Summer days dawn after dawn
Chapter 1
My boyfriend, Chad, was a freaking chess
prodigy.
Me? I could barely manage tic–tac–toe.
But he always let me win. Every time.
Whenever someone hinted I wasn’t good
enough for him, he’d always say, “I can lose
everything, except her.”
Then he went off to some national chess
academy for advanced training, and I stayed
back in town for college.
Four years of long distance, face–timing
every day, him rushing back here every break
he got.
That dude was racking up frequent flyer
miles.
We never even considered splitting up.
Until one tournament where he threw like,
seven matches to this petite, genius chess
player on his team.
That’s when I knew.
We were done.
1
I booked a flight home this weekend to watch
Chad’s big chess tournament with both our
く
It was the Spring Grand Slam, super intense.
Besides Chad, there were only two other
American players in the quarterfinals.
After months of brutal matches, the entire
Korean team got wiped out, and Chad and
another American made it to the final best-
of–three.
Chad and his opponent tied, so today was the
final showdown.
Chad’s mom, Mrs. Miller, saw me walk in and
waved, super happy.
“Hey, Ashley, come sit down! The match
hasn’t started yet.”
I smiled and handed over the gifts I’d brought
L
Mom gave my hand a playful smack. “You
know, it’s your boyfriend’s championship
match, and you couldn’t even get here.
earlier? Show some support!”
I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“I’m swamped with school, Mom! But I’m here
now.”
Mrs. Miller waved it off, smiling. “Don’t worry
about it, Carol. Ashley’s got her graduation
coming up. She’s busy. Oh, Ashley, you got
into that grad program at UCLA, right?”
I nodded slowly.
“That’s great! Then you and Chad won’t have
to do long distance anymore.”
She ruffled my hair, looking sympathetic.
く
“These last few years must have been tough
on you. Chad better make it up to you. By the
way, has he been in touch lately?”
I bit my lip and gave a nod I didn’t really
mean.
“Yeah, of course. But he’s prepping for the
match, so he’s been pretty busy.”
Mr. Miller chimed in, “Ashley, if Chad’s giving
you a hard time, you tell me! I’ll set him
straight!”
Mrs. Miller quickly agreed, “Yeah, don’t be shy with us. We’ve watched you grow up,
honey. We already think of you as our
daughter–in–law.”
く
My parents exchanged a smile.
I laughed and pointed at the TV, trying to
change the subject.
“The match is starting.”
Chad walked onto the screen pretty quickly.
The girl walking in with him was his opponent.
Watching Chad smile at her with this sappy
look, I just looked down.
Normally, I’d be glued to the screen way.
before his matches even started.
But this time, I’d been avoiding watching this
Grand Slam tournament like the plague.
<
I pulled out my phone and checked my text
thread with Chad.
The last time we talked was like, two weeks
ago.
He told me he was holing up to get ready for
the final and then just… disappeared.
Before, no matter what tournament he was in,
even if he was locked down training, he’d
always stay in touch.
But this time, it was just because his
opponent was this chess genius, Tiffany
Hayes.
Ever since this Tiffany Hayes girl joined the
national team, she was all I heard about.
Chad just couldn’t stop raving about Tiffany,
telling me how awesome she was.
“Ashley, you know Tiffany played the Sicilian
Defense against me today! I was blown away!
She’s seriously on my level!”
I wanted to tell him I had no freakin‘ idea
what he was talking about.
I’m someone who can’t even beat the
computer at Checkers. I couldn’t even
understand chess terms
But Chad didn’t even care. He just kept
talking about his Tiffany stories.
At first, I was all ears. But then I started to
get annoyed.
<
I could feel things were shifting, but I didn’t
know how to fix it.
I tried to complain to Chad once, but he just
said, “Ashley, Tiffany’s a genius. She’s
different from regular people.”
Yeah, Chad and Tiffany were geniuses.
Birds of a feather.
And I was just… regular.
