Nope, nope, nope. I’m not getting fired on day two. He smiled politely at Sora. “I have to refuse.”

She smiled politely back. “Then I’ll play it with Louise.”

Does she even play chess? “I imagine she’ll give you a very kind rejection.”

“Oh come on, Mister Raine. It’s not as if we’re going to play until we’re truly drunk. There’s only one bottle of sake in the fridge. It won’t do much.”

Raine maintained his smile. “Miss Sora, it’s my job to make sure you’re safe. I can’t see how I’ll be able to do that after drinking. I’d prefer to avoid any alcohol.” He actually wanted some beer pretty badly.

“Okay, fine.” She sighed and moved a piece on the board. “Your turn.”

Finally. He moved his queen and captured a pawn, putting his piece in danger of being captured by her queen. She confidently took the bait, and Raine moved a knight. “Check.”

Her queen and her king were being threatened.

“Goddammit.” She leaned back in her chair. “Let’s take a short break.”

Then she got up and went to the kitchen, while Raine stayed in his seat, doing nothing but staring out the window and being bored. Sora was pouring herself a glass of lemonade when she asked, “Mister Raine, what do you normally do? As in, for work.”

“I invest,” he said. He wasn’t comfortable saying much more about it, considering how little success in getting capital until Levin’s $25,000. Even that wasn’t much for an investor.

“Oh. Have you worked on Wall Street?”

“Not for long. But yes.” He changed the topic. “Since you’re studying economics at Yale, I assume you’ve met plenty of people trying to get into the bulge bracket banks.”

“Most of my friends there are like that.” She went back into her seat, taking a sip of lemonade as she did so, and put down her glass next to the bottle of water that he’d put on the table earlier. She stared at the bottle curiously. “Is this yours?”

“It’s for you.”

“Oh, thank you.” She opened it and took a sip. “The lemonade is too sweet.”

You could have tasted it before pouring yourself an entire glass. “Why not dilute it?”

“No space. Oh well.”

Dilute it. Dilute it? The words made him pause.

Oh, we can dilute the sake, he thought as they resumed their game. Even while half-distracted with that idea, he soon handed her yet another loss.

Sora took a deep breath. “How do you keep setting up those moves?”

It’s not me; it’s you. Your moves are easy to predict. “Well, you tend to play by the book. More importantly, you really don’t like sacrificing your pieces.”

“So I’m predictable?”

Obviously. “A bit.”

She bit her lip. “A friend told me the same thing.”

Raine moved several pieces on the board to how they’d been a few moves earlier. “You could have let your knight get captured to take my rook here.”

Sora looked surprised. “How do you remember where all the pieces were?”

“Not all of them. I don’t remember where most of my pawns were. Anyway, you should sacrifice your pieces more freely.”

She smiled wryly. “I hate losing pieces.”

“No, you just hate losing.”

And then, silence.

Raine blinked. Did I just say that out loud?

Sora gave him a stiff smile. “I’m sorry?”

“Well, that didn’t come out right,” Raine said.

“Mhm.”

“My bad.”

She sat there without responding, her chin resting on her palm as she stared straight at him with a slight frown.

I’m not very smart, am I? Raine felt a sudden, strong urge to go downstairs and get a can of beer.

“Who likes losing?” Sora asked.

“No one, I suppose,” Raine said.

“There’s nothing enjoyable about losing.” She calmly reset the board. “Please give me a leg up this time. At this rate, I might get into a habit of losing.”

A habit of losing? That’s a funny way to put it. He nodded. “I’ll give you odds of pawn and move.”

Raine took one of his pawns off the board and let Sora make the first move again.

“Okay.”

They started immediately. Sora started with the Evans Gambit.

Oh, that’s kind of interesting. She was playing more aggressively than before. To accept the gambit meant that he would take a white pawn adjacent to one of his bishops. She would then force it to retreat, and tear open the center of the board to gain the advantage. But if he declined the gambit and didn’t capture her pawn, he could end up in a worse situation by giving her more options.

He accepted the gambit, mildly curious to see how she would continue from there.

She kept the pressure on, and Raine responded by playing defensively, waiting for a mistake he could exploit. He wasn’t used to playing chess with odds, and it felt weird to be missing a pawn from the start.

Half a dozen moves later, he saw opportunity. He threatened her queen with his knight, causing her to move it back. It created a chance for him to send his bishop halfway across the board to capture her rook. She frowned but didn’t seem too flustered.

Her knight moved to take his bishop, which then retreated. Her knight captured a pawn instead. Raine responded by taking that knight with his queen, putting one of his rooks in danger of being captured in two simple moves. Sora took his rook and moved her own.

“Check,” she said.

Raine moved his king out of the way. Three moves later, she checked him again. He advanced his queen while she attacked his king.

“Check,” he said.

She moved her king out of the way. Then she advanced a pawn on the side where he lacked a rook. Two moves later, she promoted her pawn to a knight and smiled.

“Ah, clever,” he said, seeing what she’d done.

He tried to defend, but it was too late. It was over in three predictable moves.

“Checkmate!” she said with a triumphant grin.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you for the handicap.”

Raine smiled at her. The win seemed to have improved her mood. He let out a small, quiet sigh of relief.

Sora leaned back and relaxed. “That was tiring.”

“Enough chess for today?” he asked.

