She shrugs. “I like a good corny joke. The really dumb ones make me laugh.” As they discussed earlier, they’re not the kind of jokes she’d tell onstage, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t enjoyable. The more stupid a joke is, the more it gets her for some reason.
Midge has been on several first dates lately, most of which have been terrible. This one is already better than all of them. “You know, I haven’t had steak and fries in forever, so I think that’s what I’m going to go with,” she tells him.
Well, now he can’t resist. “Where do rainbows go when they've been bad?” He allows the beat, “To prism, so they have time to reflect on what they've done.”
He’ll be here all night, folks.
Their server arrives. “Steak frites for the lady and I will have the Shepherd’s Pie.” That done he relaxes in his seat a little, looking over at her.
Midge stares at him, her mouth contorting as she tries not to laugh. Eventually, she gives up and giggles into her menu. “So stupid,” she says, shaking her head.
The server brings their beers as well and Midge takes a sip. She hasn’t had a Guinness in a long time.
“It is,” she confirms. “My name is Miriam, but only my parents call me that. And my manager, sometimes.”
“I warned you,” he laughs, pleased at her reaction. He raises his glass to her, then takes a sip of his own.
“Miriam is a lovely name. Is Midge from childhood or something more recent?” He’s genuinely curious. He’s always been just John. Or Captain in various forms over the years.
Uh huh. It’s pretty clear to her that John loves making her laugh at his stupid jokes. It helps that he’s cute. Shit, when did she become a woman who laughs at a man’s jokes because he’s cute? Midge guesses she was always that woman because she did the same thing with Joel.
She really does enjoy a good stupid joke though.
“I picked Midge in high school because Miriam sounded old-fashioned. Midge is technically a nickname for Margaret, but I didn’t care. Do you have any nicknames? Ones from the military?”
He’s always been that guy, the friendly jock who gets along with everybody. Making a pretty girl laugh or smile? Never a bad thing in his books. And Midge is absolutely the definition of a pretty girl.
He shakes his head. “Nah, we weren’t that kind of group. I was Walker, or Captain, depending on who you were. My friends just called me John. These days it’s pretty much the same, except I’m not a captain anymore.”
He stretches out his legs a bit, a foot nudging hers. “Kids with their dad tonight?”
She wasn’t a cheerleader in high school or anything like that. She certainly didn’t date the quarterback. Jock guys didn’t pay her much attention and vice versa. Life after high school is very different though.
“Captain was your rank, right?” she asks. “Not just because of Captain America?”
When his foot brushes against hers, she feels a surge of pleasure go through her body. Instead of moving her foot, she leaves it right where it is. “My parents are watching them. That’s the one benefit of having them live with me.”
High school quarterback, captain of the back to back to back state championship football team. He was a star. Followed him into the army. It’s after the military that’s been tripping him up.
“My rank, yeah. Probably part of the reason being Captain America was so tempting.” Among other things, of course.
He looks at her thoughtfully. “I couldn’t live with my parents again. Great people, but we needed our own space. Then I needed mine.”
“Oh, trust me,” Midge replies. “It’s not easy, but we love our building and after Papa retired from Columbia my parents couldn’t keep the apartment anymore because it belonged to the school. Thus, they’re living with me for now.” Midge shrugs. “It’s free babysitting.”
She takes a sip of her beer. “People can still call you Captain then, right?” she asks. From her limited military knowledge, she knows that soldiers can still use their ranks after retirement. Maybe he wants to avoid it after the whole Captain America debacle.
Midge sits back, examining him. “Let’s see… I seem to recall a few other things in my cursory Google search about you…” She taps her chin. “Something about two medals of honor…”
She knows it was three but wants to allow him to brag a little bit. Purposely, she didn’t click on anything related to how he lost the title of Captain America.
"Free babysitting is great and all, but mine would drive me nuts." He loves them, of course, but he has no desire to live with them.
"That chapter in my life is over. I'm starting something fresh with my new team." At least, that's what he hopes will happen. "Back to being just John." Then he smiles. "Three medals of honor, but somehow, I think you knew that. Yeah, the army was good to me."
And he was good for the army. What happened after, well, that's where all the trouble began. His smile disappears thinking about that.
“They do drive me nuts. Daily.” But, as insane as they are, Midge is close with her family. There’s a distinct lack of privacy, especially when her kids are there too, but they’re making it work.
“Oh, was it three?” Midge pretends to look surprised. “Yes, that’s right. I did read that. First person to ever get three Medals of Honor.”
That’s pretty impressive. Midge wonders if it seems bittersweet to him now, especially as his smile fades.
“More like the other way around,” she says, inadvertently reading his thoughts.
"I'll give you props for that." John loves his folks, but to say he's close to them would be stretching it a little. He hasn't been home since he was eighteen.
"It's three." He's got a small smile back and he nudges her foot intentionally this time. "Yeah, it's not really all that important." Not for what he had to do to get them. "It was mutually beneficial. Until it wasn't."
