only my sister had met him. She came down from New York with her long term boyfriend when we had just been dating a couple weeks and I introduced him as ‘my friend’. She seemed to like him and when we hugged goodbye as she was getting in a cab to go to the airport, she said to me “I can tell you’re crazy about him. I hope it works out”.

My family knew that I had a serious boyfriend and had seen pictures of him, but I tended to keep my personal life pretty close to the vest, so they didn’t know that much. I had certainly forgotten to mention the drunken father, going AWOL, and fighting his brother at Sparta storylines. I just stuck with MMA fighter and trainer. I’m pretty sure my brother had seen the YouTube video, but to his credit, he kept it to himself. It wasn’t like I was ashamed of Tommy or my family. It was more like I didn’t want to rub everything in his face. My family is extremely loving and supportive and involved in each other’s lives. Tommy has never had any of that and I was worried that spending time with my family would just remind him of what he didn’t have with Brendan and Patty. But the time had come to broach the subject.

Somewhere around the first week of November I asked as we were cleaning up the dinner dishes, “Um, have you thought at all about your Christmas plans?”

“You mean like what I’m going to get you for Christmas?”

“No. I meant where you’re going to celebrate it?” I took a big leap and went for it. “Because I want to go to LA to see my family and I was hoping you’d come with me.” I kind of rushed the last part out, hoping he wouldn’t pick up on my nervousness. He didn’t respond right away, so I took that as my cue to just keep talking. “Our winter break starts on December 21, so I was thinking of heading out the 22nd and staying a week. We’d be back here for New Year’s.”

“How much are the tickets?” he asked.

“Umm. I don’t know. I haven’t looked at any yet. I figured I’d talk to you first and see if it was something you wanted to do.” I kind of avoided discussing money with Tommy since I mentioned that he could move in with me to save rent money the week before. That had led to a long discussion (more like a monologue by Tommy) about how he can pay his own way and that his crappy apartment was good enough for him. OK maybe I added the crappy part.

“That would probably work. I have that Thanksgiving tournament in Baltimore but then nothing after that. Let’s do it.”

After last week’s debacle, I couldn’t believe how easy he came to his decision. Immediately I felt guilty for all of the back up plans I had made to try and convince him to go with me. He wanted to spend the holidays with me and didn’t need any convincing or meddling on my part to make it happen.

“I know I haven’t asked you or nothing since its during Thanksgiving and all, but do you want to come to Baltimore with me?”

A part of me was apprehensive about watching my boyfriend pummel another man into submission, or worse, watch him submit to some monster. But the 13 year old girl inside me was jumping up and down that my boyfriend wanted me with him at such an important moment.

“I’d love to go Tommy” responded the 13 year old. I think I actually batted my eyelashes for a second before my rational brain took control again.

“One thing we have to be clear on though” he said in serious tone. I steeled myself for the worst. “No sex.”

“What? When? Now?” Suddenly I’d gone from a 13 year old girl to a 13 year old boy with nothing but sex on the brain who was incapable of forming a complete sentence.

“For two weeks before the tournament. It’s Frank’s idea. At first I thought it was a load of bullshit, but I’ve talked to a lot of other guys and they all agree that it helps you keep your edge.”
I did the math quickly in my head. If we had to abstain for two weeks before the tournament that meant…

“I see what you’re thinking. We’ve only got one week left. We better get to work.” It was like he had read my dirty little mind. And before I knew it, he had pressed me up against the kitchen counter and was kissing me in way that was going to lead straight to my bedroom, if we made it that far.

Two hours later, I found myself lying in my bed with Tommy wrapped around me. His head was resting on my stomach and I could feel a little tickle of air each time he exhaled. And for one of the rare moments in my day, I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I just focused on listening to Tommy’s breath and trying to match it with my own. My fingers lightly stroked his hair which was the only movement my body had the energy left to support. Soon I drifted off to sleep sending up a silent thank you for allowing me to experience such happiness.