Tara’s stomach lurched. The chili’s seasoning felt off. Acidy. Sour.
Jeremy, her blind date, smiled. “Well?
“Interesting.”
“It’s the sauerkraut.”
She pushed the vile crock away. He’d picked the Raleigh chili parlor for dinner.
A burly man wearing a Chicago Bears jersey set a platter down. “Limburger Tofu Wings. You staying for Bears trivia, man?”
“You bet.” Jeremy picked up a limp gray wing.
The waiter high-fived Jeremy and left.
Tara avoided looking at the appetizer.
“Food’s amazing,” Jeremy said. “But I’m here for the Chicago fans. Bears events all year.”
“You go anywhere else?” she asked. The NFL’s offseason lasted for five more months.
“Why would I?” He grabbed another wing.
She tapped her phone and soon confirmed Chicago’s mortal enemy. “Did I ever tell you I love Minnesota?” she lied.
Jeremy’s face went ashen. “You’re a Vikings fan?”
Tara edited her dating profile as Jeremy let her down gently.
___________________________
Pete Wood is an attorney from Raleigh, North Carolina, where he lives with his kind and very patient wife. His first appearance in our pages was “Mission Accomplished,” in the now out-of-print Stupefying Stories #6. After publishing a lot of stories with us he graduated to becoming a regular contributor to Asimov’s, but he’s still kind enough to send us things we can publish from time to time, and we’re always happy to get them.
For the past few years Pete has been in the process of evolving into a fiction editor, God help him, first and foremost with The Pete Wood Challenge, then with Dawn of Time, The Odin Chronicles, Tales from The Brahma, and on, and on. Along the way he’s introduced us to the creative work of Roxana Arama, Gustavo Bondoni, Carol Scheina, Patricia Miller, Kimberly Ann Smiley, Kai Holmwood, Brandon Case, Jason Burnham, and many, many more. We suspect Pete’s real love is theater, though, as evidenced by his short movie, Quantum Doughnut — which you can stream, if you follow this link.
[Pete Wood photo by Lee Baker]
2 comments:
Nice economy and grace in this story. Thanks!
Thanks for your kind words!
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