Annoyingly, Hector was still feeling an incredible amount of guilt every time he even looked at Walter’s bloated face. The least he could do was agree to walk over and talk to the girl he was trying so hard to impress.
Just a few feet away from them, Hector spoke through his smile, “If you start doing that thing with your head and biting your lip, I’m out.”
“But—”
Hector turned to him incredulous. “Are you seriously gonna do that again? I wasn’t kidding, dude. I thought we talked about this earlier.” Hector lowered his voice. “Trust me. You look like an idiot. Do not do that again, okay?” He discreetly placed his hand on Walter’s arm then squeezed hard and whispered. “Okay?”
Walter flinched then rolled his eyes but finally agreed with a nod. They walked over to the girls. Unlike when he and Walter had first arrived, Charlee wasn’t acting as friendly anymore. She was probably tired of being there. Hector could relate. He was like that too. During play, he’d get so lost in the game hours could fly and he wouldn’t even know it. Watching a tournament was different. While he enjoyed it, he could only watch for so long before he was done.
Neither one of the girls said anything when they arrived. Charlee even seemed preoccupied, glancing in another direction. Walter’s dumb ass, who was supposed to be bringing him over to meet another member of the team, said nothing either. Instead he stood there looking all nervous and fidgeting with his hands. Finally, the other girl with Charlee spoke. “Congrats!” She smiled, holding out her hand.
Hector shook her hand and smiled. “Thanks.”
“We know who you are,” she said, prodding Charlee with her arm. “I’m Drew and this is Charlee. Looks like you two are going to be on the team together now.”
Charlee nodded, her smile was forced, and she didn’t offer her hand like Drew had. Those sparkling blues eyes of hers darted away in another direction the moment they met his. “That’s an unusual name,” Hector said in an attempt to get her to look at him again. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a girl named Charlee before.”
She turned to him a bit wide-eyed but then smiled, making his own smile go even bigger. “It’s Charlotte actually, but everyone calls me Charlee.”
Hector nodded, taking in her deep blue eyes. “Ah, I see. Charlee. I like that. It’s cute—suits you.”
Their eyes locked for the tiniest of moments before she glanced away again, pulling a strand of that fiery red hair behind her ear.
Her friend cleared her throat, and Hector turned to see her grinning. “So, is this the first chess team you’ve been on, Hector?”
It was only when he saw Drew grin even bigger that he realized he wore the biggest goof-ass smile still. Had Charlee smiling at him actually done that to him? He felt almost as stupid as Walter bobbing his head looked and immediately toned the smile down to a smirk.
Walter nudged Hector before he could respond to Drew. “Since you made this team, then most likely they’ll be inviting you to play on the school team as well.” Walter’s head started the damn bobbing thing again. These girls must think them the two biggest idiots. Hector slid his hand in his pocket, making sure to elbow Walter in the process. Walter picked up on it right away and stopped the head movement then continued. “You can’t start school mid semester, but their inviting you to come and sit in with the chess team as soon as you want is a sure sign they want you on it. You gonna be there on Monday?”
Trying to regain some of his cool back, Hector glanced around, not showing much interest. “I’ll have to check my schedule, but I think I’ll be able to swing it.”
Walter started to fill him in on the time and place they meet, but Drew interrupted him. “So are you doing anything to celebrate this win, Hector? This is a pretty big deal.” She turned to Charlee with a smile. “Isn’t it, Charlee?”
Immediately his eyes were on Charlee again. Yeah, real smooth. What the hell was his problem? She nodded but glanced away again, not looking the least bit impressed. Hector wondered if maybe she too was a chess snob. He stared at her probably a little too long, because when he turned back to Drew, she was looking at him a bit quizzically with that same grin she wore earlier. Damn it.
“I hadn’t made any plans,” he said, overcompensating with a flirtatious smile. “But I’m sure I’ll find one way or another to celebrate.”
He had plenty of open invitations he could head to straight from here. Weekend or not, his evenings were never dull. “Well, I think you should do something.” Drew smirked, giving Hector the tiniest bit of hope. Maybe he’d confused her grinning earlier for having caught him gaping at Charlee with his goofy smile, and she’d actually been flirting with him. He really hoped so, because he felt pretty stupid now.
He sized Drew up very obviously to test his theory. She was a little on the skinny side, and he’d never been into blondes, but then he’d never been into redheads either, and here one smile from Charlee had turned him into a bumbling idiot. Blond or not, Drew was doable. Typically, he’d be all over what was beginning to sound like an invitation, but for some reason, he wasn’t feeling it. Still, he decided to play along just to make up for having been so transparent about getting caught up with Charlee—the girl Walter was pining after. “You have any suggestions?”
