PART I
Chapter One
Janie
Seven years ago in college
“Oh my God, oh my God, he is the hottest guy that I have ever seen in my life! And I mean, hands down, the hottest!” The words tripped out of my mouth as I talked excitedly about the dreamboat I’d just seen. “I think he might just be my future husband.”
“Janie, you say that about every guy.” Anabel laughed at me as she played with her light brown hair. “And most of them aren’t even hot.” She made a face at me, and I found it hard not to laugh at the goofy look on her pretty face.
“Trust me, this guy is so hot he could burn the sun,” I exclaimed as I tried to convince my best friend that this time I meant it. I really had just met the most gorgeous man in the world.
“Uh huh.” Anabel looked back down at her textbook as I continued to ramble on about the guy I’d just seen in the library.
“I think I’m in love.” I sighed dramatically, needing her to understand just how magical the moment had been. I still had butterflies in my stomach from the first moment I’d seen him. I could still remember how my heart had skipped a beat as soon as I’d laid eyes on him.
“Again?” Anabel sounded exasperated.
“This time it’s for real.” I laughed as I collapsed down on her bed and closed my eyes so that I could picture the hot guy I’d just seen in my head. “He looked like a Greek god—Zeus or Apollo.”
“Are they Greek or Roman?” Anabel giggled and my eyes popped open. This time Anabel was looking at me with a wry smile.
“Uhm, Greek, duh.” I laughed, though I wasn’t really sure.
“So what’s this Greek god’s name?”
“Nate.” I grinned at her dreamily. “He’s tall, like maybe 6 foot, he has dark blond hair, sky-blue eyes that make me think of tropical island beaches and…”
“Let me guess,” Anabel interrupted me. “He has a golden tan, perfect white teeth, the best body you’ve ever seen, and oodles of cash.”
“Actually, no.” I laughed. “He has crooked teeth—well, slightly crooked. And he’s only a little tan, and I don’t know if he has any money. We are in college, you know. I don’t know many billionaire college boys.”
“Well, he sure doesn’t sound like a perfect Adonis.”
“That’s what makes him even more perfect,” I rushed out. “He’s perfect for me because I love him even though he’s not perfect.”
“Janie, how can you love him? You just met him.”
“Sometimes you just know.” I winked at her. “I have a good feeling about him.”
“So how did you meet him?”
“We didn’t actually meet,” I admitted slowly.
“So how do you know his name?” Anabel looked at me suspiciously. “Don’t tell me you went through his wallet.”
“Of course not. I would never do that.” I paused. “Well, I would never do that again. I was drunk that night, and I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
“Not a good excuse, Janie.” Anabel shook her head. “That guy almost called the police, he thought you were trying to steal his identity.”
“He was an idiot.” I rolled my eyes. “I was looking for his driver's license, not his credit cards. I just wanted to know his name and date of birth, so I could figure out his star sign and see if we were compatible.”
“You’d only just met him.” It was Anabel’s time to roll her eyes. “Yet you thought he could have been the love of your life as well.”
“I was young and dumb.”
“That was three months ago, Janie.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I shook my head. “Trust me, this guy—Nate—he really is the love of my life.”
“Janie, you’re boy crazy. You really need to stop worrying about boys and focus on classes. We have midterms next week.”
“I know, I know. Why do you think I was at the library?”
“To check out guys?”
“No.” I made a face at her. “I was there to study…” I started giggling. “But then I saw Nate, and well, you know.”
“How do you know his name, by the way?”
“Oh, some girl ran up to him.” I made a face. “She was so eager, throwing her arms around him and stuff. She was like Oh, Nate, so good to see you! Yuck.”
“Are you sure that wasn’t his girlfriend?”
“Trust me, it wasn’t,” I responded quickly. Nate hadn’t held her as if she were his girlfriend. Not at all.
“Okay,” Anabel sighed and then shook her head. “Well, good luck with Nate. I need to study now.”
