AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then he sat back.
My stare must have caught his attention because he glanced over, gaze locking with mine.
Then he smiled. “You play?” he asked.
“Not as much anymore, but I used to.”
He nodded. “Game teaches you a lot about life,” he said, then he tapped his temple. “Keeps you sharp. And patient. Always thinking a few steps ahead of your opponent, if you have any chance of winning.”
That was exactly what my father used to tell me and why he’d required that I learn how to play. We used to spend hours sitting across a board from each other in the study.
Instead of telling the stranger that, though, I simply smiled. “It does.”
The server returned to my table with an iced tea and left with my order.
While I waited, I realized just how poorly I’d thought this through. Take-out delivery was created for situations like this, and eating my food on the foot of my bed was a perfectly fine life choice I’d be returning to shortly.
My fingers fidgeted restlessly, and I blew out a quick breath as I stretched them out, a meek attempt at stowing the impulse to pull out my phone just so I had something to focus on.
The restaurant was neat and clean, black and white and red decor to match the exterior, and even though it was past the lunch rush, there was still a solid hum of noise from the filled tables.
I took a sip of my iced tea and sighed.
The server returned with a smile. “Your burger will be out soon. Anything else I can get for you while you wait?”
The man at the table next to me smiled again, and I wondered how often he sat here—alone and playing chess by himself, just to be in a room full of people.
I thought about what drove me here too, sitting at the foot of the bed, staring down at my phone to see if my dad texted. Called. Anything.
Sitting here alone didn’t help anything.
It certainly didn’t distract me from the shit tangling up my head, the giant knotted mess that it was. If I could find a single thread to pull on, maybe I’d be able to figure out what was pissing me off the most about this entire thing.
Everything in this place, everything about the reason I was there was like shoving a giant spotlight on the things I didn’t want to see.
Didn’t want to remember. Or admit out loud.
“Can I get my burger to go?” I asked the server.
If she was surprised by the request, she did a damn good job of hiding it. “Of course.”
“Thank you.”
She paused at the table next to mine. “Need anything else, Rog?”
“No, thank you, hun. I’m about ready to head home. Time for my afternoon nap, you know.”
The server smiled, then patted his shoulder and walked back toward the kitchen.
Within a couple of minutes, he’d slowly stood from the table and waved across the restaurant, calling out a friendly goodbye to someone. He smiled, shuffling out as other patrons waved in his direction too.
The familiarity between them had me watching underneath my lashes, desperately hoping they didn’t realize I was watching. Then I glanced around the room and noticed it at other tables too.
Two elderly women stood next to a table seating a young family, the group of them chatting and laughing.
In the back corner, a group of four middle-aged men spoke to a pair of guys in their twenties seated across the aisle.
As my eyes tracked around the row of tables lining the windows, I noticed only one table studying mine. Two women sat with emptied plates, off to the corner from where my table was located. The older one had short, sensible gray hair and pretty eyes, while the younger woman across from her had deep chesnut-brown hair and envy-inducing eyebrows.
