764. Behind You - Raezyr

Days went by faster than Sorah Kavel imagined they could. Drae made that possible. Each day they became closer and more comfortable, yet each time their eyes smiled at the other, she felt more and more as if she was deceiving him; Lying to people wasn't something that came easy.

Several times she had tried to broach the subject of her past, to explain where Karla had come from, warn him that her past might come back and put them all in danger.

But the logical side of her screamed that with each passing day, the chances of her life of two years ago suddenly rising it's ugly head became slimmer and slimmer. Still, as this life became more concrete around her, the fear of her last one interfering became a bigger and bigger fear.

It didn't help her fears any when the man with the black hat came into the diner. He had dirty blond hair which stuck out from underneath the flat-crowned, wide brimmed hat and a worn brown leather jacket. Sorah hadn't seen him before, which wasn't unusual, but the hat was what stood out. It wasn't a style that she had seen anyone around here wearing, either on the streets or any of the local planetary news holos, which marked him as an off-worlder.

That wasn't strange by itself, except that the Stardust wasn't an eatery which beckoned to the intergalactic traveler. Most of her customers were regulars, or at least local.

He ordered a caf and the special.

"What do you think about the guy at table five, Drae?" Sorah asked when she went into the kitchen to put his order in.

Drae peeked out into the dining area. "Dumb hat," he said, and walked back to the grill.

"He gives me the creeps," Sorah said.

"Really? How come?"

She explained her theory about the hat and that it marked him as an off-worlder.

Drae shrugged. "So if it weren't for the hat, you wouldn't have given him a second look?"

Sorah nodded, starting to feel a little embarrassed. She turned pushed the swinging kitchen door open just a crack and watched the man in the hat. "It's not just the head gear, though. There's something about him that I can't put my finger on, and it's setting off all the warning klaxons in my head."

Drae walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm don't know why he has you spooked, and I really don't care, but I promise I'll keep an eye on him while he's in here."

The waitress reached up and squeezed Drae's hand and  went back out to get the man's caf. It was nice that Drae was being protective, but she didn't have the heart to tell him that not only was she more than capable of looking out for herself, but that she could probably beat the both of them up... at the same time.

She smiled to herself as she righted the man's cup and poured his drink. "Your food should be up in a minute. Anything else I help help you with?" She asked him.

The man looked up out of the corner of his eye. "Sorah, is it?" he asked looking at her name tag.

"Excellent. You can read," she replied warily.

"Can I get some cream for the caf?"

She sighed internally. For whatever reason, she had expected something else from him. "Sure, just a second," she said with a smile she didn't feel.

A short while later, she handed the man in the hat his change and watched as he walked out the door and down the street without so much as a backward glance. She squeezed her hands into fists, feeling the nails digging into her palms, angry at herself for being so paranoid. She needed to relax. She couldn't live, jumping at every stranger who walked into the door.

She pushed the door to the kitchen open. "I want to go out after work, Drae. Take me somewhere I can get a drink and relax. You're not busy, are you?"

Drae looked up from the grill with a grimace. "Oh, man. I've got good news and bad news."

Sorah's shoulders sagged. "Give the the bad news."

"I'm going to be a bit busy tonight."

"And the good news?"

Drae grinned suddenly, "Good news is that I'm busy taking you out for a drink."

"Jerk," Sorah said with a chuckle and a grin, then ducked back out into the dining area. She had more tables to wait on.

763. Behind You - Trychon

As the weeks progressed, Drae didn't let up on asking her out, but he was not forceful about it nor did he get insulted when she continued to brush him aside.  He simply continued to flirt with her and compliment her all while remaining a good friend and a great help with her sod awful job.  Sometimes, when the mood struck her, Sorah would throw a witty line his way too.  That almost made her feel guilty for stringing him along, but he knew where he stood with her.

The job did get easier as time went on.  Rather, the job stayed the same, but she got much better at it.  It didn't take long really for her to learn the diner's menu inside and out.  She was already good at reading people from her previous life, so it was easy for her to pick up on who to bother warning about what to eat and what not to eat.  Some she would let make their own blunders, if they weren't either nice or good tippers.

Still, it was exhausting at times.  The carrying of trays of food and the constant running (on a good day) was not a problem for her, she was in better than decent shape.  The dealing with customers, and the absolute lack of intellectual stimuli some days simply made it a real trial to survive the whole shift.  Fortunately, Drae had enough pull with the owner to get them scheduled together most of the time, and he helped to keep her sane.

