The return flight to Seattle didn't leave New York until after nine in the evening. Ben and both his parents tried to sleep on the plane. Seeing Monica again hadn't helped like his father hoped it would. It only served to remind Ben of how much he still felt for her and the great distance he was from where he wanted to be. Both the physical distance between Seattle and Boulder, and the emotional distance created by their past together. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop wanting her, Ben thought to himself, a single tear running down his cheek. Roland awoke just in time to see the tear. He looked down at the table tray over Ben's legs, the laminated pass lay on it, autographed in black marker by both Garry Kasparov and Josh Waitzkin. Ben had just accomplished something in life very few people ever do. If only for a single day, for a single moment, he'd proven himself the equal of the best in the world. It was something he should yearn to tell his kids about in later life. Yet he didn't care, Ben Conner was still miserably sad.
The next morning Ben made the papers. An Associated Press photograph of the moment he shook Kasparov's hand accepting the draw adorned the first page of the Seattle Times local section. Jonathan and Dino came over to see Ben; he was still lying in his bed. "Congratulations on fully becoming a nerd," Dino teased as he appeared.
"No I think we've pretty much got the head nerd here," Jonathan continued.
"Enough guys, enough." Ben managed a slight smile. "By the way have any luck yet cracking the ice queen yet." Ben knew that would hit Dino where it hurt.
"Jacks is still frozen as ever," Jonathan assured Ben.
"How would both of you like to be up to your knees in floor," Dino threatened. "Besides you two should really talk. Jonathan you managed to piss both Debs and Sabrina right out of your life and you haven't had a sniff since. Ben you managed to send away the best looking piece of ass ever and replace her with preppy Sue, whose dad hated you."
The teasing had gotten too personal. Ben's hand balled into a fist, he lunged off his bed swinging wildly for Dino's jaw. Dino slipped the wild hook and plunged his shoulder into Ben's midsection tackling him onto the bed. Jonathan tried to separate them but Dino was much too strong. He threw Jon aside and pinned Ben by straddling his chest all at the same time. Dino cocked his own fist backward before coming to his senses. "No, we don't want to do this," Dino got up and allowed Ben off the bed.
Downstairs Amanda was doing laundry when she discovered a reminder of her husband's recent transgression. He'd left the piece of paper with Monica's phone number in his shirt pocket. She took it out and crumpled it in disgust. At that moment she heard a tremendous crash come from Ben's bedroom. She arrived upstairs just in time to see Jonathan thrown against the wall and Dino raising his fist.
"What just got into us?" Jonathan asked, his breathing starting to slow after Dino backed down.
"Yeah look at what losers we've become," Dino continued the thought.
"Sorry about that guys," Ben chimed in also.
"Okay Jonathan, Dino, you two out right now. I need to talk to my son." Amanda intervened.
Monica's plane had arrived back in Denver long before the Conner's in Seattle. She sat in her small campus apartment staring at her laptop. She was playing chess on Yahoo. On the cyberspace board her screen name: Wet Hot Fire Starting Queen was pitted against another, jeff4bigred. On the board she was losing badly. It was the price she paid for not being more careful in selecting an opponent. Monica's computer told her that Wet Hot Fire Starting Queen had a very respectable rating of 1705. However, jeff4bigred carried a rating of 2065, a fact she'd neglected to notice before playing. He seemed pleasant enough though, even chatty through the IM box. That is until she told him she was living in Colorado. To which he replied that being a loyal Nebraska fan meant now he was officially obligated to hate her. The chess game was a wonderful distraction from the events of the previous day. She still had unresolved feelings for Ben too, and seeing him had made her realize that geographic distance might be her only saving grace. The only thing that allowed her to put the relationship aside. These thoughts and the chess game were interrupted by a phone call.
Ben was still breathing hard from the excitement of the fight when his mother came and sat on his bed. She patted for him to join her. "What was that all about?" She tried to start the conversation gently.
"We were teasing one another and it got out of hand, I'm sorry," Ben replied sincerely.
"That's happened a lot lately don't you think? Things getting out of hand."
"Too much," Ben nodded agreement.
Amanda took a deep breath "That woman, Monica, I would've never believed it until yesterday, but the feelings you two have are very genuine."
"Yes." Ben closed his eyes, whether in relief or torment Amanda couldn't tell.
"I don't believe I'm about to do this, here." Amanda handed Ben a crumpled piece of paper.
"What's this," he asked quizzically staring at the offering.
"Just open it," Amanda nodded her approval. Ben unfolded the paper to see it was a phone number written in his dad's handwriting.
"It's Monica's phone number." Amanda turned and left the room.
It took Ben some time to work up the courage to dial the ten digits. "Hello," Monica answered grabbing her cordless and sitting back in her folding chair.
"Miss Young, ah Monica, it's Ben." She'd known who he was from the moment he'd said Miss.
"Ben why are you calling me, torturing both of us like this?" Her voice turned into jealous intimidating Monica.
"Because I don't think we really talked about what we wanted to yesterday," The softness of Ben's voice pleaded with her to listen.
Monica closed her eyes, pain shot through her stomach, she didn't want to listen. "Ben yesterday I realized something, something I think part of me has known for a long time. Maybe every since we first met. You don't need me. What you were able to do yesterday, do you know how few people are capable of that, I'm not. You and the board and the pieces are this perfectly beautiful thing. You'll get along just fine, you don't need me. Goodbye Ben". Monica Young dropped the phone, her hand and body shaking. She collapsed forward onto her desk, hair spreading like a fan. The lie sapped every ounce of strength out of her. She started sobbing loudly.