“Since you suggested it, feel free to start us off. You should know that when I win you aren’t going to take off those shoes when we go to bed tonight,” I said, giving her a little leer.
“If you win, I’ll do anything you want. Those are the rules after all.” She took another tiny sip of wine while looking at me over the rim of her glass, then said “Who was Ben Grimm’s first fiancée?”
That stopped me cold. That was a hard one.
“Uh… I don’t… wait, Alice something?”
“Alice Masters was his wife. Debbie McIlvane was his first fiancée, but she left him after he became The Thing. Your turn.”
I suppressed a frown and thought.
“Um… what’s the name of Wonder Woman’s mother?”
“Hippolyta,” Jill said with a grin, “One-nothing. You’ll need to work harder than that, my love. What was the name of the school Gwen Stacy was attending when she was bitten by a radioactive spider?”
Now I did let myself frown, uncertain of what was going on.
The secret sauce to our sexual relationship is that Jill was a bit of a submissive, while I was decidedly the opposite. She liked nothing more than being held down by me while I had my way with her. And I liked holding her down. She was almost six inches taller than me, but I was far stronger, a byproduct of years of Army PT and my CrossFit addiction since being medically retired after I’d lost my foot. Jill loved the feeling of helplessness when I pinned her to the bed. She also loved (only during a bet scenario) to be bossed around, to be told what to do and how to please me. The last time I’d known a bet was coming I’d bought her a little French maid outfit and made her wear it for me most of the weekend. With the same heels she was wearing tonight.
Jill had only won our bets twice. Once when she wanted to go to an art festival that I hadn’t been that interested in, so she’d beat me in order to make me go. The other time was when she wanted me to repaint our bedroom.
The truth was, she was far better than me at comic trivia. It was left unsaid that she let me win because she wanted to lose. Hell, the last time we’d played this game her last question to me had been what is Batman’s secret identity?
“Um… oh, got it!” I snapped my fingers, “Visions Academy!”
“You only got that because it’s the same as Miles’ school in the Spider-Verse movies.”
“I still got it. So my turn… what’s the real name of Rorschach in the Watchman?” I hoped to throw her off by venturing outside the DC and Marvel universes.
She looked into her wine glass, thinking. After a moment she looked up.
“Walter Kovacs.”
“Dammit,” I muttered. “Two-one you. Go.”
“Name two Ghost Riders besides Johnny Blaze.”
“What the hell, babe?” Either she was seriously fucking with me or she really wanted to win. I’d been looking forward to having my way with her this weekend ever since we’d convinced Larry to take the kids to the battle of the bands.
“It’s just a question. Got an answer?”
Her smile could still make my insides wobbly after all these years, but my annoyance at being behind was overriding that at the moment.
“Um… Robbie Reyes… and…”
There was a long drawn out silence, and I took a sip of my drink to buy some time. After my third sip, Jill called me out.
“What’s that judges? Time has expired you say?”
“Fine!” I grumped. “Still two-one. Unless you don’t know either.” One of the rules was you couldn’t ask a question you didn’t know the answer to.
“Danny Ketch and, or Alejandra Jones would have been acceptable.”
“Fuck. Fine, let me think.”
I’d assumed leading up to tonight that she’d let me win so I hadn’t done much in the way of preparation.
“After Carol Davers lost her powers as Binary,” I could see Jill start to grin and knew she probably was going to get it, “she got her celestial powers back and rejoined the Avengers. What was her new superhero name?”
“A Captain Marvel question? You, my own personal Carol Danvers bad-ass soldier woman, thought you’d stump me with a Captain Marvel question?”
“Just get it over with,” I growled.
“Warbird,” she said primly. “You’re mine for the weekend. A-a-a-a-l-l mine.”
Shit. I bet she’s going to make me start repainting the barn, she’s been bugging me about it forever. I knew I shouldn’t have fucked around hiring someone to do that.
“Best four out of seven?” I asked hopefully.
“Sure, why not? I’m feeling magnanimous.”
“Okay, go.” Maybe she’d just been fucking with me.
“In Bitch Planet, what’s the name of the woman who gets herself sent to the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost to look for her sister.”
Shit, she’s not just fucking with me. She’s toying with me.
“You know I never read that.” The comic was a political commentary on patriarchy and misogyny that Jill loved and always had wanted me to read, but I couldn’t get past the themes of women being punished for “non-compliance” with men, no matter how many times Jill had tried to persuade me it was a political piece worth reading.
“And? It’s a comic book. This is comic book trivia.”
I sighed. “Fine, I give up. Who was it?”
“Kamau Kogo. Your turn.”
I thought for a moment. “What’s Koi Boi’s real name and what are his powers?”
That brought her up short. I knew she had never been as into Unbeatable Squirrel Girl as I’d been, although I knew she’d read the original run years ago.
“His powers are that he can talk to fish and he can slowly grow to fit the size of his container,” she said, then paused in thought. I had figured she’d get that part. One of the funniest “super” powers I’d ever read. I was hoping she’d be unable to pull the name.
“Ladies, time to take the stage,” Suzanne announced, walking up to us.
“Hang on, we gotta finish this,” I said, holding up a hand.
Suzanne looked at me then at Jill lost in thought.
“Oooh, are you two having a bet?” Suzanne asked.
“Maybe,” I said.
Jill looked up and turned pink. Over the years Suzanne had learned of our bets during various girl-talk sessions. She’d even attempted to try it with Larry, but said he wasn’t willing to risk being on the losing end. Suzanne gave as good as she got, and she’d have tried her best to own him if she could.
“Ken Shiga!” Jill exclaimed.
“Fuck!” I said, slapping the arm of my chair.
“That’s best of seven, my love. I win!”
Suzanne held out her hand to give Jill a high-five. “Nice one! You have yourself some fun this weekend girl!”
“Oh I will, believe me!” Jill said, giving me an enigmatic look.
“Fine, let’s get back up there,” I said, pushing myself out of my chair. “Remember we’re starting this set with your Keiko Matsui song babe. Don’t mess up while thinking about what you want from me this weekend.”
After three sets, breaking down our equipment and then dropping Suzanne off at home (with her teasing me mercilessly, suggesting all the different chores around the farm Jill could have me do), we didn’t get home until almost one in the morning. We were a little too old for all-night sex after a long evening of performing (or even any sex, as it turned out) so Jill and I rolled into bed, snuggled up and fell right asleep.
As usual, I woke earlier than Jill, so I quietly pulled on some loose running shorts, a sports bra and my specialized running prosthetic, then slipped out of the house. We hadn’t seen any rain for a few weeks, so the hard packed dirt running trail around the farm was perfect. I took off at my usual nine-minute mile pace.