My Introduction to Chess

I recently met a friend for drinks in a cafe. During the first drink he discovered a chess set under the table and suggested we played. I'd never really played but I knew what to do and agreed for fun. He beat me convincingly. I was surprised that he’d never mentioned an interest in chess but after that I downloaded a game for my phone, signed up to chess.com and played and played. I only improved slightly but decided that if I couldn't beat him the next time after all the practice (which I never mentioned), I’d give up. A few months later we played again and I won. Quite possibly due to the element of surprise. Since then I’ve been trying to improve and caught the bug.