"Gorram it, some people are idiots!"  Sorah exclaimed as she placed an order in for a customer.  "There should be limits to what some people are allowed to do or how much they're allowed to talk, based on their intelligence or extreme lack thereof."

"Why do you think I work in the kitchen?  The people I deal with are absolutely lovely."  Drae laughed at her.

She gave him a smile in return for his compliment.  He was only being nice, and didn't deserve a rejection when he hadn't actually asked her for anything.  "I know I've said it before... but jeebs, these people can just be flat out exhausting."

"You know what I like to do when I'm exhausted?"  He asked rhetorically, planning on telling her anyway.  "I like to power up my nice caf compressor, and get juiced up to stay up late watching holos.  I stay up even through the morning, and get ridiculously stupid.  I do that as long as I can, until I end up passing out the next day in the afternoon.  Then I just sleep until the following morning."

Sorah laughed at the idea of fighting exhaustion with sleep deprivation.  "That's stupid."

"Actually, it's a lot of fun.  If you have the right company, that is.  We both have the next two days off.... I could bring the compressor over, and let you see what I mean."

Sorah paused, honestly considering it.  "You know what, you big brat?"

Drae shrugged innocently.

"I think I'd like that."  She finished.  "Now hurry up with that order, please... I need to get this pair out of my hair!

------------------------

The door chime dinged letting Sorah know someone was requesting entry. She checked the chrono on the end table at the end of the couch. Drae was exactly on time. All afternoon she had been regretting agreeing to this, but not enough to cancel, although she had come close to comming him twice in the last hour to do just that.

It wasn't really an age issue. He was only a few standard years younger than she was, but given everything she'd been through so far in her life, the age gap felt a lot bigger than it really was. That wasn't the biggest hurdle though. She thought of her former boyfriend. Deep down she knew she still loved him, and probably always would, but that part of her life was over now, and she needed to move on. Drae was a nice... kid. She couldn't help but think of him that way still. He was as good of a person as any, but she wondered if maybe she was just setting him up for heartbreak.

Still, he was old enough to make his own decisions. He'd have one to make in about two minutes.

She stood in front of the door, finger poised over the entry button. Now or never, she thought to herself and pushed the switch.

The door whooshed back into the wall and there he stood. "Hey!" the cook said with a grin. "I hope you like comedy, because I brought a bunch of those." He indicated several data cards in his hand.

"Comedy is great," Sorah said with a smile. "I could use some laughs."

Suddenly a small girl with black hair came around the corner. She looked to be about a standard year and a half old, and was holding a small stuffed tauntaun in one hand and sucking the thumb on the other. "Mommy?" the small child questioned around the appendage.

"Come here, baby," Sorah said, and swung the girl up in her arms. The former gang member turned back to Drae who's mouth was slightly open in surprise.

"Karla, sweetie, this is Mommy's friend, Drae. Can you say 'hi?'" Instead, the child buried her head in the crook of her mother's neck. "Sorry, she's kind of shy around new people." Sorah paused for a long moment, and when Drae didn't say anything, she continued. "If you want to leave, I'll understand."

Drae shook his head. "Oh, no, no, no. You just never mentioned having a daughter so it kind of threw me, but I like kids," he said. "I was honestly just thinking about the logistics of how this was going to work."

Sorah smiled. Somewhere deep down she was kind of disappointed that it wasn't a deal breaker, but she was much more happy that it wasn't. "Oh I'll be putting her to bed here in a minute, then we can start watching those holos," she said. "In the morning when Karla gets up, we can run her over to my cousin's place, grab some breakfast, then watch another holo, crash, whatever."

Drae grinned big. "Sounds good to me."

By the time Sorah had the little girl asleep in the next room, Drae had already had the first holo cued up and ready to go. "This first one is a classic; an oldie but a goodie. 'Cabott and Carmello Go to Coruscant.' I hope you like that stuff."

Sorah sat down on the couch next to Drae and found herself leaning towards him as the show started.

It was too much for her.  The conflict was tearing at her.  She had been so lonely, of late... and she missed her boyfriend so much.  She yearned for a little compassion beyond her family.  Yet she still felt wrong.  She was worried that she would do something she would regret with Drae, and then ruin what they already have.  She didn't want to hurt him and lose her only friend.

