Work Text:
A light flickered over an unoccupied booth on the other side of the room as he pushed open the door to the Brew of Balance, a local coffee shop that John frequented. It was a nice place, a clean but vaugely cozy cafe vibe with its brown hardwood flooring supporting a handful of grey tables and accenting small beige couches.
John worked from home as a philosophy Professor to Miller Online, a fairly respected academe specialising in its inventive science and professional wizardry departments. Hes found that while working from home has its definite benefits it can be easy to fall into poor mental health without the stimulus of interacting with the world outside. So he makes due with leaving his home once every Monday through friday to enjoy a cup of coffee and once every other Sunday to purchase a couple weeks worth of food.
He walked in and ordered an americano from a white haired and mild mannered barista he knew to be named Lucretia. She was there nearly every day he was, working the morning shift. They didnt really talk much but exchanged familiar smiles apon greeting.
This was his life.
Except today as she handed him his drink she paused, though for a second, came to a conclusion and asked, "Do you know about the community chess club? They just moved locations to meet at this cafe every Saturday as of a few weeks ago."
"I cant say I'm too familiar. Why?" He responded casually. John wasnt looking for a conversation but he wasn't particularly avoiding one either.
"You strike me as someone who would play is all. I dont work Saturdays but sometimes it's nice to observe the atmosphere."
The conversation ended there softly as Lucretia handed him his drink and he thanked her for the coffee.
He didn't really expect his life to change quite as much as it would when he walked into the Brew of Balance on a saturday morning and the place was packed.
He had just finished grading for the day and it was half past noon so he didnt see the trouble in checking it out but as the noise of a full house of people setting up chessboards and socializing hit his ears he began to wonder why he hadn't just stayed home and finished working on Monday's lecture.
The room had about eight square grey tables centered neatly in the dine-in portion of the cafe (it was more of a restaurant that sold exclusively coffe and pastries) and each one seemed to have a chess board on it. Some boards were nicer than others and there were people of all ages and species.
At the furthest table he spotted lucretia setting up a game against a confident looking gnomish man. He made a beeline towards them, a calm and even paced walk, but a beeline none the less. Looking up from her work Lucretia smiled in that welcoming way and continued setting up pawns. "Glad to see you could make it. Davenport here runs the club."
On cue Davenport extends a hand that John takes to shake and offers, "I believe we have a member running late if you would like to stay, everyone else is matched up."
"That sounds nice. My name is John."
Though he was projecting a demeanor of calm anticipation John was already beginning to regret the rather uncharacteristically spontaneous decision he made to attend today's meeting. He briefly considered leaving before a shorter dwarven man with pink and violet flowers in his beard entered the cafe. Then he considered leaving a bit more strongly but decided that if he wanted to keep coming to this cafe and interacting with Lucretia on a daily basis then he should probably stay.