Page 7 of Secret Spark

Mark grinned. “Like we’ve matured in the past nineteen years?”

The fluorescent light above the table reflected off Perry’s glasses. He noticed their doodles on three fast-food napkins. A logo idea for Hot and Cold, a proposed menu for the food truck, a badly drawn sketch of a food truck with stick figure Mark and Joan smiling big.

“That again?” Perry shook his head.

Tempting though it was to cover them up, Joan left them in place. “You know it’s our dream,” she said.

“It’s a pipe dream,” Mark said.

“All your dreams are pipe dreams.”

“Thick and high.”

“I don’t know why this appeals to you,” Perry said. “Serving the community that’s shunned you your whole lives.”

“It’s something different,” Mark said.

Joan touched the menu ideas. “You know we love to cook.”

Perry sighed. “I know, but?—”

“It’d give us the chance to go legit. Do something good for once.”

“You’ve tried, Joanie. It’s always the same. Your place is here.”

She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out. Mark made fart sounds with his mouth.

“Just becauseyoulove the life and have never wanted to do anything else…” Joan tried not to smirk at how much that’d bug the shit out of Perry.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“No, Joanie.” Mark got all dramatic. “Péricles Barbosa, the Brazilian Brain himself, earned an MBA and had the perfect career lined up at the most prestigious art gallery in Vector City. Only to have it all thwarted because,oh, such a powerful being cannot exist in normal society.”

“Let’s get to the agenda.” Perry sat across from them and pulled his all-important weekly agenda from his jacket pocket. “Item One. Any problems last night? I think everything went well other than the Supers giving us a headache at the end.”

Joan shook her head while sipping her iced coffee. They could do bank heists in their sleep. “I can’t believe all those old savings bonds were just sitting there.”

“Equal split of the cash,” Mark added. “Not a bad night.”

“Lunk broke that coffeehouse window. They’ve had multiple incidents. Can we slide them some cash to cover this time and the other times?”

“Ten grand?” Perry said.

“Sounds good,” said Joan. Mark shrugged his hands, not caring one way or the other.

It sucked that Sadie’s workplace had been hit so many times. The money would help with repairs and lost revenue. And guilt. Mom-and-pop businesses were just trying to get by, like them.

Perry scribbled a note. “Damn Kade. You’d think he could hold his own body weight. I didn’t push him with that strong of a gust.”

Mark plopped his chin in his hand. “Ah, Lunk. So beautiful. So clueless.”

“So straight,” Joan reminded her twin. “Andsucha Super.”

“I remain optimistic.”

“You don’t even know what he looks like under his mask.”

“With an ass like that, I don’t need to.”

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