“But I need your help,” I whined. “You can’t study.”
“What do you mean, you need my help?” She looked up at me once again. “You need my help for what?”
“I need your help to find him.” I gave her my most innocent and sweetest look.
“How the hell am I meant to help you find him? I’ve never met him, never seen him, and all you know is that his name is Nate.” Anabel shook her head. “You’re crazy, Janie.”
“I know his name is Nate—and I also know something else.”
“Oh?” She cocked her head to the side and gave me a look. “Continue.”
“He’s in a chess club.”
“Huh?” She frowned. “A chess club?”
“Yeah,” I nodded excitedly. “The skank asked him how chess club was going.”
“Janie, you can’t just go around calling girls skanks.” Anabel shook her head. “That’s not—”
“Not now, Anabel,” I cut her off. “I looked online, and they have a chess club meetup tonight. We should go.”
“Can’t you go alone?” She made a face. “I don’t even know how to play chess.”
“Well, neither do I.” I sighed. “That’s why I need your help. I have an idea.”
“Oh, God.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to be a part of one your crazy schemes.” She thinned her lips. “No thanks.”
“Pleeeeease?” I whined. “I really, really need your help.”
“Janie!” She sighed. “Really? Why don’t you just wait and see what happens? Maybe you’ll meet him organically.”
“Anabel, this could be the love of my life. I could be Mrs. Nate.”
“Mrs. Nate, huh?” She snorted. “You don’t even know his last name.”
“Don’t be a spoilsport, please.” I made a face at her. “Trust me when I say that I think this guy is the one. I just felt something in my bones when I saw him. And…guess what?”
“What, Janie? He asked you to marry him?”
“Don’t be silly.” I jumped up. “He looked at me and gave me a sweet smile for a few seconds, and I swear to God that I felt a visceral reaction in my body. Just from looking into his eyes. I’m not even joking.”
“Janie, I swear to God that you act like you’re in high school.” Anabel sighed as she looked at me staring down at her with my best puppy dog eyes.
“I’m telling you. I really felt it. I think he could be the one.”
“There is no one.” Anabel shook her head. “You need to get that thought out of your head.”
“You know that I believe in the one, a soulmate, a perfect match …”
“You don’t even know this dude.”
“Please, Anabel.” I changed the subject as I knew she wouldn’t understand. “It’s hard to explain, but from the first moment that I saw him, I just felt something special. I really think that he could be it.”
“Uh huh, this guy you saw for all of five seconds.” Anabel threw her hands up in the air and shook her head vehemently. Her blonde tresses swung back and forth. “I know I’m going to regret this, but because I’m a good friend, your best friend, I will come. But if you do or say anything stupid, I’m leaving.”
“Yay, I love you!” I bent down and hugged her. “You’re the best.”
“I know I am.” She sighed. “I hope I don’t regret this.”
“You won’t.” I grinned happily. “When you’re the maid of honor at the wedding, you can say, ‘I remember when they first met.’”
“Uh huh.” Anabel shook her head and then started laughing. “I’d be saying a lot more than that.”
***
“Hi, welcome to the chess club. Is this your first time here?” A tall nerdy guy walked up to Anabel and me, looking especially pleased and eager to see us.
“Yeah.” I smiled at him warmly as I looked around the small classroom. Where was Nate? “But we really love chess.”
“Awesome.” He grinned even wider. “Welcome, my name’s Will, and I’m the president of the club.”
“Nice to meet you, Will. I’m Janie and this is my best friend Anabel.” I pointed over to Anabel. “We’re so excited to be here.”
“How long have you guys been playing?” He started talking rapidly. “Maybe you can join our team for the national tournament.”
“Well, uh…” I stumbled over my words as I stared at his eager face. Oh shit, what was I going to say now?
