Checkmate, Theoretically

by amanda_sunray

Summary:

When picking her sister up from class to take her home for the weekend, Mallory Greenleaf meets Sabrina's favorite professor, Dr. Georgina Sepulveda. Sabrina sets up an invite for Mallory to join their Go tournament. Crossover between characters from Check & Mate and Love, Theoretically.

Notes:

I took a few liberties with parts of the canonical work. The characters from Love, Theoretically work at Columbia, which Sabrina also attends rather than MIT and Brown. Additionally, Tanu is working on her PhD rather than JD. This is my first fanfic, so I hope you enjoy! Any feedback would be great to hear!

Chapter 1: Office Hours

Sitting in the driver’s seat, I check my watch for what feels like the 50th time. 2:47. Sabrina said office hours ended at 2:30, and she’d be in the parking lot no later than 2:35. That’s it. 3 more minutes and I will hunt her down and feed her to Goliath.

3 minutes pass with no sign of the little ingrate. I get out of the car, almost slamming it shut, and storm into the MIT building in search of her. In the car I had searched the online directory for Dr. Sepulveda’s office, so I find it fairly easily. Through the door’s window I see Sabrina lounging on a couch, looking like she has all day.

I storm through the door, past caring that other people might think me rude. “Sabrina!” I nearly shout, catching my volume just in time “I have been waiting for 20 minutes.”

Suddenly I have flashbacks to picking her up from school when she was 15. The more things change, yada yada.

She looks up, surprised, like she had no idea I was waiting, or that she explicitly told me 2:30. Twice. “Oh my god Mal, chill” she says, doing her best to feign nonchalance. She throws a quick, worried glance at the two other women in the room, and I realize she probably wants to impress this new teacher she seems to like a lot.

Sabrina talks about Georgina Sepulveda the most out of any professor she has. She absolutely loves her physics class. As a freshmen at Columbia she’s not supposed to be taking this class yet. But despite graduating early, she still got enough credits from AP and community college classes in high school that she came into her freshman year with 2 semester's worth of credits. Turns out my little sister is brilliant.

I take a breath and try to chill, admitting I am excited and curious to meet this professor who has made such an impression on one of my favorite people in the world.

“Sorry, are you ready to go?” I ask. She smiles in a way that makes me think she’s up to something.

“George, Elsie,” she addresses the two other women while ignoring my question, “this is my older sister Mallory. I would say she’s not usually this high strung, but that would be a lie.”

I stifle an eye roll and turn to greet them. “Hi” I smile “nice to meet you two. I’ve heard such great things, Sabrina is always talking about your class.”

“Mallory, it’s so great to meet you!” The older woman exclaims while she gets up and walks around her desk, holding her arms out. “I’m Dr. Sepulveda, but you can call me George. We just love your sister.”

“Yeah, she’s a fantastic student,” says the other woman while George hugs me. “I’m Elsie.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” I say, smiling awkwardly. I’m not the best in social situations in general, let alone with brilliant women at very different stages of life, and with greatly different life experiences, than me. “So, you’re both physicists?” I ask, not sure what else to say.

They both clearly love what they do, we spend about 10 minutes talking about their work and the class Sabrina takes. I can see why Sabrina is so obsessed with them, they’re amazing.

“Are you a student here too Mallory?” Elsie asks.

“Oh no, I’m not in college. I just live nearby and have a car that Sabrina loves to take advantage of” I respond, getting a chuckle out of her. I really do like her.

Finally I turn to Sabrina and say “alright, let’s go, we gotta get home.”

Naturally, she ignores me. “Elsie, did you say that you guys have a board game tournament on Monday nights? My sister loves board games.”

Aaaaand there it is. I knew she had an ulterior motive for being so late. She’s always trying to get me to make friends. I don’t need friends. I HAVE friends. At least three. Plus Nolan. And that’s plenty. I don’t need to be set up on a play date by my little sister.

“Sabrina, that’s really inappropriate.” I say at the same time George says “really? What types of games? We are always happy to add more people.”

I look at her, trying to figure out if she’s just being polite after my ridiculous sister put her in an uncomfortable position. She seems genuine, but it’s hard to tell. She seems like the type of person who is always enthusiastic.

“Oh, it’s fine, thank you though” I smile at her, feeling awkward now “we really should get going.”

I turn to grab Sabrina when she says “come on Mallory, you can’t just work and have sex, that’s no way to live.”

I give her my most rage-filled glare. I can’t believe she’d say that in front of her professor. I really wish we hadn’t grown up in such a sex-positive environment.

Of course, George and Elsie burst out laughing. I look at them sheepishly.

