Under the Best of Circumstances
"I don't know why you have to be so stubborn."
Noela sighed. "Mere, this comm is supposed to be for work only."
"Don't worry," her younger sister said flatly. "I haven't caught you working yet, so we know your work comm could do with some exercise."
As a matter of fact, she had been working on the same piece of legislation for six full weeks and had no end in sight, but Mere was a bit delusional as to what people of responsibility did during the day.
"Besides," Mere pressed on, "this affects your work."
"How?" Noela scoffed.
"Well," Mere reasoned, "if you get a boyfriend, Qui-Gon might not let you date him..."
"Oh, for the love of Taia!"
Mere attempted to respond to that invective, but Noela shut off the comm.
"What's this about a boyfriend?" Siha asked.
"None of your business," Noela protested, "but if you must know, I met a man yesterday."
"One that's allowed to have attachments?"
Her head landed solidly in her palm. "Mere's not dead yet, so stop channeling her spirit!"
"Yes, Senator," her aide responded with feigned meekness. "So, is he?"
She didn't bother to look up. "Is he what?"
"Allowed to have attachments," Siha insisted.
"YES!"
Her aide was rarely surprised, but her bellow of frustration actually induced a credible stagger. Noela wasn't particularly ashamed of that fact.
"His name is Liam," she recited, "he works in the holo industry and he asked me to go dinner tomorrow."
"Thank you," Siha said graciously, heading out of the office.
"Where are you going?"
"To the work comm," Siha supplied. "Your sister will have to find out about it from someone. Since you're too stubborn to tell her, it's my job." He was handsome, a perfect gentleman, somehow managed to get reservations at the exclusive Di'tarah restaurant and knew how to order the dishes in the original Ishori. He was dressed impeccably as well and hadn't stopped entertaining her since he retrieved her from the Consulate.
The only problem was that Liam had a bit too much curiosity.
"I called to confirm," Liam confided, "and got a bit of an interrogation. Who was that?"
"Siha," Noela said in exasperation.
Siha had also apparently forgotten to inform her that he had called, preferring to give him the third-degree without interruption. The result was, of course, that she would have to do a CorSec-quality job of deductive reasoning to find out what had happened on the date.
"She doesn't quite believe that you're not a figment of my imagination," Noela explained at last.
"Really," he laughed. "Do you often have figments of your imagination when it comes to dating?"
"No," she said with a slight smile, "but I've had a date with the same man every year and never married him, so they've wondered for years what's wrong with me."
"Nothing that I can tell," he mused. "Who are 'they'?"
"My aides, sisters and fellow Senators," she conceded. "Anyone in the Republic with too much time on their hands."
"I know the feeling," he sympathized. "No one seems to appreciate the principle of waiting for the right person any more."
Noela shook her head. "That's half of the problem," she countered. "They think..."
She broke off, blushing. "I'm breaking my own rule of leaving past love lives on a first date."
"No," he protested you. "This is interesting. How does this one fit into your love life?"
"In no part," she stated honestly.
"But they think he's the right one?" he teased. "What's wrong with him?"
"He's a Jedi, for one thing," she said with a roll of the eyes, "and we would never think of each other that way."
"You don't find him handsome?" he laughed.
"I wouldn't say that, in an objective way," she conceded. "He looks..."
And then, mortifyingly enough, she blushed.
Hard.
"He looks like you," she mumbled.
Except for the nose, but that's my fault and easily fixed.
The smile that had convinced her to accept an invitation to dinner broadened. "Really," he said, voice growing more amused by the moment. "Perhaps a look-alike would satisfy them."
"I'm willing to give it a try," she joked.
"Me, too," he said, voice a little less than teasing.
If possible, she blushed harder.
"So, you've now heard a few of the sordid details of why I'm available," she changed the topic. "Tell me something about yourself."
He shook his head ruefully. "I work too much," he admitted. "I don't seem to have much time for anything else."
"You enjoy your work, then?" she asked.
"Very much," he agreed. "It was one of those things that was a goal from childhood. What about you?"
She shook her head slightly. "You seem to want to keep me guessing," she chided. "Are you going to keep dodging questions?"
"No," he said, sounding a bit chagrined. "I just don't enjoy monopolizing the conversation."
"You haven't even told me your last name," she reminded. "For all I know, you could be a criminal."
"Some people think I am," he admitted, "but they're usually the ones trying to get my job."
"Sounds like my life," she said with a nod of understanding.
He regarded her for a long moment as if struggling to find the next words, but at last he cracked a smile. "I'd like to do this again."
"What," she deadpanned, "gossip about our love lives?"
"No," he corrected, grinning. "Giving your aide something to talk about."
She didn't observe that it sounded vaguely inappropriate to say that.
"Is this another invitation?"
He nodded. "I have tickets to the new Meola play this weekend," he suggested. "Would you like to go?"
It was so easy to be honest, to not have to play games with him. Perhaps he was more like Qui-Gon than she supposed.
"I'd love that."
"I'm not bringing him over to meet you!" Noela protested. "We've only been on five dates, we haven't moved past holding hands and you'd all scare him off!"
"Not all of us," Mere protested. "I'm beloved by everyone."
At the moment, 'everyone' certainly didn't extend to Noela, since her other sisters seemed to have a full update on things that she had never told them.
"Look," she wheedled. "Can't we leave him out of this? I've been waiting to see this holo for half a year."
"As soon as the news is over," Ciel reasoned. "They're announcing the nominees for the Guild Awards."
She dialed up the volume.
"And for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director and Best Holo," the newscaster was summarizing, "it is no surprise that Liam Senoe has received the most nominations of any individual."
Noela's only answer as the actor's face came on-screen was a very sudden thud.