“We’d love that.” Anabel said evilly. “When’s the next competition?” She gave a sweet smile. “I might not be able to make it as I have a fairly busy schedule, but Janie here could most probably go. And she’s like, a chess grandmaster, so with her on your team, you are very likely to win.”
“Wow, you’re that good, huh?”
“Yeah,” I said weakly. “Some people call me Grandmaster Janie Kasparov.”
“Oh, is that your last name?” He asked me curiously.
“No.” I shook my head. “Wasn’t that that chess master’s name, Garry Kasparov?” I frowned as I thought. “Or maybe it was Gray Sarsaparilla? Kasporilla? Gorilla?” I paused as I noticed Will’s puzzled face.
“What’s that about a gorilla, then?” A deep voice sounded from behind me and I turned around. My heart immediately started beating rapidly as I looked into the deep blue eyes that were staring at me. It was Nate. In the flesh. My skin warmed at the sight of him. He was perfection in human form.
“Sorry, what?” I said as I looked at him.
“You were just talking about gorillas?”
“Oh, haha.” I smiled at him. “It was nothing important. I’m Janie, by the way.” I held my hand out and waited to feel his fingers on mine.
“Nice to meet you, Janie,” he said as he shook my hand warmly. A frisson of excitement ran through me at his touch. “I’m Nathan, though my friends call me Nate. I’m the vice-president of the chess club.”
“Wow, that’s awesome. Vice-president. Very impressive.” I beamed at him as I fluttered my lashes up at him. This couldn’t have been going any more perfectly.
“And what’s your name?” He turned to Anabel with the same friendly smile and I felt my stomach drop slightly. He seemed just as excited to be talking to her as he had to be talking to me. But I knew I shouldn’t feel too discouraged. Guys were often a lot slower than girls when it came to love.
“Anabel.”
“So you girls play chess?”
“Something like that.” Anabel said in a muffled tone as she gave me a wry look. “Janie’s the real master. I’m still a beginner.”
“Don’t be modest, Anabel.” I glared at her. She was taking it too far. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was so good that they actually wanted to play with me. “I’m hardly better than you, seeing as you were the one who taught me how to play.” I smiled innocently at her. “So, Nate, I assume you must be an amazing player?”
“I’m okay.” He shrugged, and I watched as he ran his hands through his slightly too long hair. Oh, how I wanted to reach over and run my hands through his tousled locks as well. “Do you guys want to play?” He nodded towards some tables at the front of the room. There were three chessboards set up and two very nerdy guys sitting there, already playing a game. “Will and I can play you guys.” He nodded towards Will, who was still standing there, looking at us like we were gifts under his Christmas tree that he couldn’t wait to unwrap.
“Oh, I think Anabel and I wanted to play each other today,” I said quickly. “We wanted to have a rematch because our last game was very contentious.”
“Oh?” Nate looked at me curiously. “How so?”
“Oh, well, we played for ten hours and then came to checkmate and it was, uhm, quite unexpected.”
“Oh?” He tilted his head, a puzzled look on his face.
“Yeah, uhm, my king was in a battle with some pawns. Back and forth, back and forth.”
“Huh?” He blinked, his eyes narrowing as he tried to process what I’d just said.
“Joke, joke.” I pretended to laugh instead of trying to clarify what I’d been saying. I had no idea how to play chess and that was going to become very apparent any second now. “So, what are you studying?” I said quickly. “Are you a sophomore as well?”
“Engineering.” He laughed. “And no, I’m a senior. You guys are sophomores?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “And wow, engineering. You must be so smart.”
“You’ve already told him that,” Anabel said, and I shot her a death look.
“Well, vice president of the chess club and an engineering major says he must be pretty smart.”
“Yeah, I bet you’re a regular Einstein, aren’t you, Nathan?” Anabel said as she rolled her eyes.
“Not quite.” Nate looked a little confused as he stood there. “But thanks for the vote of confidence. Shall we go over and play?”
