Page 63 of Fanning the Flames

“Thatisstrange,” Joan said.

Glancing up with a sneer, Mark said, “Go back to making googly eyes at each other.”

Sadie blew Joan an exaggerated kiss that she caught like an outfielder at Vulture Stadium. They still hadn’t had sex because of sleeping late and needing to get to this meeting. And she’d been a little off last night from Greta needing to leave in a hurry for some obscure Greta-y reason. Both their phones were getting turned off the second they got home. Maybe they should stick a chair under the front doorknob for insurance.

Not that anyone Joan knew wouldn’t just find some other way in.

The garage door opened to Perry’s shimmering gray luxury import. “He’s never late,” Sadie said. “Do you think he was on the phone with Amazing Woman?”

“Hopefully,” Joan said.

She and Sadie had looked up photos of the Superhero. It was wild how slowly she’d aged in her decades of service. She’d started so young—a teenager. The perky blonde in a miniskirt and go-go boots had a bone-weary air about her in her later years. And a full bodysuit to go with her simple eye mask.

They’d done the math to figure out she’d been in her late sixties when she’d met a twentysomething Perry. Something about her skeptical blue eyes said she’d be the perfect companion for Per, no matter how many years were between them.

He stepped out in an impeccable navy-blue suit and striped shirt.

“You look nice today,” Sadie said.

“Any special occasion?” Mark said, sending a text.

“Sorry I’m late,” Perry said. “Let’s get to the agenda. I have last month’s sales numbers.”

He placed his briefcase on the table. The other three looked at each other likeNot so fast.

“Should we talk about the Superhero-sized elephant in the room?” Mark said, setting his phone down.

“Did you reach out to her?” Joan asked.

“I told you Gus is done with all of that.” Perry took out several stapled groupings of paper.

“But I guess Quake was her archnemesis. Wouldn’t she want to?—”

“This isn’t our fight,” he said, and handed Joan a sales report. “The Supers want us to do their job for them. You said it yourself, Joanie. They’re no better than Melvin.”

“You’re not wrong,” Mark said. “But this situation is serious enough for them to turn to us.”

“They should get more than one Superhero from another city to help them.” Perry set a report in front of Mark, then another in front of Sadie.

Joan held hers up. “What’s the point of this when there’s a literal disaster waiting to happen?”

“Because you wanted to be normal. This is what it’s like to be normal.”

She opened her mouth, but the rebuttal died. If they weren’t going to be the bad guys or fight the bad guys, they had to be the regular clueless guys.

Perry flipped through his pages. “As you can see in the comparison between December and January, we did a better job anticipating costs this month.”

“Regardless of what you do,” Joan said, “can we meet Gus? She’s an important person in your life we just found out about.”

“I want to meet her,” Mark said.

Perry sent Sadie an exasperated look. “You see why I never told those two.”

“Oh, one hundred percent. They’re relentless.” She glanced at Joan mischievously. “But I want to meet her, too. I mean, Amazing Woman? She’s a legend. The stories she must have…”

Sadie’s phone jingled. She made the cringey face that said it was her mother.

“Shoot, I forgot to call my mom back. Give me two minutes.” She walked to the hidden side entrance, answering as she went outdoors.

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