She gets comfortable in her chair. This probably isn’t a good story, nor one that presents John in a positive light. Midge actually thinks it’s pretty brave of him to tell it on what is essentially their first date. Her plan is to try to listen without judgment until he finishes the whole story.
"The first thing you need to know is Lemar Hoskins. My best friend, on the football team with me, joined the army with me, we were stationed together, and he was the Battlestar to my Captain America."
He's clearly important.
"Our first mission was to take down a group of terrorists who had been attacking government aid camps and stealing supplies and we were getting our asses kicked. Turns out they had found a formula and were all super soldiers. We couldn't take them on and win. So when I found a vial of the formula I took it to even the playing field."
He takes a sip of beer and looks over at her. "You with me?"
That sounds risky. Midge doesn’t even eat Cheerios off of the floor, let alone take vials of what may or may not be a highly dangerous substance that you don’t know how your body will react to.
But, it sounds as if he and Hoskins were desperate.
"Okay." Another sip of his drink before he starts again. "We tracked them down and it made a difference. I could keep up with them, but there were too many of them. They had me down, dead to rights, when Lemar knocked their leader out of the way and saved my ass. He always had my back. And then she killed him with one punch."
He has to stop for a minute, face blank and eyes shifted well away from her face.
"They knew what they'd done and they ran. She got away. I chased one of them down and... I killed him. It wasn't pretty. It also was in the middle of the town square and a lot of people got the whole thing live on video. Government didn't like that part."
More back to himself, he looks back at her with a mirthless smile. "Got fired over that. Took away all my army benefits. Everything. No more Captain for me."
"I was very angry and in shock and the guy was still a terrorist who had earlier tried to kill me, so. The pieces just fell together." More beer now. And then he sighs and seems to relax a little, burden lifted in a way.
"You can look it up if you want. It's still out there. I'm surprised you haven't already."
It’s not great. Video of him killing a man as Captain America (which is not something she wants to watch, by the way). But, it’s not like the guy was an innocent bystander. Midge may not approve, but she can understand. That decision ruined his life. She won’t even ask him if he regrets it because surely he does.
“Thank you for telling me.” She wonders, briefly, if she ought to be afraid of him, though she hasn’t seen any of the rage that he says he exhibited in that moment. “After that, you… tried to move on?”
“Tried, yeah. I got a new job. Clean up. Given my skill set you can probably guess what that was all about. I don’t do it anymore. But it brought in income, which we needed when we decided to have a baby.”
Shockingly, the baby didn’t fix everything. Who knew?
“He’s amazing. I was still angry, mourning and probably depressed when he was born. I wasn’t the most attentive father. Olivia finally had enough and left me.” Because now that’s he’s told her the worst, he might as well cop to everything else. “It’s been rough. Not exactly a great catch anymore, am I?”
That right there is her cue to get out while she still can.
Midge shrugs almost imperceptibly, then takes a deep breath. “This isn’t the same by any stretch of the imagination, but I know what it’s like to think that you’ve done everything right and still lose everything. My ex-husband cheated on me with his secretary. That’s what ended our marriage.”
Not the same as killing someone while representing the US government, but that’s the baggage that she carries around.
John just shakes his head. “He’s a complete idiot. I don’t get people who cheat. Never did it to Olivia and would never for any other partner.”
Their food finally arrives, though he’s almost lost his appetite. Almost. He orders another beer and when it comes shortly after he holds the glass up to her.
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Midge has been on several first dates lately, most of which have been terrible. This one is already better than all of them. “You know, I haven’t had steak and fries in forever, so I think that’s what I’m going to go with,” she tells him.
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He’ll be here all night, folks.
Their server arrives. “Steak frites for the lady and I will have the Shepherd’s Pie.” That done he relaxes in his seat a little, looking over at her.
“Midge. Is that a nickname?”
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The server brings their beers as well and Midge takes a sip. She hasn’t had a Guinness in a long time.
“It is,” she confirms. “My name is Miriam, but only my parents call me that. And my manager, sometimes.”
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“Miriam is a lovely name. Is Midge from childhood or something more recent?” He’s genuinely curious. He’s always been just John. Or Captain in various forms over the years.
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She really does enjoy a good stupid joke though.
“I picked Midge in high school because Miriam sounded old-fashioned. Midge is technically a nickname for Margaret, but I didn’t care. Do you have any nicknames? Ones from the military?”
She knows that’s a common occurrence.
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He shakes his head. “Nah, we weren’t that kind of group. I was Walker, or Captain, depending on who you were. My friends just called me John. These days it’s pretty much the same, except I’m not a captain anymore.”
He stretches out his legs a bit, a foot nudging hers. “Kids with their dad tonight?”
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“Captain was your rank, right?” she asks. “Not just because of Captain America?”
When his foot brushes against hers, she feels a surge of pleasure go through her body. Instead of moving her foot, she leaves it right where it is. “My parents are watching them. That’s the one benefit of having them live with me.”
