Just when I think that, okay, cool, I've got this superpower that can make women do this and this, and that can get me into this pleasurable situation or thatβ in other words, just when I think I have my special abilities figured outβ I get a big, fat, sliding curve thrown at me and I have to admit I don't know whether I have any superpower at all or I'm just crazy and lucky. I'm thinking now of what happened last week.
I was in a hotel bar one evening wasting time. Out on the road on business, as usual. It was a convention town, but I wasn't horny enough to go out and seduce some housewife from Oklahoma who thinks that cock is what you do with a gun. So I sat at the bar and watched a football game on the tube. Some college game. I can't even remember the teams anymore.
A guy and his wife sat next to me. He wanted to watch the game and the best seat was mine, smack in front of the screen behind the bar, so I slid down one. The wife went along with him, showing profound boredom that he was oblivious to. They drank boring beers and he rooted for one of the centers of learning, though he really didn't look like higher education material. He started talking to me. It seems he went to Wewillwewillrock U. for a couple of semesters, didn't graduate so hadn't moved beyond the rabid fan stage.
He had a lot to cheer about in the first half. WU ran up 21 unanswered points before the opponent scored, then added another right before half time. The boy was happy. He bought me a drink. The wife too. She wasn't bad looking, tall and trim. Though it was hard to tell because she was sitting, she had the look of an athlete. I wondered what she was doing with this loser until he started telling me the story of his life. Seems he lucked into an air conditioning business, was making reasonably big bucks (he called himself the Jeff Bezos of air-conditioning in some podunk city) and was doing A-OK, good buddy. They say women who marry for money end up earning it.
When the second half started he waxed eloquent on the merits of his college, the quarterback, the defense, even the awesome cheerleaders and how he used to date one (which the wife did not appreciate). He was looking forward to another thirty minutes of slaughter.
I started feeling a familiar twitch. Not in my testicles this time, in someplace near my frontal lobes. But nonetheless there. My superpower had awakened. And I knew with certainty, as if I'd read tomorrow's sports page, that my barmate's favorite team was going to lose.
I've learned to trust that twitch. I said, as a friendly heads up, "Don't count your chickens yet. Opponent U. could make a comeback."
"No way, they've got nothing, nothing going for them."
"Stranger things have happened," I answered, continuing my friendly caution. He had bought me a drink, after all.
"Put your money where your mouth is."
That was not the kind of friendly response I'd expected. "I'm not a betting man."
"Then keep your mouth shut, turkey."
"Chuck, he was being nice."
"You shut up too."
What a wonderful relationship they must have, I thought. It's true I'm not a betting man, but it's not because I don't know how. Just the opposite. I prefer more, shall we say, challenging wagers. I couldn't let the insult pass. "Okay, name the odds and the stake."
"Twenty bucks. I give you Opponent U. plus fourteen."
"You call that a bet?"
"What you looking for?"
"Give me odds, not points. Five to one."
"No way."
"I thought you had confidence in your team. And I want to bet more than the cost of a bar tab."
"Okay, fifty. Three to one."
"So, you're not really that confident they'll win."
"Hey, yeah, sure they're gonna win. Make it a hundred."
"Still not sure, I guess."
"You got a big mouth on you, mister."
"Not as big as yours if you won't back up your team."
"Okay, smartass, you name the amount. I got plenty."
Amateur. Bragging he had enough to cover his bad bets. "I wasn't thinking of money, actually."
"Huh?"
"How about betting something more, let's say, valuable. Something . . ." I pretended to be searching for the right word while I side-eyed the wife. "Priceless." He looked puzzled, as if I were trying to explain why he couldn't deduct his motor home. "Let's bet, say, our manhood."
"What the fuck you talking about?"
"I'll bet you a blow job WU loses this football game."
"You're kidding me."
"Nope. We watch the game together. At the end of it the loser sucks off the winner."
"You a faggot or something? Yeah, you're hoping you'll lose."
"Not at all. I'm straight as a rail." And I had no desire for oral from this jerk, even if I liked guys. It was just my superpower pushing me to push my victim. "I just think that if a man believes in something, he should be willing to put himself on the line for it."
"Uh-uh. I'm not sucking anyone's dick."