“Sure.” I nodded quickly. This was starting to go south already. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought Anabel with me after all. Sometimes her snarky personality was too much to take. And she certainly wasn’t helping to make me look good in front of Nate. Even though she knew there was a high possibility that he was the love of my life. “Lead the way.”
“Will do.” He smiled at me and walked over to the tables. I stared at his legs and his ass as he walked and I heard Anabel start to laugh as we stood there.
“What?” I hissed as I looked at her. “What’s so funny?”
“Lead the way, Nate,” she whispered back at me. “Lead the way to your heart.”
“Anabel!” I blushed furiously as I hit her in the arm. “Ssh!”
“Why? Shouldn’t he know that you’re the one?” She giggled and then she quickly walked away from me before I could say anything else. I was about to stick my tongue out at her behind her back, but some inner voice in me stopped me.
“He will,” I said as I glared at her. “Trust me, he will.”
***
“What do you think you’re playing at?” I whispered to Anabel as we sat down and started to play the game. “You’re meant to be helping me. Not making me look bad.”
“Janie, I’m not going to tell you I told you so, but how am I supposed to help you when I have no clue how to play chess?”
“Well, neither do I,” I hissed as I stared at the board. I could see Nate staring at us from the corner of my eye and it was all I could do to not start crying. I was pretty sure that he had to know that I was a fraud and that I had no idea what I was doing.
“Having an intense game there, girls?” I looked over at Nate and he was grinning at me in a way that made my heart melt.
“You know it.” I grinned back at him, trying to stop myself from melting into his big blue eyes. Boy oh boy, was he cute. Pantymelting cute. I blushed as the thought crossed my mind.
“We’re nearly done. I’d love to see you guys finish,” He continued and the smile nearly left my face.
“Nearly done already?”
“We like to play five- and ten-minute games. Keeps our brains ticking.” He said and I just nodded as my own brain went into overdrive. There was no way that I could allow him to come and watch us play, no way at all. He’d know that we had no clue what we were doing.
“Oh, cool.” I attempted a light laugh, but I felt like I was going to cry. I knew Anabel thought I was crazy, but I really did feel something for Nate. Something that felt like it could be special. I looked over at Anabel, and I think she could sense the panic emanating from me because she rolled her eyes slightly before standing up and exclaiming.
“Oh my God, I just remembered that I have to go and feed my boyfriend’s dog.” She looked worried. “And Janie, you need to drive me there.” She paused and winked as me as I gazed at her in shock. “Now.”
“Oh?” I blinked up at her. “Right now?”
“Yes, Janie. Right now. I’m afraid we don’t have time to finish the game after all.”
“Oh okay.” I sighed, trying to not to look at her too gratefully. “I guess.” I stood up slowly and looked over at Nate with a sad look on my face. “This sucks.” I pouted.
“Maybe we can play soon?” he said and my heart thudded. He wanted to play with me? Maybe he liked me.
“Sure.”
“Or maybe you guys could do something else,” Anabel suggested and then cleared her throat. “What are you doing on Friday night, Nate? Maybe you can come over to our apartment. We were thinking of playing a new board game.”
“Oh, that sounds cool. Thanks.” He looked away from me and smiled at Anabel. “I’m actually going to the Sigma Ep party on Friday though. Maybe you guys can come by?”
“That would be great,” I said excitedly. “We’d love to come by.” Immediately my spirits lifted, and I started thinking about what outfit I would wear to the party.
“Okay, cool. Well, see you guys then.” He gave me another smile and then turned back to his game. “Bye, Anabel, bye, Jane.”
“It’s Janie,” I said, my heart dropping slightly. “It’s Janie, not Jane.” I muttered as I walked out of the room, behind Anabel, feeling my excited buzz dimming. I walked out of the room, not quite sure how to feel, but I was proud of myself. I was already on the way to making Nate realize that we were destined for each other. Though I would never tell him that. I wouldn’t even repeat those words to Anabel. I knew how crazy they would make me sound.