Chapter 3

Lanna kept seeing Boba Fetts everywhere. Either he was playing hide and seek with her, or, more likely, she was simply on the verge of going stark raving mad.

It had already begun on her way home from work. She thought she had seen him twice -- once standing in the dark doorway of a house, and the second time crossing a side street, which was, of course, nonsense. Then Lanna had blamed the hallucinations on being tired, along with Fett's strange behaviour at Mr. Rend's -- just her subconscious trying to make sense of the events.

With a bounty hunter, that meant being hunted. Which was, when looked at logically, complete nonsense. By now he certainly knew where she lived, and it would be much easier to simply wait for her there. If he even wanted something from her at all, that is.

Of course, there was no bounty hunter waiting with a raised blaster in her apartment. Neither could she find a note threatening her with an immediate and sudden demise. As far as Lanna could tell, the flat was completely untouched.

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

If Lanna had expected that everything would be fine again the next morning, she was disappointed. By the time she retrieved her speeder from the lot, Lanna could have sworn she saw the bounty hunter lingering in a gateway across the street. By the time she had turned around for a closer look, the gateway was, of course, empty. Still, as soon as she turned around the corner, she was sure she'd seen him cross the street behind her. Unfortunately, you cannot really turn around on a running speederbike in the middle of the street to take a second glance.

And that was only the beginning.

On her way to work, Lanna kept seeing Boba Fett at every other corner, in most doorways, and even one or two shop windows. No amount of eye-blinking, head-shaking, or annoyed muttering could do anything to stop the visitations. She hoped this paranoia would wear off in the shop -- he could hardly hide in there.

She wished. In the middle of a sales talk, she glimpsed him from the corner of her eye, standing either far across the shop, or on the opposite side of the way in the mall outside. Whenever she was able to get a good look at the place in question, there would be nobody there. If this does not stop over the weekend, Lanna decided, I'll get a psychiatrist first thing on Monday!

As soon as her shift was over, Lanna hurried home -- since she didn't dare to look up, right, or left as she drove, she was pretty much a danger to all traffic around her, but at least she didn't see any more Bobas, either.

At home she sat down with a chocolate-flavoured stim-caf, trying to get into the mood of the evening ahead. The evening with Jereko, she corrected herself. That was really something to look forward to. Musing, Lanna stood before her closet, wondering what kind of dress would most appeal to him.

Jereko was tall, lean, and bordering on skinny. Most remarkable about him were his steel-grey eyes that seemed to sparkle with amusement all the time. And though his hair was of the same nondescript galaxy-gutter brown you got everywhere, it always looked tousled in a most endearing way. Lanna had quite a crush on him and had tried to get his attention for several weeks. Finally, it seemed that she had accomplished something

In the end Lanna decided on a black-and-red dress with straps knotted on the shoulders, matching high heels, and makeup. The outfit was completed by her black purse -- a steel-enforced bane of unwanted admirers and their noses.

After a last twirl before the mirror, Lanna grabbed some translucent nail polish for emergencies with her tights and her long coat, and made it for public transport. Those designers would never get the idea that a girl might want to ride a speederbike wearing short skirts, she thought, disgruntled.

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

In Charley's, Cally and Jarend had already secured Lanna a place directly opposite Jereko. And he did grin back at her when she gave him a big smile! In her excitement Lanna mostly pushed the food around on her plate rather than eating it. A promising start, indeed.

Only five minutes later Stini appeared, looking as if he had just jumped out of the latest fashion magazine. At his side was an incredibly beautiful girl in a tiny but very sparkly and flashy outfit. She didn't seem to feel awkward at all. Lanna granted her a real chance with Stini for that alone. Passing Jereko, Stini taunted, "Whatever you are doing here? I don't think the Dead Ewoks are on schedule tonight."

Jereko rolled his eyes up dramatically, shooting Lanna a quick smile before he did so, and answered, "Well, I didn't hear we would get to vote for Mr. Fashion, either."

