Stalemate // The Queens Gambit //Benny Watts x OC

Eight: Alone. Starting Tomorrow.

        Benny walks me up to my apartment and I unlock the door with shaking hands. I walk inside and set my keys on the shelf by the door. He follows me in and glances around. It's perfectly clean but for some reason I still feel embarrassed.

"Thank you. For everything. I can't imagine it was how you'd expected your night- and morning- to go" I say sheepishly.

"Oh, I do this every week." He says bluntly. I laugh a little and he smiles.

"Thank you," I repeat and he frowns ever so slightly. "For getting me to laugh. I didn't think that'd happen again for a while." It sounded stupid once I said it but I could tell he didn't think so.

"You're welcome. My honor." He tips his hat to me dramatically, making me chuckle again.

"Um.. before you go, would you want to play a quick game?" I gesture to the chess board on the coffee table.

"Yeah, definitely." He sets his hat and coat on the arm of the couch and sits on the carpet in front of the table, picking up two pawns and shuffling them behind his back. I take my shoes off and sit across from him as he holds out his hands. I tap the left one and he hands me the black pawn.

"At a disadvantage already, damn." I mutter and he raises an eyebrow, smiling.

"If you play well enough, you're never at a disadvantage."

The game doesn't last long, about twenty four moves, before he corners my king. We decide to play another since the first one was so quick, but the second one was even faster, lasting only nineteen moves. I kicked myself for not seeing his white square bishop. Before we knew it, we had played 8 games. We only noticed when the phone rang.

"It's been two hours?" I said in disbelief looking at the clock. "Sorry, I didn't realize it had been that long." I say as I get up to answer the phone.

"It's okay, I don't mind." Benny replied, getting up and stretching.

I wasn't even able to say hello as I answered before Jonathan started asking questions.

"Adelaide?? Are you alright?? I've been trying to reach you for three days, I was so worried! Macy called to tell me you were alive but she wouldn't tell me anything else, what's going on??" He talked so fast I could barely understand him but when I realized who it was the guilt smacked me in the face.

"Oh god, I am so sorry. I had a.. family emergency and everything just kind of went crazy."

"Who is it?" Benny asked from the other room and I mouthed "friend" in response.

"..is that another guy..?" Jonathan asked, a bit confused

"What? No! No, no well- I mean yes, but just a friend that helped me get home last night," I then realized how that sounded, "which was not supposed to sound the way it did. He just gave me a ride."

Benny realized what was going on and stifled a small laugh, to which I glared.

"Okay.. so is everything okay? When can I see you next? Macy's got me concerned now. What was this family emergency?" He asked all at once. I was suddenly exhausted and his questions weren't helping.

"I'll be okay. I'm not really in the headspace to talk about it but when I am I'll call you and we'll meet up again. I just need to be alone for a while, okay?" It was silent for a moment and then he sighed.

"Okay. If you need anything just call me. I'll talk to you later."

"Thank you. Bye Jonathan." I said softly and then hung up, walking back to the living room and sitting on the floor where I was before.

"Soo.. Jonathan?" Benny eyed me suspiciously.

"Yes. You know you really shouldn't talk when people are on the phone."

"Sorry about that, my bad. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I said I'd call him after a few days."

"Do you want me to go so you can be alone?"

"Why? do you want to? I already kind of kidnapped you, if you want to go you can, I'm sorry I kept you so long already" I stood up so he didn't feel obligated to stay. he was probably dying to get out of this crazy lady's house. He stood up too but instead of leaving he rested a hand on my shoulder.

"No, no, I just heard you on the phone saying you needed to be alone fo a while." I calmed down a bit at that, but still felt like I was holding him hostage.

"Oh.. right.. well- I was mostly talking about tomorrow. Today I don't mind company. If you want to stay.." I added the last bit quietly and he smiled, sitting back down and resetting the board. I kept standing, just staring at him, until he looked up and I blinked.

"Do you want to play again?"

I sat back down and straightened my pieces. "Always."