"Drae... listen."  She waved at the screen to pause the holo.  "There's a lot you don't understand about me."

"Shhhhh....."  Drae held up a finger to stop her.  "I really like.... this holo."  He winked at her.

For some reason that Sorah didn't understand, that was enough for her. He understood and didn't care.  She slid to sit next to him again.

762. Behind You - Raezyr

It happened for the second time that day. If she weren't so mad about it, it would almost be funny. Frankly, these sleazebag customers at the Stardust had no clue what she could do to them if she wanted to, and at the moment, she wasn't sure she didn't.

Earlier it had been some fat, balding human in his late 40's. This time it was a younger being of mixed species decent... human mixed with something, she couldn't tell exactly what, but his skin had a bluish-green hue to it.

Apparently he considered himself quite the ladies man around here. "Hey, baby, how's about you come over to my place when you get off?" he had asked. It wasn't getting hit on that bothered her. That had been happening all day. It was the part where he grabbed her buttocks right before asking that was about to earn him an extra orifice in his skull.

Sorah tried not to let it show, but it must have been written all over her face. As she ducked back into the kitchen to grab a couple of plates, Drae stopped her. "Hey, I know some of these customers can be real sleemos, but try to blow it off. If they see it's getting to you, it's only going to egg them on."

She puffed out her cheeks as she exhaled. Drae was right. She had already known this kind of stuff would come with the territory. "It's just going to take a bit of getting used to."

"The up side of playing it off, is that you do it just right, you can let them know you don't like it but still get a decent tip," the cook offered with a smile.

"I'd rather put the fear of the Sith in them," Sorah replied with a chuckle.

Drae acknowledged her comment with a look rather than a comment, as he put a few plates on the counter for her to deliver.  She grabbed them, returned his smile, and headed back to work with a new idea of how to handle the overzealous jerks that happened to be her customers.

She carried the plates carefully the long way around the room, to avoid having the guy grab at her again.  She was ready to deal with him, but didn't want to risk losing the other customers' food.  The table she delivered to was happy with the food, and seemed happy with her service, but politely pointed out that she'd forgotten the Tenkin sauce.  She laughed, and thanked them for understanding on her first day, noting to herself that their politeness may indicate that they didn't come here often.

She headed back for the sauce as promised, and made way by the table with the guffawing perverts.  She was not only ready to deal with them, but to go the other route would make it seem as though she was avoiding them.

Sure enough, the guy reached for her again.  She reacted quickly, expecting the move almost exactly.  With his large and hairy wrist now caught in her grip, she squeezed as hard as she could.  The smile she gave him was mostly genuine, because she really was enjoying the thought that it hurt him.  She played down the malicious edge though, trying to seem flirty.

"Now now... you didn't pay for that."  She scolded as she let go of him.

"So it is on the menu, then?"  His lips, covered in gravy that hadn't made it all the way into his mouth, split wide into a disturbing smile.

"Honey, you'd have to have a lot more to offer than money to get what you're looking for."

Sorah let out a deep breath of relief as she returned to the kitchen, glad it was over with and went over well.  As she peered out of the window to the dining room, she could see the group still laughing, and the one was rubbing his wrist.

"Well handled!"  Drae acted out an audience applause.  "Those guys really are jerks, and honestly they've been at least a part of our employee turnover issue.  But they tip ok from what I've heard and have been coming around for ages."

"They'd better tip."  Sorah agreed.

Drae suddenly looked a little nervous.  "Hey listen."  He forced a chuckle.  "At the risk of sounding like an old sleemo, what say you and I go get a celebratory drink or catch a vid after work?  Let a little loose after your first successful day at the Stardust?"

She wasn't ready for that.  "Listen Drae... You're a really sweet guy... but you're a bit young for me."

"Doesn't bug me none, if you can get past it."

"You really have no idea what I've been through."

Drae leaned in a little closer.  "I'd love to hear about it.  Or you can completely pretend none of its ever happened, and keep it from me.  It's the past."

"I can't..." She was shaking her head, still off balance.  "Tonight."  She added, not knowing why and regretting it very quickly.  She shouldn't give him false hope, even if she did want to avoid hurting his feelings.

"Fair enough, Ms. Mysterious... but you're going to have to do more than hurt my wrist to get me to give up..."

With that, he turned around and got back to the stove, whistling a cheerful tune to himself.