It was a local band playing a local bar. Coruscant Skyes, they called themselves. It wasn't the most original name, but they were popular in the area and at least their music was danceable. Sorah glanced up on stage and wondered if any of the band members had ever even been off-planet, let alone to Coruscant.
The thought started her mind drifting to some of the places she'd been in her lifetime. Quickly, she pulled those thoughts back in. They were exactly what she was trying to take a break from.
She looked at Drae and smiled. He was a terrible dancer, but he was giving it a good try. She admired him for it, at the same time trying not to feel sorry for his lack of rhythm. He smiled back, blissfully unaware of his own awkwardness.
Sorah laughed. It felt good to let go. To let the rhythmic beating of the bass flow through her, moving her body almost involuntarily, to feel the alcohol slowly numbing her senses. She grabbed Drae by the waist and pulled him close, hoping to lend him some of her timing. He slid his hands down onto her hips, moving and swaying as she was.
The dance floor was packed, and beings from all over were packed together, all moving to the sounds, but Sorah wasn't noticing them anymore. The man in her arms, moving in time with her body, bent his head down to the spot where her neck met her shoulder, and she tilted her head ever so slightly, making room for the lips that were brushing her neck.
Suddenly something caught her eye. Way in the back of the bar. Drae noticed the sudden stiffness in his dance partner. "What is it?" he asked in her ear, trying to look in the direction she was.
"It's him!" she yelled back, just loud enough to be heard over the music.
"Him, who?"
"The guy from today, the man with the hat," Sorah said.
"So?"
"Well, he's not a regular. Why would he be here if he's not a regular?" she asked.
Drae wasn't convinced. "We're not regulars either."
"But at least we're local... that guy isn't!" she stopped for a second. A second ago it seemed logical and dangerous, but now that it was spoken aloud, it seemed ridiculous. She said as much.
Drae put his hands on her shoulders. "No, if you think it might be a problem, let's go talk to the guy." He turned and started looking for him. "Where is he standing?"
Sorah looked to the back corner where she had seen the stranger, but he was no longer there. Frantically she searched the crowded room, but was unable to locate the man. "I... I don't see him now."
She wondered if she ever had.
----------------------
“No, I know you said that.” Sorah tapped her foot impatiently as she listened to her cousin on the comm the next morning. “I’m sure it’s nothing, but I want to be careful. Karla’s everything to me and you know that.”
“Thank you.” She hung up the call. Her cousin was great, but she did like to give her a hard time. She loved Karla too, and was ecstatic to have her for a few extra days, despite her tone on the call. Anyone else, and Sorah wouldn’t have been honest and open about her paranoia… but she trusted her cousin.
Now that she didn’t have to worry about her daughter getting caught up in this mess she may have weaved for herself, she felt a lot better. Whether she was imagining it or not, she could take care of herself. She just couldn’t live with herself if she endangered her daughter.
That drove everything now. Her budding feelings for Drae, her seemingly indestructible feelings for her ex and how they complicated things, her own life… all of that was trivial next to her daughter’s safety.
If she wasn’t imagining things, those responsible were in some serious trouble for even coming within distance of her daughter. Then she’d have to come to terms and deal with her own part in it, after she took care of everyone else involved.
Her boiling rage over the potentially imaginary creeps was beginning to subside and she was calming down as she walked the streets clearing her mind when she saw the hat again.
She did not have to take the time to think before she jumped into action. His back was turned to her, looking into a shop window a block and a half away. She didn’t care if he saw her sprinting at him. If he reacted, that would only prove him guilty.
She was on him in a matter of seconds. He was still pretending to stare at the mannequins through the transparisteel when she got to him. She allowed the full force of her body to slam into him and push him into the solid barrier as hard as she could. She was a fairly petite woman, but it was not a horrible disadvantage if you knew how to deal with it.
As she listened to the sound of the man’s head rebound off the window, only slightly muffled by his odd hat, she knew she’d already more than evened out her ‘disadvantage’. She had to be quick though, in case he wasn’t alone.
She grabbed the man by his coat and pulled him to turn him over to look him in the eye and ask him who was after her and why. She would get her answers, and then this man would pay, and whoever sent him would pay even more.
Only it wasn’t him. It wasn’t the same guy from the diner. Or the club, if that was real. She’d never even seen this man before. He was just an man with an apparently odd sense of fashion. She panicked.
She hurriedly pulled him up and began apologizing profusely, while making rude gestures at the man walking away from her, whom she explained had pushed her into him. He bought it, or was too dazed to think about it.
When the man was able to stand on his own, albeit somewhat shakily, she jogged off towards home.
She was going crazy.
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