I rolled over and kissed her forehead, sliding the blindfold off. “That was amazing, Toni.” She was snuggled into my arm. “Now it’s time to begin the day. How about coming down to the pool?”
She looked up at me in astonishment. “You put me through all that, and then expect me to go swimming? No way. I’m staying right here. I might have a shower in a minute.”
I thought for a moment and decided to let it slide. “All right, but the car will be collecting us at eight, remember.” I had an idea.
“Oh, shall I show you my new app? It’s the one I’ve wanted to do ever since I started, but I didn’t have the experience to pull it off until now. It’s taken two years to build, and we’re advertising the release now in time for the Christmas frenzy.” I reached over to my case and pulled out the trial iPad. “Look, it’s the best training app ever.”
I switched on and handed it over to her. “This is being billed as the first app to take someone from beginner to competition level chess.”
Her eyes brightened. “Great. Can someone who’s learned before skip the very beginning stages, and how does it know how hard to make it?”
I looked at her with respect. “That’s been the hardest part. You can’t make the thing always win; it’s too depressing. But players learn best by being challenged to their limits.” I bent to the bag again and grabbed trunks and a robe.
“Look, see what you think of it from the point of view of someone who’s not met it while I swim.”
“Okay.” She sat herself up, and took the game.
James
I was only gone about twenty minutes and bounded up the stairs afterwards instead of taking the elevator. I’d been thinking as I plowed lengths of the pool. My life was infinitely more fun with her in it than without. But I wanted to be careful. I knew what I was like when I was fascinated by a woman, sometimes I didn’t know their reasons and their motivations. Once or twice I’d had to break my own heart and get rid of someone who’d been found to be gold-digging or worse, in it to drag my name through the media frenzy which was never far from me.
Surely, Toni wasn’t that sort? I’d searched her out, after all. And none of the scrutiny of her background had turned up anything ominous.
So I went into the suite smiling.
But the smile was wiped off my face when I saw the iPad lying on the floor across the room, and Toni was sitting at the table in the bay window, ramrod stiff. She was neatly dressed, and ready for the day, but her whole demeanor was controlled anger.
I picked up the iPad and put it on the bed as I went over to her. “What’s the matter? You should have just put the thing down, not thrown it. Temper tantrums are not ladylike.”
She looked up at me, her expression mutinous as a small child’s. I was hard-put not to grin.
“It cheated! You can’t release an app that’s going to cheat in order to win! People will break their things!”
“Toni, it’s an app. It can’t cheat. It doesn’t have feelings.” I helped myself to coffee.
“Don’t patronize me!” Her voice rose higher. “I know when something’s cheating. If you’ve programmed it wrong, then it’s a fucking failure.” She stood up and marched to the coffee machine herself.
“It cheated. It waited until it was two moves to checkmate and then it wouldn’t allow a legal move!” She spun around, daring me to disagree.
I thought rapidly. “Toni. It’s got every legal move in the program. USCF national rules. It can’t cheat. It’s taken two years, been through hundreds of beta tests. Maybe you tried a move that looked legal but there was a — oh, I don’t know, maybe you were going into check or something.”
“Yeah, think I’m stupid, why don’t you?” The tiny red rage spots on her cheeks made me pause. Why was she so upset?
“You don’t know anything about me! You spied on me to make sure I was who you wanted, but you’re not really interested in me. Like when I was at school I was chess champion. I wanted to take part in competitions, but Mom never let me. I read up all about it. I know what’s fucking legal, and don’t you be such patronizing fucking know-it-all.” She’d really lost her temper, her language was slipping, and I was puzzled. She’d been nowhere near losing it in that horrible diner when her boss was blaming her unfairly for something. So why now?
“Please, Toni. Can you show me what you mean?”
She stood, breathing heavily, her eyes narrowed. Then she took a deep breath, picked up the iPad and switched it on, looking as if she was holding something foul-smelling.