Was
eagerly waiting for my roommate to finish her game. She had had a technically
winning position for about 2 hours already, but it wasn’t that trivial to
convert it. Between my trips upstairs- to check her game, contemplating the
idea of putting my high heels on and desperately trying to force the shi**y engine
on my phone show if my opening idea was good or not- I was lucky enough not to
get involved in any other social interactions… Finally, it was a relief when I
saw my roommate approaching with a smile, as that meant she won and was in a good
enough mood not to try bailing on the party (it required quite an effort to
convince her join me). Meanwhile, I decided I didn’t ‘deserve’ to put on my
fancy high heels, after all, the brain should know I wasn’t happy with its
performance and what better way of doing that than make the looks suffer, right?
Perfect logic!
We
headed off to dinner, it was just about to begin. The atmosphere was nice-
round tables with beautiful arrangements, some cool music playing in the
background, nicely dressed Woman Grand Masters, who wouldn’t have any problem
passing as models… I suddenly started to regret that high heels decision… The
feeling didn’t last for too long though, as I saw some friends making us signs
to join their table, which we happily did.
The
waiters started to move around us offering wine and bringing the appetizers.
Continuing that day’s ‘wise’ series of decisions, I saw myself taking a sip of dry
red wine… The thing about this kind of dinners is that you can never know how
many glasses you had, as they are constantly filled, without you even noticing…
By the time the main dish came, I was already deep buried in my thoughts,
completely ignoring everything which was happening around. “Hey, what’s wrong?
You’re not hungry?”, my roommate tried to bring me back to reality. “Emm… No,
I’m just eating, slowly…”, I said looking around. Another ‘wise choice’. I saw
my opponent happily laughing at the nearby table showing his friends something
on his phone. Of course, my brain assumed the worse “He’s showing them how he
won today…”, and I fell into the thinking about the game abys again…
“Irina,
do you want to play in the first game of the ‘Battle of Sexes’?”, the captain
of the Women’s Team asked me. She was sitting right next to me at our table.
“Well…”, and I had again that twitch and lagged with my answer... “I am a bit
underwater, start without me and I’ll join the next game”. Being an experienced
lady and a strong player, she said: “Come on, don’t think too much of your game
and let’s have some fun, it will distract you!”. “Sorry, I don’t feel like it…”.
Apparently, I was on an unconscious mission to completely sabotage that day…
The
“Battle of Sexes” started. Everyone was following it with interest except me…
The unfortunate neighborhood with my opponent was not letting me think of
anything but the game I lost. “Irina, let’s go to our hotel, you’re not
enjoying yourself here…”, said my roommate. It came like a saving rope which I
happily grabbed. So, we left from the event which I was dreaming to participate
at for years…
 |
| With the best roommate ever- IM Ekaterina Atalik |
After
a silent, 15 min walk down to our hotel, we were about to enter it, when I saw
that the Italian restaurant on the corner was still opened. “Let’s have a last
glass of wine and some dessert maybe- my treat!”, my offer was too tempting, so
my roommate didn’t protest. We were the only clients. A handsome, hype waiter
came to us in a cheerful mood, asking “So, how are you, ladies tonight? Want to
have some drinks?”. Not looking in the menu, I said “2 glasses of Pinot Grigio
please, one white and one rose”. “Excellent choice! Anything else?”. “I would
also like a dessert, what do you suggest?”. “Let me bring you my favorite
dessert, I am sure you will like it!”. “Ok”.
I
don’t remember what we were talking about, I suppose I was trying to justify my
bad mood, not knowing that it was about to… But let’s not jump ahead.
Everything at its time.
The
waiter came saying: “This will be the best tiramisu you’ve ever had!”. I curiously took it- it was looking nice
indeed, but how can a tiramisu surprise me? Took the first bight. “Mmmm… It is
amazing! There’s some very familiar taste, but I don’t know, what is it with,
banana?”, I said. I am not sure how I could still distinguish the ingredients
after all the wine I had… “I was sure you’d like it! It’s a banana and Nutella tiramisu!”.
It was the best dessert I ever had in my life. I finally started to relax and
feel better…
Left
the place in great mood. As we decided to take a bye on the next day and to go
visit the monkeys, the late hour wasn’t an issue. By the time we got back to our
room, it was well after midnight. I threw all my bags on the floor and started
to take of my boots, when I suddenly realized that something was missing… “I
think one bag is not here…”. “There’s the bag with the heels…”, “Here’s your
minibar bag…”, my roommate started to go through them. “Where’s the one with
the money and passport?” “It’s missing…” “But you payed at the restaurant, so
you had it on you… It’s probably still there!”. We hurried back to the
restaurant to only see no lights at all. It closed. “Well, the tiramisu was
worth it!”, I said. “But you won’t be able to fly back home without your
documents!”. “No worries, I met some Romanians at the tournament’s venue, they
work there, one is that ‘wardrobe guy’, remember? I’m sure they’ll find a job
for me as well…”. My roommate was shocked by my not caring at all. “Ok, let’s
inform the reception, maybe they have the contact of the restaurant’s stuff”.
Back
at the reception, I saw some chess players around a chess
board analyzing
something, and having some drinks. “Hey, how are you, could I join you?”, I
asked. “Sure! Irina, didn’t you lose your bag? Someone from the Italian restaurant
brought it, asking if anyone recognized it and I remembered noticing you had a
very funny owl bag some days before… He left it at the reception!”, said one of
the chess players at the table. Heading to the receptionist’s stand, I saw my
roommate already holding my ‘owl bag’… “Fiuf…There are still good people in
this World”, she said continuing: “Ok, let’s go to sleep, enough adventures for
today!”. But I had another plans, I wanted to see what was there being analyzed
on the chess board… Because I have chess in my veins and no lost game, no
missed party or lost bag will ever change it! All I needed to remember that
was a banana tiramisu at the right time…
 |
| The famous, owl bag |
No comments:
Post a Comment