Bingo! Her face lit up as he expected it would, and he felt the relief seep in. His theory was right. This was exactly what the sheepish grins had been about. She was flirting with him—not on to him. Just as she began to speak, two girls he’d never seen before walked up to them. “Hector Ayala?” The taller of the two turned to Drew and Charlee. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just had to ask.” She turned back to Hector without giving Drew or Charlee a moment to respond. “Are you really the same Hector from 5th Street?”
Hector smiled, nodding but didn’t get a chance to answer before Walter answered for him, “The one and only!”
Hector turned to Walter, who was starting the stupid head thing again, and shot him a look. Walter stopped immediately and to Hector’s relief lost the unconvincing smug expression as well.
“I told you.” The shorter girl said with a big smile then reached her hand out to Hector. “I’m Miriam and this is Leticia.” Hector shook Miriam’s hand then Leticia’s as well.
“Finally, a Latino on the team,” Leticia said. “I was cheering you on for that reason alone, but then Miriam said you were from 5th Street in East L.A., and I couldn’t believe it. I used to live right by there.”
“Really?” He smiled.
Out of habit because it’s what he usually did when girls came up to him like this and because Leticia’s body language was giving him the go-ahead to do so, Hector checked her out. Very nice. Miriam wasn’t half bad either but nothing real eye catching—your typical Hispanic girl—long dark straight hair, big dark eyes and a little too much makeup. But Leticia had it going on and she knew it too. She was tall and slender but not too thin. The curves were in all the right places, just like he liked them, and she was showing just enough cleavage to tease at how nicely stacked she was.
“Yes, I did,” Leticia smiled a little more seductively now that she saw she had his full attention. “Not for very long, but even after we moved, we used to go back a lot because my mom liked the grocery stores in that area.”
Hector nodded as Leticia continued to talk. He glanced at Drew, who did nothing to hide the annoyance she was obviously feeling over this little interruption. Charlee didn’t look too happy either, but she wasn’t as blatant as Drew. He had a feeling what they were thinking, because he was sort of wondering himself. These two didn’t look the chess tournament type at all. And they were dressed more like two girls out on the prowl for the night than they were for a chess tournament. “We play chess too,” Miriam said as if he’d read his mind.
“Not good enough to enter a competition like this,” Leticia added with another flirtatious smile.
For the first time since they’d arrived, Charlee suddenly spoke. “It’s by invitation only.”
“Yeah, you don’t just enter to try out for the U.S. team,” Drew explained.
The sarcasm didn’t go unnoticed by Leticia because her eyebrow lifted. “I know that.”
“Have you ever played in a speed tournament?” Walter asked.
Apparently he was the only one of them that failed to catch the snarky tone in Charlee and Drew’s remarks, because he seemed genuinely curious.
Leticia must’ve mistaken Walter’s question to be another jab at her level of chess skill, because her response was just as snappy. “No, but I have been in tournaments.”
“Ever won any?” Charlee asked, those deep blue eyes of hers finally staying in one place long enough for Hector to really get a good look. He’d never seen lashes the color of hers. From this distance, he could see they were as bright red as her hair. From further away, they’d looked almost dark brown, but he saw now that was only because they were so thick. It made the blue in her eyes stand out even more. They were something else: way different than any eyes he’d ever admired up close. And he could easily get lost trying to count all of the delicate freckles sprinkled over her cute little nose and around her eyes.
He glanced back at Leticia now. She’d gone from looking pissed to smiling playfully again as she whipped her long hair back. “I’ve won a few actually. But I’m not here to talk about me. I just wanted to congratulate the newest member of the U.S. team.” She actually let out a loud hoot and did a fist pump. “You make me so proud, Hector.” She moved in closer, handing her phone to Miriam. “Will you take a picture with me?” Without giving him a chance to respond, she wrapped her arms around his torso and adjusted them both so they now stood directly in front of Drew and Charlee but with their backs to them.
Never one to miss an opportunity like this but more than anything feeling the need to make up for having come across like such a sap earlier, Hector pulled her close. He felt her ample cleavage press up against his chest, and he moved his hand up and down her back as they posed for the photos. Miriam then asked Walter if he could take one of the three of them together and he did. The girls got a little silly and loud, asking Walter to take more photos: one pose here, a different pose there, one after another. Leticia, who’d been touchy-feely from the very first photo, eventually slipped her hand into Hector’s.
By the time the impromptu photo session was done and the playful but mostly flirtatious banter was over, both girls were making it all too clear that if he were up for hanging out with one or both of them tonight, so were they. This was more than enough distraction. He’d just about forgotten about Charlee and Drew until he saw Walter searching the room, looking a bit disconcerted. There weren’t anywhere to be seen.
Hector pulled away from Leticia’s hold for a moment and leaned closer to Walter. “What happened? Did they leave?”
“I don’t see them.” Walter shrugged with a frown. “I didn’t even notice when they left.”
“They left as soon as I took the first photo,” Miriam informed them.
“Are they good friends of yours?” Leticia asked. “Because I’m sorry, but they were a little bitchy.”