“We’re going to play a game,” I say, swishing the wine around in my glass.

“Oh?” you reply with more than a little trepidation. “What kind of game?”

“Not that game….Scrabble is more fun when it is planned out in advance. We’ve been watching a lot of cooking shows lately and I thought I’d test your palate.”

The relief that was there when I dismissed my usual choice of games disappeared quickly.

“If you can name 8/10 items just by taste, I’ll let you cum. If you can’t name more than 5, well, there will be a delay of a couple of weeks for that particular prize. Go grab our blindfold while I figure out what to test you on.”

You come back and sit in the chair that I indicate in the kitchen. I put on the blindfold, making sure that you can’t see and give you a tiny taste of wine in a spoon.

“Oh, that’s easy, ” you say. “That’s the Sauvignon Blanc that you are drinking.”

“See? You have this.” Next, I put a tiny bit of the leftover lasagna from dinner in the spoon.

“Lasagna from dinner,” you say as soon as the taste hits your tongue.

“Exactly,” I say. Next is a bit of dried parsley from the pantry.

“Ummm….that doesn’t have a lot of flavor. And weird texture. Parsley?”

“Yup.” Chipotle pepper goes on the spoon next.

“Hot!” you say quickly. “Water….”

“That is definitely not water,” I reply.

“That wasn’t my answer! I need a drink of water,” you huff.

“Sorry…have to take your first answer. That’s one wrong. But I can give you a small drink of water before we resume.”

Dill pickle juice is on the spoon next. “Ugh–that is disgusting.”

“Disgusting? Hmmm….I don’t think that’s an actual thing. That’s two that you’ve missed already. You need to up your palate game.”

“You are cheating,” you whine a bit.

“You didn’t really think that you had a chance to win this game, did you? You literally just had an O three days ago.”

You sigh. “Maybe not, but you might make it seem like you might give me a chance.”

“Are you ready for the next item?” I ask?

“I have no idea.”

I move the chair just a bit and climb on the table, scooting to the edge. “You are going to have to lean forward a bit to taste this one….”