Your Move

“It’s your move.” Scotty looks at his airplane seatmate with raised eyebrows. 

He loves playing chess, especially after the morning they’ve had. It’s the one activity in the world that grounds him. He would never say this out loud, not even to Ava, but chess is his emotional support activity. 

“I know. I have the app open too, tough guy.” Ava responds while sticking her tongue out slightly as she considers her strategy. It’s a tell he’s noticed recently. He’s noticed a lot more about Ava in the last few months. More than in all the years, he’s been playing chess with her and his best friend, Ava’s older brother, Aiden.  

He keeps his eye on Ava as the aisle seat is occupied by an impeccably dressed man. Scotty gives this guy a glare, hoping he minds his own business and doesn’t say anything to Ava. This guy doesn’t look much older than Scotty’s 21 years, but still. 

That’s another new thing for Scotty. This overwhelming need to protect Ava. She’s 18 and legally considered an adult, but that means nothing to him. First, it was the swarmy chess player from Sweden at the tournament, and now this. Maybe it’s because he was tasked by Ava’s parents to accompany her to this international chess tournament in Singapore or it could be he’s just noticed how much Ava’s grown up in the last few years since he’s been away at college. But Scotty doesn’t want to think about that too much. 

As if the guy senses the threatening glare, he immediately introduces himself to Scotty and Ava. 

“Hi, I’m Brent.” He unbuttons the cuffs of his crisp white button-down dress shirt and rolls his sleeves up to his forearms. He just finished tucking in his suit jacket and tie in the overhead compartment.  

Scotty can’t see her face, but he can tell Ava can’t stop staring at this dark-haired blue-eyed young man of mystery. 

Brent nods his head to her phone. 

“You play chess on that app? I heard it’s one of the better gaming apps.” 

Ava’s blonde hair falls over her face as she takes a moment to close her gaping mouth and look down at her phone. 

Scotty leans over and responds for both of them. 

“Yes, we both play chess. We have an ongoing game in the app. We were just at the International Chess Federation’s annual tournament. That’s what we were doing in Singapore. Now we are finally returning to London via Amsterdam after a little mishap… Next week, we’ll fly home to the United States.” Scotty pauses and continues, “I’m Scott by the way.” He reaches over Ava to shake Brent’s hand. 

Brent nods along with the handshake. He tilts his head in thought. 

“A chess mishap? What happened?” Brent asks. 

“Everything was fine with the chess tournament! It’s our flight! We missed it this morning. We had to spend 6 hours in the airport until we got on this one!” Ava blurts out in a burst of manic energy. 

Brent turns his attention to Ava with an amused grin. 

“Oh yeah? A missed flight and a chess tournament?” Brent holds back laughter at her enthusiasm.

Ava shakes her head with vigor as if she’s lost all of her motor skills. It’s like she’s never seen a good-looking man before. Scotty rolls his eyes to himself and nudges her elbow. 

She ignores Scotty on purpose and turns her entire body toward Brent. Scotty runs his fingers over his ginger buzz cut in frustration. 

“Yeah,” she says with a shy hesitancy that only Scotty could understand. She’s always been weary of her chess playing. She’s a bit of a chess prodigy, but it hasn’t been easy for her. The teasing in school. The absences for tournament play. The mounting pressure of being female in a male-dominated game. Maybe there was more reason to be protective over Ava than Scotty thought. 

Brent didn’t press further, but he nodded again at her phone. 

“Can I show you something cool in that app?” Brent asks. 

Ava points her phone to him. “You play?” She asks with a hint of surprise. That never happens. A good-looking, seemingly cool man, not too much older than her, playing chess? What a rare gem. 

“I dabble,” Brent says with a sly grin as he reaches to take her phone. “I used to play a lot more when I was younger, but this app is one of my faves for when I have the time.” He winks at her as he scrolls through the app to find what he’s looking for. Ava leans in closer. 

Scotty just looks on in disbelief. Giving up on capturing Ava’s attention again, Scotty turns toward the window. After a few minutes, Scotty’s head starts to nod from side to side and his eyes can barely stay open long enough to focus on his phone screen. He turns to Ava with a sleepy shrug. “Hey, I’m just going to catch a few winks while you make your next move.” 

 Ava waves her hand at him with a dismissive gesture. 

“Yeah, yeah.” She says. She doesn’t even look at him. He could be falling out of the plane and she wouldn’t even notice, she was so engaged with what Brent was showing her. Scotty willed himself to stay awake to keep an eye on them, but his body wouldn’t obey. The events of the early morning race through the airport finally caught up to him. 

The plane landing in Amsterdam jolts Scotty awake from a recurring dream he just started having on this trip. It’s always him and Ava playing chess in her backyard, and as the game’s intensity increases, Scotty and Ava move physically closer. He always wakes up before…uh…anything else happens. 

Scotty looks around and turns to see Ava and Brent’s heads bent together still looking at the chess app. He tries to ignore the green monster in his chest when reality taps its finger on his shoulder and wakes Scotty again. He realizes it is nighttime in Amsterdam and they don’t have anywhere to stay since their original travel plans got disrupted in Singapore by missing their first flight. Dread overwhelms Scotty with this realization. It would be one thing if he was traveling by himself, but he has Ava to think of, and they are pretty low on funds at this point. So maybe sleeping in the airport would be a fun adventure that they could laugh about later? Much later. 

