Hector

“Just don’t purposely let them win,” Walter warned as they walked into the old folk’s home. “They’ll know and be mad. One guy called me an arrogant ass**le for not only assuming he wouldn’t be able to win but for thinking he wouldn’t notice me going easy on him.”

Hector laughed. “Got it.”

Hector had never been to an old folk’s home, and he hadn’t exactly looked forward to it. Already just walking in, he noticed the smell wasn’t the most pleasant. He frowned, still unwilling to admit why he was really here. Yesterday morning, Walter had come in to work out and let Hector know he wouldn’t be coming in today because of his visit to see his grandpa and some other stuff he had to do.

After deciding he wouldn’t be torturing himself by going into the chess lab more than he absolutely had to, Hector didn’t plan on going in until at least Wednesday. The soonest he’d probably see Walter would be Monday night when he came into work out. He didn’t want to wait that long to hear about Walter’s afternoon with Charlee. Most importantly, he was anxious to hear if she’d hung out with Walter after or if she mentioned having more plans that evening. Hector had also offered up some tips on small-talk topics like asking her what she did on her free time or maybe asking how her night out Friday had gone.

All right, so it was a little underhanded, but Hector needed something. He thought maybe if he could confirm she really was that kind of girl it would make it easier for him to take her off that damn pedestal he’d placed her ass on the week before. It’d be easier to scrape her out from under his skin.

Hector didn’t waste time. He started in on Walter as soon as they started walking down the depressing hallway of the place. “So how’d it go yesterday with Charlee?”

Walter smiled instantly. “Good. She seemed genuinely impressed and excited about the demonstrations I showed her.”

They’d been asked to wait in a small waiting room while they finished changing his gramps, so Walter had gone on longer than Hector cared to hear about the robot. As soon as he got a chance, he asked about what he really wanted to hear.

“So did she stay and watch a movie with you?”

Walters’s excited expression fell, and Hector was already beginning to frown, irritated because he had a feeling Walter would chicken out. “You didn’t even ask her to. Did you?”

“I was going to. I really was,” Walter insisted. “But before I could, she started talking about some play she was going to later that night. I figured it was pointless since she already had plans.” Walter was smiling again. “But we did have pizza.”

Hector was still focused on the first part of what Walter said. “Was it a date?” He pretended his interest was for Walter’s sake. “The play thing. Did she say she was going with a dude?”

Walter shook his head. “No, she didn’t.”

“And you didn’t ask?” God dealing with Walter was the most exasperating thing ever. That’s the first thing Hector would’ve asked. When Walter frowned, shaking his head again, Hector let out a sharp breath. “Well, did you at least ask about what she did Friday night? You gotta ask these things, Walt. What if she’s seeing someone else? All this effort to impress her could be a waste of time.”

“I know,” Walter said with a pathetic expression, “and, no, I didn’t ask, but she did yawn a few times and said she was really tired because she’d had a long night.”

Hector stared at Walter, the frustration reaching another level. She makes a comment like that and still the guy doesn’t think to ask what or who kept her up so late? Fuck! Hector was going to break a tooth or two if he didn’t stop grinding them as he did when he thought of someone wearing Charlee into exhaustion.

“Hi, Walter.” A young girl in scrubs with little teddy bears on them walked into the small waiting room and smiled brightly at him. She glanced at Hector for a second then looked back at Walter. “You look different.” She smiled. “Your hair is shorter,” she studied his face a little longer, and then it seemed to dawn on her. “Your eyebrows . . . You cleaned them up.”

Walter smiled, running his fingers across his brows. “Yeah,” he glanced at Hector and laughed. “After a friend told me I should name it, I decided to do something about it.”

She frowned at that, and Hector was glad now that Walter didn’t mention it was Hector, who told him he should name his unibrow. “I didn’t think it was so bad, but it does look much better.”

Walter shrugged but didn’t say anything, not even thank you. The guy was clueless.

“Your grandpa is excited about your visit today. He said he has a few new tricks for you. Says he just might even beat you this time.”

Walter smiled, standing up. Hector stood with him. “We’ll see about that.” He turned to Hector. “Hector, this is Natalie. She’s the nurse assigned exclusively to my grandpa.” Hector smiled, nodding at her. “This is Hector. He plays chess too.”

Natalie smiled at Hector now. “You on the U.S. team too?”

Hector nodded with a smile. “Yep, just made the team actually.”

“Wow. You must be really good. And smart.” She turned to Walter, smiling timidly. “I know Walter is super smart. He’s tried teaching me how to play.” She shook her head, waving her hand in front of her. “Forget about it. I’m hopeless.”