“I’m so sorry. My little sister clearly doesn’t know how to behave around human beings. We need to go. It was so great to meet you both!” I try to sound genuine and hide my absolute mortification, but I have a feeling I fail spectacularly. I drag Sabrina out while the two women are still chuckling.

“I can’t believe you would say that” I hiss as I march her down the hallway towards the parking lot.

“I’m sorry Mal, I just thought-”

“Wait, Mallory, wait up” I hear from behind me. Turning around I see Elsie hurrying after us.

“Go wait in the car” I order Sabrina, turning back to face Elsie. God this is going to be humiliating.

“I’m so sorry about that” I say as she catches up. “I’m sure you don’t want one of your students ambushing you to try to get her big sister invited to an event with your friends. Please, don’t worry about it at all.”

“No, no it’s totally fine” she says, laughing. “Really, we would love to have you join us for a game night. If you’re interested, that is,” suddenly she looks a little uncertain and I feel for her.

I take another couple seconds, trying to figure out if she really wants me there. Although, she wouldn’t have chased me down if she didn't, right?

“Okay” I say hesitantly, “if you’re absolutely sure I wouldn’t be intruding” I trail off.

Elsie brightens. “No, not at all!” she says. “Really, George and I would like to have you there. It’s at George’s house, Monday at 7pm. If you give me your number, I’ll text you the info.”

I smile back at her. “Ok great, would it be ok if my boyfriend comes too?” I ask. “He loves games too” I add, hoping I’m not asking for too much.

“Oh absolutely” she says.

We exchange numbers and then I let her know I really do need to be going, but I guess I’ll see her on Monday.

Sabrina looks up from her phone when I get back to the car and gives me a smug smile.

“You’re going, aren’t you?” she says.

“I’m still mad at you” I tell her, but I’m fighting a smile of my own.

Chapter 2: I have you

Summary:

Mallory tries to convince Nolan to make new friends.

Notes:

This is a short one :)

“Why would we do that?” Nolan asks, looking up from what’s left of his dinner perplexed.

I knew he wouldn’t be thrilled at the idea of going to George’s game night.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. George and Elsie seemed really cool. And we do love board games.” I say, getting up to start the dishes.

“Game. We love one board game. And did you even ask what game? Because last I checked Monopoly was a board game too” he says rolling his eyes. He really hates Monopoly. Mainly because it was the one game Emil would regularly win as a kid, and Emil was absolutely obnoxious about it, according to Nolan. And Emil. And Tanu. And anyone else who knew them at that age.

I bite back a smile. “You know, Sabrina’s right. We do only work. And have sex. We used to hang out with Emil all the time, but since he moved we haven’t really spent time with anyone outside my family.”

Emil graduated in the spring and moved to California to be with Tanu, who stayed at Stanford to pursue her PhD. I’m so happy for them, I just wish they had decided to move here instead. There are plenty of great schools in New York.

“Why would I want to hang out with anyone else? I have you,” Nolan says, walking over and wrapping his arms around my waist. He pulls me closer to him and rests his chin on my shoulder. “Besides, what’s wrong with working? Or having sex? Last I checked we both enjoyed both those activities.” I look up and see him smirking down at me.

I turn in his arms and wrap mine around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. As usual, the world disappears when I kiss him, and I lose all sense of time. After what could be 2 minutes or 20, he pushes me against the counter and deepens the kiss, but I force myself to break it off before it goes too far.

“Hang on” I say, laughing breathlessly. “We really need to finish the dishes.” I turn back to the sink where the water is still running. He groans into my neck, arms still wrapped around me, and gently nips my ear.

“You really want to go to this thing?” he asks as he starts to dry the dishes.

I sigh. “Yeah, I do.” I’m starting to realize how lonely it’s been, not having any of our close friends nearby anymore.

“Ok, let’s do it,” he says.

I look at him, a smile breaking out on my face. “Really?” I ask, just to be sure.

“You know I’d do anything for you,” he says, cupping my face with one hand and kissing me. “But I am NOT playing Monopoly.”

Notes:

A bit shorter than the last chapter, but I still hope you enjoyed it!

Chapter 3: Being social is good

Summary:

It's time to head to George's!

Notes:

This chapter ended up being a little longer than I had expected, but I thought all the scene setting was important (and fun). Enjoy!

Standing at the door of George’s gorgeous apartment, Nolan and I exchange a look before I take a deep breath and knock.

This will be fun. Being social is good. That’s what I’ve been telling myself since we left our apartment, suddenly anxious.

But that quickly melts away when George opens the door and her face breaks into a huge grin. “Mallory! I am so glad you came!” she exclaims while pulling me into a hug. I laugh and hug her back.

“Hey George! Thanks so much for having us,” I say, pointing to Nolan. “This is my boyfriend, Nolan. Nolan, this is Sabrina’s professor.”

