Invitation to the Game of Chess

The next day, a familiar place that was starving for more customers. It was not surprising in the slightest, considering the time of the day being past noon. Those who had come during lunch break already went away back to work. Even young people such as students were not present in the café, mostly due to warm weather outside, probably last this year. For now, a single café employee was present at his work, Eugene.

The man was working by the kitchen table, pouring warm cream into the cup of fragrant coffee, as if drawing on a canvas. Over time, a silhouette of the rooster was born under his hands and a cup of coffee was ready to be served. Although his pace of step was fast, he managed to hold a cup stable and not spill it on the floor. Any customer would be impressed by his speed, but not the customer he was serving. In fact, she was the only customer present at the time, which made Eugene realize that no one could witness his skills, thus it was an unnecessary risk. In the end, that one customer is quite hard to impress; on the contrary, it was easy to irritate her.

"You were quite lucky that not even a single drop spilled back then. I would gladly see you breaking your back while you mop the floors until they shine."

Eugene crossed his arms and said, "You almost make me regret putting so much effort into your coffee!"

"At least you understand the value of effort, without it there would not be point in serving me."

"Whatever, Ms Princess."

"If you know my name, then call me by it." coldly protested the lady and pushed away the cup, to which Eugene said, "Ok, ok, Sylvia! Just do not waste the coffee, I spent so much time on it!"

She smiled arrogantly and enveloped her slender fingers around the cup's ear. First, she looked at the cream art and hummed. Next, came several sniffs that were barely audible due to jazz music inside the café. Finally, she gave it a taste with two small gulps.

After a minute of expectations, Sylvia licked her lips and said, "Bland."

"What do you mean by it?" narrowed his brows Eugene, to which Sylvia expanded on her verdict, "Exactly what I said. I would rather call it coffee flavoured milkshake. You poured way too much cream."

Eugene sat by the table while glaring at the cup of coffee. The rooster art was already distorted, and he could see the light brown surface of the drink. Sylvia further pushed the cup towards him.

"Have a look at the cream art, the rooster's lines are way too thick. However, the volume of the cup is the same. You should have poured less coffee into the cup from the very beginning to do such a mistake. Care to explain how did you fumble the work like that?"

Sylvia continued chewing out the man, however, he barely listened to her rumble. Instead, Eugene was subconsciously depicting how he brewed this coffee step-by-step. And throughout the process, he struggled to remember some details. He was able to draw out a single conclusion.

"Perhaps, I am still drunk?"

Sylvia looked him in the eyes and asked in an upset tone, "Did you drink last night?"

"Yeah, everyone does it. Do you want to lecture me about that as well?"

Sylvia pouted and turned away from the man. Coincidently, her eyes landed on the huge painting of the battlefield that caught Eugene's eyes as well. He did not want to observe it, however, upon having a look at it, he realized how bad was his mental state.

"God damn it! I forgot to tell Arnold to hide it! He was here today as well…"

"At once, we reached the same conclusion, huh." unexpectedly announced the woman and looked back at him, "You need not worry about it."

"Did you already tell it to Arnold? When?"

"Obviously, when you were away to have a drink." She sighed and continued, "And what did you discuss with your friends? Probably our little outgoing in the park?"

Eugene's face slightly flushed, he averted his gaze and said in an adamant voice, "Nothing special at all, just the politics and business. Your simple young men interests. Oh, by the way! One of my friends, Maurice, he studies at our local university. He challenged you to a game of chess! Can you play chess?"

Sylvia's eyes widened in surprise, but only for a second. Afterwards, she remained silent for another instance before saying, "I played against Victoria a few times, but I refuse."

"Victoria?" raised his brow Eugene, before realizing it was her mother's name. Then, he reacted to the second part of her response, "Wait, why do you refuse!?"

"Reasons. Why would I want to pay my visit to an unfamiliar place to waste my time at a game of chess with an unfamiliar person? Moreover, the outcome will always be just one." she said and snatched a cup of coffee under Eugene's nose. Then, she turned away to face the outside through the café window.

