Maybe is a Loser's word ~ Benny Watts Fanfic

Chapter 10 ~ 1967 ~ Again?

Beth smiles at me as I stand up to get the door. I unlock it and let my friends in, greeting each one with a hug as they enter.  I see that they have brought my ex girlfriend Cleo with them, I'm still friends with her but I don't want Beth to think I like her or anything. I pull Hilton to the side and whisper to him "Why did you bring Cleo? she can't even play chess ". He just looks at me and shrugs "She made me bring her" he whispers back.

 "Beth Harmon, this is Hilton Wexler and Grandmaster Arthur Levertov.....and this" I begin to say before Cleo cuts me off. "I'm Cleo, and you must be Beth" Cleo says while kissing Beth on both cheeks. "Um, Hi" she replies, tucking hair behind her ear. 

I'm slightly sceptical of Cleo's behaviour. Is she genuinely being nice to Beth or is she planning something to get back at me for having another girl in my apartment? Hilton starts talking to Beth about chess problems. He's really into that stuff so I'm not surprised he asked her to do one, ten seconds after meeting her.

"So Beth, have you ever done a problem before?" Hilton asks her, she pauses for a moment "No, Never. Problems never come up in games". He nods and says "Why don't you try this?" while moving pieces around the board. He's probably expecting her to be stumped at the problem, but I know for a fact that Beth is going to solve this in an instant. "Now this one is my favourite, how does white win in three?" he says with a smile.

"Hilton, honestly she's not one of your problem freaks she's US champion for goodness sake" Cleo spits at him in her French accent. "Benny, where do you keep your glasses?" she asks me sweetly, completely changing her tone. Before I can answer, Hilton spits back at her in a sharp tone "Hey! Quit distracting her". Beth solves the problem a few seconds later. I hold back a smile, she's outsmarted some of my smartest friends and I am so proud of her. 

"Beth, would you like a drink?" Cleo asks her, holding up a wine glass. Beth pauses for a moment and looks up at me. She hasn't drunk anything since she arrived at my house last week and I wouldn't want a drink to ruin her chess games. She holds my gaze for a couple more seconds "No thankyou" she answers firmly. She stands up and says "I better fix some food". Her and Cleo stand in the kitchen talking and cutting up bits of food.

Me, Hilton and Arthur walk over and take a seat in the living room. As we sit down Arthur turns to me and says "Now that's hot. She's beautiful and smart, now where did you find this one Benny?" jealousy rises up inside me. "He thinks she hot. Tell him to back off" I say to myself. Instead of shouting at my friend I just say " Hey, be respectful, she's different. She's not like the others". "So you don't like her then? Hey if you don't want her, I will take her off your hands for you if you want" Hilton says to me with a chuckle.

That was too far, they shouldn't speak like that about her. "Shut the fuck up" I say defensively, "I do like her okay! I just don't want to distract her before Paris". Hilton and Arthur look at me slightly stunned "So you actually like her? Well that had never happened before that's for sure" Arthur says to me, confusion edging into his voice. "She sure is hot though" Hilton says while exhaling a low whistle. We all nod in agreement. 

Beth strides over and places a plate of food down on the table. All three of us are staring at her, she looks at both Arthur and Hilton with a confused look on her face. She finally looks to me, I subtly look her up and down, secretly checking her out. "What?" she asks. It takes a second before I can find an answer.

"We should do a simultaneous" I say, looking at her in the eyes "you play all of us". She nods considering it. Let's play speed chess" she replies. I wince "You're not too good at that remember". She replies with a straight face "I'll bet you ten I can beat you" she looks over at the guys "and ten on all of them too." I smile at her, "Sure.".