Nolan holds out his hand but George pushes it aside and pulls him in for a hug. “It’s so great to meet you! I’m Georgina, but please call me George.”

Nolan looks slightly unsure what to make of George. But I am quickly realizing she reminds me a lot of Tanu. Maybe that’s why I liked her instantly.

“Ok please, come in, come in, meet everyone!” She says as she ushers us into her apartment, gesturing to a closet she tells us to take off our jackets, then immediately yells to the whole living room “everyone, come meet our newest guests!” before even allowing us a second to hang up our jackets. It’s definitely a lot, but it feels comforting at the same time.

Nolan and I exchange a quick smirk before following George into the living room.

She quickly introduces us around, so many names and faces that I’m trying to remember all at once, before heading into the kitchen and asking what we want to drink.

Elsie and someone I assume is her partner, based on his arm around her shoulder and the way he is staring at her with stars in his eyes, are in the kitchen, blessedly quiet after the whirlwind of everyone in the living room.

Elsie looks at us and her face lights up. “Hey Mallory!” she says, leaving the man’s side to come hug us, though he seems reluctant to let her go.

“Hi Elsie!” I say and introduce her to Nolan, who seems more prepared for her hug this time.

“Thanks so much for coming!” she says and introduces us to her fiancé Jack, also a physics professor at Columbia.

“So, what can I get you to drink? We have beer, wine, or water if you prefer” George says, opening the fridge to get herself something.

“I’ll have a beer” Nolan says, a bit surprising since he doesn’t drink often. Maybe he’s nervous too. Not that I can ever tell.

George hands him one, turning to me expectantly.

“Oh, I’ll just have water” I say, a little sheepishly. “I can’t drink.”

Elsie looks at me and says “oh I can’t drink either, do you have diabetes too?”

My face turns a little red as I glance away awkwardly, realizing they don’t know how old I am. “Oh, um no I’m, um, only 20, so I can’t drink yet” I say, stuttering. I suddenly feel very awkward in this room of real adults with fancy academic jobs. Even more so when everyone goes quiet for a beat and looks at me. Even even more so when I realize that two other women chose that moment to walk into the kitchen for another drink. Great.

“Oh,” George says, seeming to recover the quickest. “I’m so sorry, Sabrina said you were a few years older so I had just figured you were older.”

“Oh, yeah” I laugh awkwardly. “I’m 3 years older than Sabrina, but she’s only 17.” This earns another round of stares from George and Elsie, who apparently didn’t know Sabrina’s age.

“Wait really?” Elsie says, shocked. “Our class is for juniors, and she’s one of the smartest we have this year, I had no idea she was so young.”

Now some pride sneaks into my smile, brightening it a little. “Yeah, she’s my little genius. She graduated early and took tons of community college courses in high school, so she’s pretty far ahead credits-wise.” I love bragging about my sisters.

This seems to help relax everyone as they try to get over my age. One of the women, I think her name was Sunny, joins the conversation. “So, are you in school around here? I’m assuming George wouldn’t have invited one of our students” she gives George a sideways glance, “so I’m guessing you’re not at Columbia.”

George rolls her eyes as I respond to Sunny “no, I started working right after high school, I never went to college.”

I feel bad not being fully honest, even though this is technically true. Sometimes it’s hard to know when to drop the “by the way I’m a famous chess player” fact. Since I won the world championship I’ve realized people get weird when they know who we are. Some are dismissive and condescending, asking if it’s actually a real job, making fun of us for “sitting around and playing games all day” or not believing that I, a 20 year old woman, could be a top chess player. Others get overly excited, asking tons of questions and fangirling a little too hard. Some just don’t know how to react. It’s honestly nice to be around people who don’t seem to know anything about the chess world, so I decide to keep it to myself a little longer.

“What about you, are you at Columbia too?” I ask Sunny before any follow ups can be asked.

She’s an engineer and, just like when I first met George and Elsie, immediately starts telling me all about her work. She seems to be a few drinks in already, making the passion she has for her job come through even louder. I find I really love listening to academics share their work.

After a while Jack butts in, saying “alright Sunny, enough about work.” He turns to me and Nolan and asks “so, have you guys played Go?”

Nolan cracks a real smile for the first time tonight. “Is that what you guys play?” he asks, looking… excited?

“Yeah, you’ve played?” Jack asks, turning to me.

“No, I haven’t,” I respond, looking curiously at Nolan “have you?”

“Yeah” he says, voice turning wistful. “My grandfather taught me. It’s a great game, but I never liked it as much as chess” he says, smirking down at me.

“You don’t like any game as much as you like chess.” I say back to him before turning to Jack. “I’d love to learn, if you’ll teach me.”