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“My rank, yeah. Probably part of the reason being Captain America was so tempting.” Among other things, of course.
He looks at her thoughtfully. “I couldn’t live with my parents again. Great people, but we needed our own space. Then I needed mine.”
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She takes a sip of her beer. “People can still call you Captain then, right?” she asks. From her limited military knowledge, she knows that soldiers can still use their ranks after retirement. Maybe he wants to avoid it after the whole Captain America debacle.
Midge sits back, examining him. “Let’s see… I seem to recall a few other things in my cursory Google search about you…” She taps her chin. “Something about two medals of honor…”
She knows it was three but wants to allow him to brag a little bit. Purposely, she didn’t click on anything related to how he lost the title of Captain America.
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"That chapter in my life is over. I'm starting something fresh with my new team." At least, that's what he hopes will happen. "Back to being just John." Then he smiles. "Three medals of honor, but somehow, I think you knew that. Yeah, the army was good to me."
And he was good for the army. What happened after, well, that's where all the trouble began. His smile disappears thinking about that.
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“Oh, was it three?” Midge pretends to look surprised. “Yes, that’s right. I did read that. First person to ever get three Medals of Honor.”
That’s pretty impressive. Midge wonders if it seems bittersweet to him now, especially as his smile fades.
“More like the other way around,” she says, inadvertently reading his thoughts.
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"It's three." He's got a small smile back and he nudges her foot intentionally this time. "Yeah, it's not really all that important." Not for what he had to do to get them. "It was mutually beneficial. Until it wasn't."
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That’s maybe unfair, but it was too good of a quip not to make. Midge lets out a deep breath. “You ready to tell me about what happened?”
Even if the food hasn’t come yet, at least they’ve got their alcohol.
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“You ready to hear it?”
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She gets comfortable in her chair. This probably isn’t a good story, nor one that presents John in a positive light. Midge actually thinks it’s pretty brave of him to tell it on what is essentially their first date. Her plan is to try to listen without judgment until he finishes the whole story.
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"The first thing you need to know is Lemar Hoskins. My best friend, on the football team with me, joined the army with me, we were stationed together, and he was the Battlestar to my Captain America."
He's clearly important.
"Our first mission was to take down a group of terrorists who had been attacking government aid camps and stealing supplies and we were getting our asses kicked. Turns out they had found a formula and were all super soldiers. We couldn't take them on and win. So when I found a vial of the formula I took it to even the playing field."
He takes a sip of beer and looks over at her. "You with me?"
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That sounds risky. Midge doesn’t even eat Cheerios off of the floor, let alone take vials of what may or may not be a highly dangerous substance that you don’t know how your body will react to.
But, it sounds as if he and Hoskins were desperate.
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He has to stop for a minute, face blank and eyes shifted well away from her face.
"They knew what they'd done and they ran. She got away. I chased one of them down and... I killed him. It wasn't pretty. It also was in the middle of the town square and a lot of people got the whole thing live on video. Government didn't like that part."
More back to himself, he looks back at her with a mirthless smile. "Got fired over that. Took away all my army benefits. Everything. No more Captain for me."
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By all accounts, that man was his best friend, one who had been through everything with him. Losing him must have been horrible.
“Why did you kill him? I mean… I understand why. Did you lose control?”
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"You can look it up if you want. It's still out there. I'm surprised you haven't already."
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It’s not great. Video of him killing a man as Captain America (which is not something she wants to watch, by the way). But, it’s not like the guy was an innocent bystander. Midge may not approve, but she can understand. That decision ruined his life. She won’t even ask him if he regrets it because surely he does.
“Thank you for telling me.” She wonders, briefly, if she ought to be afraid of him, though she hasn’t seen any of the rage that he says he exhibited in that moment. “After that, you… tried to move on?”
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“Tried, yeah. I got a new job. Clean up. Given my skill set you can probably guess what that was all about. I don’t do it anymore. But it brought in income, which we needed when we decided to have a baby.”
Shockingly, the baby didn’t fix everything. Who knew?
“He’s amazing. I was still angry, mourning and probably depressed when he was born. I wasn’t the most attentive father. Olivia finally had enough and left me.” Because now that’s he’s told her the worst, he might as well cop to everything else. “It’s been rough. Not exactly a great catch anymore, am I?”
That right there is her cue to get out while she still can.
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Midge shrugs almost imperceptibly, then takes a deep breath. “This isn’t the same by any stretch of the imagination, but I know what it’s like to think that you’ve done everything right and still lose everything. My ex-husband cheated on me with his secretary. That’s what ended our marriage.”
Not the same as killing someone while representing the US government, but that’s the baggage that she carries around.
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Their food finally arrives, though he’s almost lost his appetite. Almost. He orders another beer and when it comes shortly after he holds the glass up to her.
“To divorce.”
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Midge holds up her glass and toasts to that. “To divorce.”
She cuts into her steak and it looks to be the perfect amount of rareness. Under the table, she gives his foot a little kick.
John gave her a chance to cut and run, but she’s still here.
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