"Bothers you doesn't it." he asked having watched her reaction to his comments. Freddie was a perceptive man. You didn't get to the top of the Chess world without being so, you studied your opponent as much as the game and there was the fact that he knew Florence well, as well as he figured anyone did and better of course than Sergievsky. "You miss it for what it was once and you hate that you miss it cause you let yourself get caught up in the poltics same as the rest of us. But I figured it out, too late by far but I figured it out in Bangkok. Its the game. Thats what you have to stay true to. The only thing. It had to be like that, and your Anatoly knew that too. Chess is pretty much the only thing that meant anything in my life up until I met..." Now it was Freddie's turn to be guarded. He didn't want her to know what he'd been thinking to say next, she didn't deserve to know. "So I walked away from it all after that, not that you knew, you were off...wherever you went. I was planning to compete again this year, take my title back, well...not this year, but y'know, back home. I think I'd have done it too. Free from any distraction. And I think if you played again, with no thought to anything but the pieces, it might do you good. You've always been too emotional." he said simply. And she was.
"Those amatuers keep me fresh. Its that or not play. Being who we are we can't just sign up for the World Chess Championships like this so this is how I go about it. I play, I teach them the game, and no, of course I haven't lost. I did point out they were amatuers right? You might actually be the first challenge I've had in over a year." Which would be his excuse if he lost to her, unthinkable as that was. "You keep thinking you can beat me sweetheart" he said teasingly, finding it too easy to fall back into old habits with her, far too easy.
He was almost happy when the subject changed to coffee once they were inside the monstrosity that was Starbucks. "The ninties apparently was mostly run off of coffee, which from what I've seen explains it entirely. They've got everything you could possibly imagine and look at you funny when you just want coffee cause why would you just want coffee without all the weirdass additions to it. But I manage to occasionally order just that. Anything you want get it and I'll pay."
Who said chivalry to your cheating ex was dead? Besides their conversation was far from over. The pie though, even he wasn't sure about the pie. "It lacks the personal touch a cafe should have but this thing, its all over the world. Most countries have at least one, there's like 5 of them in Bangkok to put it into context. Probably replaced some of those bars he added disdainfully. More explained about the place than he cared to admit he knew. Freddie ordered a coffee and one of the large cookies and moved to wait for them to be done.