Nolan looks at me, an excited glint in his eye. “I think you’ll really like it,” he says. Code for: I think you’ll be really good at it.

Suddenly I’m getting excited as we follow Jack back to the living room.

Notes:

Will Mallory "enjoy" Go? Find out in a few days!

Hope you liked the chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it :)

Chapter 4: Ready, set, GO!

Summary:

Time to learn Go.

Notes:

I tried to learn a little bit of Go for this, but to be honest it is way to smart for me. If anyone reading actually plays Go, I am very sorry for the inaccuracies or general simplification of this game I am certain are in this chapter.

I see a number of boards scattered around different surfaces, but Jack heads to a bookshelf and pulls out a different one.

“We usually use 19x19 boards, but we have a 13x13 which is easier to learn on” he says, as he points for me to sit on the couch with a table in front of it. He pulls up a chair on the other side and starts opening the board and taking out white and black tiles.

He gives me a quick rundown of the game. “Pieces are placed on the intersection of the lines. You’re trying to control the most space by forming a barrier between your pieces and the edge of the board. At the end of the game, any empty squares surrounded by your pieces count as your points. You can also capture my pieces by fully surrounding them” he demonstrates different rules as he talks. Quietly confident, but also a good teacher. I shouldn’t be surprised, given his profession.

As other people realize he’s teaching me they begin gathering around us, shouting different strategies and rules that they think Jack missed. An argument between Sunny and Jack quickly devolves into sarcastic insults, but I barely register it as my mind is already thinking through the game.

I see why Nolan thought I would like it.

“Does that all make sense?” Jack asks, after all the rules and strategies have been shouted at least twice by our spectators.

“Yeah, I think so” I say, giving a cautious smile. “Sounds fun!”

“Great,” he says “we can play a quick practice game so you can test it out.”

“Oh come on Jack,” a pretty blonde who I think was named Andrea says, rolling her eyes. “That’s not fair to her, everyone knows you’re the best at this game.”

“Nah that’s good,” Nolan pipes up, the first time he’s spoken since we came into the living room. “She’ll learn better that way.”

I look up at him and narrow my eyes. I feel like he’s scheming. He looks back trying to feign innocence way too hard. I laugh silently and roll my eyes, focusing back on the game.

“We play Blitz Go, where you get 10 seconds per turn. But for the practice round you can take as long as you like, within reason” he says, pushing the container with the black pieces towards me. “Here, you can be black.”

I sit there for half a minute, waiting for him to start, before he says “black goes first.”

“Ew,” I say automatically, barely even realizing I said it. He chuckles, looking at me curiously.

“Sorry, usually white goes first” I mumble, embarrassed, taking my piece and placing it down.

The game picks up and I really do enjoy it. There’s tons of outcomes to sift through, spaces to count, and moves to consider. For a game with such simple rules, it really takes some thought.

Well, for me. Jack seems to be barely paying attention. Mostly his eyes keep drifting to Elsie who pulled up a chair beside him. They’re chatting quietly while everyone else hangs out, academic talk, laughter, and sarcastic barbs filling the air. People are barely paying attention to our game.

That is until I say “ok, I think I win” and everyone drops silent, heads swiveling to stare at me for the second time tonight.

I look up, confused “what? Did I do something wrong?” I ask, suddenly unsure of myself.

Everyone looks at our game, as Jack starts counting the spaces. Someone whispers “holy shit” as Jack looks up at me with a shocked but impressed expression on his face. I look around and see Nolan, the only one who doesn’t look at all surprised, with a half smile on his face.

“No, Mallory you did everything right,” George finally breaks the silence, a huge smile breaking out across her face. “I am pretty sure the only one who has beaten Jack in the last year is Elsie.”

That seems to be the permission everyone needed to start ribbing Jack about losing to someone who had never played before.

He narrows his eyes at me and asks “did you just hustle me? Have you really never played before?”

“Well….” I say, a small smile on my face “not technically-”

I’m interrupted when we hear the front door open and a man calling “sorry I’m late everyone!”

And for some reason I feel like I know that voice. We all turn to look in the doorway and my eyes go wide.

“Dr. Adam?!” I exclaim. When he sees me, he looks as shocked as I feel.

“Mallory?” He asks, eyes raising to the rest of the room. “Nolan? What are you guys doing here?”

Notes:

I am so sorry this chapter is coming so late! I got locked out of the email where I had this draft in progress so I wasn't able to work on it for a week. I hope you enjoyed it!

Notes:

Now, can Mallory convince Nolan to leave the house for a party with strangers?

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I’ll try to post twice a week, but may not be able to stick to it depending on life. Thanks for reading ❤️