I called my best friend and told him I was tired of playing on line chess together all night and that I’d pay for the pizza if he came over and played in person for once. He agreed and said he’d bring the wine. You can take the boy out of California but you can’t take the California out of the boy. One of these days I was also going to have to admit that I didn’t like sushi.
I took a shower and threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt in case he decided to crash for the night like he often did. He was the closest thing I had to a man in my life and I really didn’t mind having someone to cuddle with in bed once in a while. We both had serious commitment issues from past relationships and the situation worked for us.
He came over and I ordered the pizza. We set up the chess set as we waited for the pizza. There was something to be said about a man who liked the same things you did on a pizza. Maybe those people who believed in fate were on to something. Finding someone who likes the same stuff on a pizza as you do is like finding an honest Enron executive or a pit bull that doesn’t bite. It’s a rare thing that should be not be taken for granted.
With the chess set at one end of my coffee table and the pizza box and our wine on the other, we began to play and eat. I made it 15 moves before he started taking all my pieces off the board. He was a much better player than I was and I don’t think I ever won a game to him. It wasn’t about winning or losing. It was about spending time with him and just having fun together. He taught me how to play as we went and we just enjoyed playing together.
After loosing 2 games to him and feeling really relaxed from the wine, I suggested we play strip chess. He looked at me and laughed.
“You’re gonna get cold,” he said, “because you always loose.” He smiled and I laughed at him and said, “Ok.” We set up the board and agreed that whenever our opponent took away any of the back row pieces, we had to give them an article of clothing. I was suddenly wishing we lived in Antarctica and dressed for the occasion.
We played, and as usual, I wound up taking off both my slippers and a sock to his sneaker. We played some more and I was down to my sports bra and my shorts. Capturing both his knights let me to getting him shirtless and I realized just how sexy he really was.