The plane stopped while Scotty was lost in thought. Brent had just retrieved his suit jacket and flung it over his shoulder like some model playboy when he looked down at Scotty and Ava as they were gathering their belongings to deplane. 

“Where will you stay tonight? Brent asks. “Scott, Ava tells me all of your accommodations got messed up because you missed your flight this morning.” 

Scotty hesitates to tell this virtual stranger his genius plan to sleep in the airport. Ava whispers to him. “He’s cool. He’s into chess like us. I trust him.” She gives an affirming nod. 

  Scotty looks up at Brent. “The plan is to sleep in the airport.” 

Brent shakes his head. 

“Nope, I can’t let that happen.” 

Scotty and Ava look at each other confused. What did he mean by that? 

Scotty and Ava rise out of their seats to move down the aisle. 

“Follow me,” Brent says with the confidence of a businessman who might broker million-dollar deals for a living.  

Scotty whispers over Ava’s shoulder. “Are you sure you trust this guy?” 

“Do you trust me?” Ava whispers back. “I just spent the better part of a 12-hour flight playing chess with him. You know I have a special skill with chess players. We can trust him.” 

Yes, that was one of Ava’s strengths. She uses her innocent demeanor to observe and charm her opponents, and based on how she reads them she can tell any number of things about her opponent’s character. It’s more of an art and less of a science, but she is a master. 

Scotty mimics her affirmative nod from before. “Okay.” He whispers back. 

They follow Brent through the Amsterdam airport to a fancy hotel that sits adjacent to the main terminal. He enters the lobby as Scotty grabs his elbow. 

“Wait a minute. What’s going on here? What are you doing?” Scotty asks in a rush.

Brent looks amused again. 

“I can’t let fellow chess players sleep in the Amsterdam airport. I’m paying for your hotel room tonight so you can get a good night’s sleep before you fly back to London.” 

“You don’t have to do that.” Ava pipes up from behind Scotty. 

“I know I don’t have to. But I want to.” Brent says as he approaches the registration desk with the swagger of a young man who’s stayed in some of the highest-end hotels in the world. 

Scotty couldn’t help but think to himself. “Who is this guy?” 

The night clerk seemed to know him straightaway. 

“I’d like you to take care of my good friends here, Scott and Ava. They’ve had a rough day, and should not be disturbed.” 

“Of course, sir. Only the best for any friends of yours,” the clerk says as she hands Brent two room keys.

“Thank you, Anneke. I appreciate you.” They exchange affectionate familiar smiles as if they’ve both done this before. 

Brent turns to Scotty and Ava who look absolutely gobsmacked at this turn of events. 

A sly grin spreads over Brent’s face before he hands over the room keys. 

“I don’t mind doing this, but I’m doing this on one condition.” 

Ugh. Here it comes. This guy wants something shady from Scotty and Ava. Scotty can feel it. 

Before Scotty can say a word, Brent says, “I’m paying for your hotel room tonight with the condition that someday you will both pay it forward. Someday, you have to promise to do this for other travel-weary people. Once you both agree, I’ll leave you alone and you’ll never hear from me again.” 

Scotty blows out a relieved breath and holds out his hand. 

“Of course.” He agrees. 

“Absolutely,” Ava says at the same time. 

Brent hands the room keys to Scotty and gives a firm nod. He walks out of the lobby just the way he came. Just as he promised.

Along with the room keys, Brent slipped his business card into Scotty’s hand. All it says is…

Brent Ableman

Developer 

Ableman. Ableman. Scotty knew that name from somewhere.

Scotty’s eyes go wide, and he turns around in a rush. 

Ava jolts back and steps out of the way, or she would have been knocked over by Scotty’s sudden movement. 

“What the hell, Scotty? What’s wrong?” 

“Ava, I think that’s Brent Ableman.” 

“Wait. THE Brent Ableman?” She repeats herself as she turns toward the direction Scotty is looking. “THE Brent Ableman. Wow.” 

“Yeah, the former chess prodigy we’ve looked up to all of our lives and the creator of the chess app who spent the plane ride giving you all of its ins and outs.  He disappeared from public life when he graduated college and started developing apps. That’s probably why I didn’t recognize him. He got older.”

“Yeah, he’s probably 25 now, right?” Ava says with awe in her voice, still staring in the direction Brent walked.  

“Yeah. 25. Sounds about right,” Scotty whispers. 

Ava swallows hard. She turns slowly back to Scotty. 

“Do you think that’s a freakishly weird coincidence?”  

Scotty is finally able to look at Ava. 

“No, Ava. I don’t think that was a coincidence. Not at all.” 

“And I was just yammering on all about my chess strategy and he let me! How utterly embarrassing.” She plants a facepalm on her forehead. 

Scotty puts his arm around Ava’s shoulder. “Come on. I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.” 

“Oh, it was. Ughhhhhh!” 

Scotty chuckles. 

“Come on, kid. Let’s go sleep it off. Tomorrow’s a new day.” 

Ava groans at Scotty’s impression of their old chess coach from their younger years.

She nods and lets him lead her to their rooms.