She tapped her chin, seemingly in thought. “Hm...”

Oh boy. Raine looked calm and patient on the surface, but inside, he was hoping for an escape from the endless chess matches.

“Okay, now for the alcohol,” she said, getting up.

“Sorry, what?”

“You don’t have to drink if you don’t want to.” He heard the sound of her opening the fridge.

“What happened to waiting for Louise to come back?” he asked, checking his watch. It was only about one o’clock, three hours from when Louise would return.

“She might get upset if she sees you drinking, even if it’s after four. So we should play before she’s back.” She held up the bottle of sake. “It’s only this much anyway.” It wasn’t a small bottle.

Raine wanted to refuse. But sake sounded to him like a good enough replacement for beer, at least until he was done for the day and could go down to get a can or two from a convenience store.

Sora came back to the table with the sake and two shot glasses, and Raine grabbed a chair from the dining table for her to put them on top of. She poured sake into one glass and then looked over to him while holding the second.

“Well, if you put in a very, very small amount, I’ll dilute it and have a glass or two,” he said. “We’ll take a sip for each captured piece. Whoever loses takes two sips.”

“Okay,” she said with a smile.

“Pawn and move again?”

“Yes, please.”

Raine grabbed a new bottle of water from the fridge and diluted his sake. Sora reset the chessboard, and they started a match of Dead Liver Chess (lite).

Sora started the match just as aggressively as before. Just a few moves in, she sacrificed a pawn and drank a small sip of sake. Raine then lost a pawn of his own and did the same. Huh. Funny taste. He’d never had enough sake to get used to the taste. He much preferred beer.

Their match progressed slowly for the next twenty minutes, neither of them launching a daring attack and sacrificing or taking enough pieces to finish their glasses. But then Sora captured a black bishop with her queen. Raine took the bait and captured it with his own queen. Both sides drank. Sora then used a knight to capture an unprotected rook and threaten both his king and his queen. Raine drank.

Then his glass was empty. He felt absolutely nothing. “I think I diluted it too much.”

“Mm.” She was clearly too busy contemplating her next move to hear him.

He poured himself another glass and diluted it slightly less this time. Then, still holding his glass, he stared at the clear liquid for a moment. Is this a bad idea? It shouldn’t be, right? He glanced at the bottle of sake. Not even a tenth of it was gone. Eh, we’re fine.

“Oh, please refill mine too,” she said.

He did, and they continued the match. Raine still wasn’t used to missing a pawn from the start, so Sora gradually gained the advantage, one well-planned move at a time, until he’d lost several pawns and both bishops.

“Check.”

Raine wasn’t a fan of that word, at least not when didn’t come from his own mouth. A short chase began as his king fled. Whatever offence he tried to mount was slowly dismantled by Sora. Ten turns passed.

“Check. Mate.” She laughed.

Raine finished his sake. “No more odds for you.”

Sora smiled and refilled their glasses. “I guess you don’t play chess with odds often.”

I don’t even play normal chess often. “In college, my most common chess handicap was being drunk. But that didn’t mean much when all my friends were just as drunk as me.” Raine started resetting the board.

“So you had the four-year party experience?” she asked half-jokingly.

“A hangover every other morning and a drinking game every other night. It was four years of crazy, drunken fun. How are Yale parties?”

She drank. “I don’t know.”

Raine tilted his head. “Hm?”

“I’ve never gone to one.” She picked up a chess piece, the white king. “And I’ve never had even a drop of alcohol at Yale. I can normally only drink on special occasions.” She stared at the king, and then the board. She put it down, sighed, and poured herself more sake.

The troubles of a rich girl. But he could understand, somewhat. “Most rich students get a decent amount of freedom in college, though.”

“I wish I were one of them.” She advanced a pawn to start the next match. Raine also moved a pawn and drank.

They weren’t playing a drinking game. They were playing a game and drinking. Sora downed her sake and sighed.

Isn’t she drinking too fast? Wait, she’s pouring herself more sake? Raine felt a little worried. “Miss Sora, I think you should drink a bit slower and consider stopping after that glass.”

She downed her glass of sake again. “Cut me some slack, please. This is my first real vacation in years. I’ll be back in my birdcage in five weeks.”

“Yale is hardly a birdcage.”

“Anywhere is a birdcage with my goddamn maids there.”

Raine blinked. Woah.

Sora noticed his reaction. She leaned her head on her palm. “I’m sorry. It must be the alcohol.” She shook her head and put her shot glass down on the table. She sighed.

Raine closed the bottle of sake. “I think we’ve had enough sake for today.”

“Yes.” She nodded. “More than enough.”

From the sofa, he grabbed the box for storing her chess pieces and chessboard in. She helped him put them all away, and then stood up. She swayed a little but quickly steadied herself.

“I’m going to take a nap,” she said, shuffling to her room. “Thank you for playing chess with me, Mister Raine.”

“No problem, Miss Sora. I enjoyed playing against you.” It was partly true, at least.

“Mm.” As she approached her room’s door, her shuffling slowed. “Hey, can we drop the honorifics? It’s honestly strange to be called ‘Miss Sora’ by someone who looks my age and isn’t one of my maids.”

“Ah okay, Miss—” He stopped and corrected himself. “Okay, Sora.”

She smiled lightly. “I’ll see you in about an hour, Raine. Good night.”