The Ongoing Adventures of Stupendous Girl!

Götterdämmerung (Part 4 of 7) 22 Oct 2009

“You know, it is a nice spot, but…”

Irene doesn’t look at John, not needing to in order to figure out what his complaint would be, in fact sharing it herself.

“But you’re cold.”

Just at that moment, John shivers involuntarily, his body helping make his point.

“I’m cold, and it’s windy, and as much as I do enjoy just sitting with you, we’re also quite adept at doing that indoors. Now, you wouldn’t have brought me here if you didn’t have big news…”

“What are you, some kind of detective?”

Irene was kidding, of course, everything told him that, but he still hated to be called on his ability to read people. As he often did, he felt in the moment the best way to deal with it without showing any undue emotion was to shout back as if the whole thing were a joke.

“Nah, I’m a spy. Learned how to figure out all your secrets in spy school.”

Irene smiled at him. She’d always enjoyed the game as much as he did.

“Did they teach you any patience in spy school?”

“Yeah, but I’m secretly taping you with a recorder in my shoe. It’s only got 20 minutes left on it, so I need you to get to the point.”

Irene forms her mouth into a circle in a mockery of being impressed, while John wiggles a single foot in front of himself to “catch” what she’d say next.

“Ooh, a recorder in the shoe? Pretty high-tech setup you’ve got there, Mr. Spy. Very Maxwell Smart-ish.”

It is now John’s turn for an exaggerated expression, one of a man taking a feigned but still grievous wound.

“Maxwell Smart? Give me a little more credit than that. And besides…”

Here, John grins impishly.

“…who says I’m one of the good guy spies?”

Irene almost claps her hands in amusement, trying not to laugh at the thought of John as a dangerous villain. For his part, he strikes as comical a self-assured villainous pose as possible to egg on her teasing reaction.

“Mister Dangerous, huh? You know, I’m not sure that really look really suits you. I think I like the real John better, the harmless John.”

John interjects quickly, though far from angrily.

“Mostly harmless.”

“Sure, mostly harmless.”

John could afford to be silly because, if his guesses were right, everything was going swimmingly well. What big news would be so important as to bring him out here to discuss other than she wanted the two of them to move in together? And if that was the case, it meant the coming to fruition of the next part of his plan, significantly ahead of schedule at that. Anything that deepened her emotional dependence on him, that increased his access to her, and to all the massive power she held, was all to the good.

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