Eugene was in shock from her reasoning. To think a person who enjoyed the boring date they had, would so peremptorily refuse the more fun activity. But after a quick thought, an idea struck his mind and Eugene sighed, "Well, guess you are scared of losing, right? After all, Maurice is really good at chess."

This comment made Sylvia menacingly lower her cup of coffee and turn back to Eugene. Her malicious eyes were greeted with a smug smile, further playing on her nerves. Finally, the coffee was bittered up, although not through natural means, but rather through increase of bitterness in the atmosphere.

"Scared? Did you have a sudden eardrum rupture? As I said, the outcome in the game will be only one and that's my victory."

"Wow, only talk and no action! As expected from a doll like you." Eugene further tickled the dragons tail, "Prove your words, Sylvia."

"Very well." she said while getting up from her chair. Eugene remained sitting by the table, in confusion, observing her walking towards the entrance door. Before leaving the café, however, she peeked at him one more time and said, "What are you waiting for? Lead me to Monsieur upstart at once!"

"You are the one acting like an upstart here, relax." said Eugene in unpleasant tone, stood up from the table and took the empty cup of coffee, "After my work hours are over, we will go there together, Maurice will not be leaving the university anytime soon anyway."

Sylvia put her hands on her hips, peeked at the outside through the entrance door window to witness the street that was lacking of people. Then, she arrogantly declared, "Very well, I will pay for your remaining hours as well as compensation to Arnold for the lost hours this café will experience while you are off work. I am renting you for the remaining day, Eugene Dagaz, so there should not be any problems now."

"Your declaration in itself is a problem here, god damn it! I am not an object to be rented." hastily said Eugene, but then suddenly stopped. After having a little thought, he realized the profitability of her offer. Not only, he would not need to stay in an empty café until the evening, but also would be able to witness the face of his "mistress" after she loses in a game of chess against Maurice. That was indeed once in a lifetime opportunity!

He said, "Ok, wait here!"

The man rushed into the kitchen, quickly washed the few dishes that were in his hands, and put on the outside clothes. Finally, they both were ready to leave "Monso Rooster". Eugene nervously exhaled and locked the café, subconsciously he was praying to all gods he knew for his safety from Arnold. Eugene knew that the la Avise family was important to Arnold, however, he was not aware to which extent. Would Sylvia be able to tame his wrath, or he made a grave mistake? He would find out only after some time. For now, though, he had to lead the way to the University of Seine.

But right after they made a few steps towards their destination, even without a chance to start some kind of chat, they heard two people arguing in the alleyway. Eugene and Sylvia looked at each other and came forward. Sylvia wanted to ignore the trouble and sped up, but Eugene slowed down and pricked his ears.

"I promise you, I will get the money for us. Just please, can you shut up!?" said a man, whose voice was weirdly familiar to Eugene, then, the unknown woman replied, "You have already done enough, after I worked my ass off you lost it all. Just do not do anything, I figure everything out on my own!"

"Of course, go on, put us into more trouble!" hissed the man and then went away from the woman as well as those eavesdropping on their argument. The woman, on the other hand, ran towards Eugene and Sylvia which brought panic onto Eugene, they surely have heard what they need not to.

As soon as the woman jumped from the alleyway, Eugene froze in place but then sighed in relief, since he recognized the woman. It was Cossette, Douglas's girlfriend, meaning the mysterious man was Douglas himself.

Cossette's brown hair swayed on the wind, even after she stopped to examine the unexpected onlookers. With her pale blue eyes she first looked at Sylvia, to be taken aback from her spectacular dress, even though hers was not half bad on its own. It was more modern, yet just as beautiful. Then, Cossette finally noticed Eugene and gasped.

"Eugene… please, forget what you had heard over there…" she said and tried to leave, but Eugene stopped her and said, "Wait, what happened between you two? What kind of money did Douglas lose?"

The woman lightly pushed him away and whispered, "None of your business, just stay away from it all."

At that, Cossette left, while being under a peculiar gaze of the gal that all this time silently stood beside them. Sylvia observed the situation with her mouth being hidden under her palm, she reached her own conclusion from this sudden meeting.