Chapter Six — Alex
I talk to Lori about the whole bizarre chess match later that evening.
“That makes no sense,” she says, as she bites down on a slice of vegan pepperoni pizza. “Why would he pick a game he’d lose? You said he was a chess prodigy, right?”
I nod. I’m pretty good at chess myself, but I didn’t even have to try. “It seemed like he was throwing the game, to be honest,” I say.
Lori squints and furrows her brow, deep in thought, “Hmm,” she says, “That is really odd.”
“I know, right?” I say.
“Wait,” Lori exclaims, her mouth full of half-chewed pizza. “I’ve got an idea. Reach out to one of his past girls. Here, I know one of them. Let’s call her right now.”
Lori thrusts her phone towards me, and I look down at the screen: Jenna Sinclair.
I stare at the phone. “I don’t know, Lor.”
“Do it,” Lori says, her eyes wide. I inhale, and before I have time to think, Lori reaches over me and, with her greasy pizza finger, taps the green call button.
The phone rings, and before I have time to process what’s just happened, a soft voice picks up on the other line. Lori presses the speaker button, and the voice gets louder.
“Hello,” the voice says. “Who’s there?”
“Hi, Jenna,” Lori exclaims. “It’s Lori. I’m here with my friend Alex. We have a few questions about Callum. Do you have a few minutes?”
“Wait, Callum? That Callum?” Jenna asks. She sounds uneasy.
I shake my head at Lori, indicating we should let this go.
“It’s okay, Jenna —” I say, but Lori shoots me a death glare, and I stop talking.
“Yes,” Lori says. “That’s the one. My dumbass friend here decided to get herself involved with him. I tried to warn her, but she wouldn’t listen.”
My cheeks flush. Why is Lori throwing me under the bus like this?
“Oh,” Jenna says. Her voice sounds grave, which scares me a little, to be honest.
“Tell her, Jenna,” Lori says. “Tell her about Callum.”
Jenna sighs heavily. “Well, what do you want to know?”
I open my mouth, but before I can get a word out, Lori interrupts again. I shoot her a dirty look.
Wasn’t I supposed to be the one asking questions? She rolls her eyes as if she can read my mind, and I can practically guess what she’s thinking: Yeah, but you’ll ask the wrong questions. That’s why I had to take the reins here.
“We have a specific question,” Lori says. “Callum’s smart, right? Good at chess?”
“What kind of question is that?” Jenna says it in a way that would make you think Lori had just asked her whether two plus two equals four.
“Well, Alex beat him in chess and said it was pretty easy. I mean, Alex is good at chess, but it still seemed kind of weird to us.”
“Oh, that’s not surprising,” Jenna says immediately. “He always lets the girl win the first game.”
“What do you mean?” I blurt out.
“He always lets the girl win the first game,” Jenna says slowly, as if I’m stupid.
“I heard you,” I say, “but why?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know why that man does anything. My best guess is that it’s a power trip. He wants you to think you can win, only to pull the rug out from under you in game two. You’ll see.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“It’s exactly like I said.” Jenna sounds impatient. “Listen, I’ve got to go, but if you have any other questions, you can get my number from Lori. Okay?”
“Okay, I —” I start to say, but the line drops abruptly. I look at Lori, and she’s smiling.
“Well?” she asks. I open my eyes wider, eyebrows raised. “Aren’t you glad we did that?”
“Not really,” I say.
“But you got useful information,” Lori says. “Now we know why you won the game.”
“It’s not like I’m a dumbass or something,” I say, shooting Lori a glare. “It’s not crazy that I would win a game against Callum. You know I won the state chess championship when I was twelve, right?”
“Really?” she asks. “Congratulations.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks. I don’t need your congratulations, though. I’m just saying it’s not crazy that I won.”
Lori nods. “I get it.”
I start processing everything I’ve just found out, and an idea comes to me.
“Wait,” I say. “What if I — what if I act dumber than I am?”
I’m used to people underestimating me. Men, usually.
Maybe I can use it to my advantage for once.
The thing is, given how poorly Callum played during chess today, he has no reason to think I’m anything special.
He basically threw the game. It’s like he was trying to lose in as few moves as possible.
I didn’t have to try hard to win. In fact, I was kind of confused about what was going on, which caused me to pause a lot longer than I normally would during each turn.
I also got the sense that he was barely evaluating my moves. I feel like he probably was going to make the same boneheaded moves no matter what I did in response. If he could have checkmated himself, he would have. That’s how badly he played.
But maybe I can use that to my advantage.
He doesn’t know how good I am. In fact, he doesn’t even know my real name.
I told him it’s Lola. Why? I’m not sure exactly, but I’ve always had a tendency towards privacy.
Others might call it secrecy, but whatever.
You can never be too careful, as my mom’s always said.
And maybe that will help me here. Because if he Googled my real name, the first thing that would come up would be those chess articles, followed by some about winning the math olympiad when I was younger.
But when he Googles “Lola Rose,” he’ll probably get some porn stars or random social media accounts that aren’t mine.
I’m in the perfect position to fool him right now.
And I’m sure as hell going to take advantage of it.
“That’s it,” I say.
“What’s it?” Lori asks.
“I’m gonna pretend to be an idiot. He’ll underestimate me, and then I’ll come in at the right time and surprise him.”
“Ooh,” Lori says, rubbing her greasy hands together. “Devious. I like it.”
“Me too,” I say, smiling.