Laughing, Stini countered, "Since I'm around, the competition is cancelled anyway. Even winning can get boring." He took his girl's hand and led her down the table, where he waited for everybody's attention. "May I introduce," he announced with a bow," Laiara, the most beautiful and charming hyperdrive engineer to ever graduate college."

The girl was greeted by a murmur of surprised "hellos" -- most of Lanna's friends seemed to be as taken aback as she felt. It was difficult to imagine Laiara in a dirty overall wielding a hydro-spanner, all right. If Lanna hadn't been so preoccupied with Jereko, she might have been curious to learn more about Stini's newest conquest.

As things stood, though, she turned her attention back to Jereko immediately. She had managed to monopolize him with a discussion about the 'Dead Ewoks' influence on bands like 'The Siths' and 'COMPNOR', which he readily accepted as an excuse to talk her into seeing the next gig in town with him. Lanna was more than happy.

"Of course, you won't have to stand in the thick of action," he offered protectively. "All that jumping can get pretty violent, but I'll be around." He smiled at Lanna and actually blushed a little.

Lanna thought he was absolutely adorable. The probability of one of his favourite bands coming along was small, but he'd certainly find something local. The idea of a protective Jereko appealed to Lanna a lot.

"I'm sure it will be great," she replied, grinning broadly from one ear to the other. "Maybe we could meet someday next week, and you could lend me some of the music-cards?"

Nodding, Jereko said, "That's a good idea. I'll make you a compilation of the most important songs."

Lanna beamed at him happily. This was exactly the way to get things rolling.

The evening was the best Lanna ever had. Jereko war a great dancer -- he had all the moves down perfectly. So when he suddenly froze in mid-move, staring toward the entrance, and she toppled ungraciously on the floor because he forgot to catch her, Lanna knew something bad had happened. Looking around, she saw that most of the other patrons had stopped to stare as well. Lanna hoped fervently that this didn't mean what she feared it did.

Slowly, she turned her head to see the inevitable: Boba Fett had just entered the house.

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

To be sitting between two guys who both had a crush on one was usually a very pleasant experience. But that ceased to be true if one of them was Boba Fett who, though he had his legs crossed in your direction, kept his arms folded over his chest and, in spite of his mask, managed to look indignant.

It became even worse if the other guy was Jereko, whom you really liked, but who seemed too easily affected by the glaring bounty hunter and was right then going back on all the advances he had made so far. It was especially aggravating when you had planned to get at least two slow dances with him, moving in a way that would convince him to, finally, ask you for a date. Preferably after kissing.

But nothing seemed to be further from Jereko's thoughts. He even squirmed. Not a respectable thing to do for a young man his age when he actually should be courting. Lanna was not happy with his behaviour. He avoided her eyes, and when she dared to gaze at him longer, he hung his head, almost wringing his hands. He probably very much wished to be somewhere else right then.

When she could bear it no more, Lanna signalled Cally for help. Her friend got up and indicated the ladies's room with her head. Lanna nodded. Carefully she extricated herself from between the two men, grabbed Cally's hand, and followed her across the hall.

"He is driving me crazy," she shouted at Cally. "What is he doing here anyway? I didn't know bounty hunters like him enjoyed a Jizz night out, too."

Because of the surrounding noise, Cally seemed to understand only bits and pieces of what Lanna had said. "What did you say? Crazy? But then those bounty hunter types always are," she shouted over her shoulder.

Resigned, Lanna waited until the door of the 'freshers had closed behind them before she tried another time. "What in all Sith-hells does he want here? And why does he keep sitting right next to me, when there is so much space all over the place?"

Cally regarded her image in the mirror, plucking at her hair and checking for runny makeup. "I don't know," she said determinedly rubbing at a patch of stray rouge. "But he is not really acting up to the occasion, is he now? One could at least have expected him to show off a bit for us."

Lanna watched incredulously, while Cally tweaked her hair back into shape. Showing off? she wondered. Wasn't it bad enough that he sat staring at her all evening? There was NO need at all to get twirled around the floor by him, too. Quickly she tried to ban the picture of Boba Fett hitting the dance floor from her mind. She was about as successful with it as she had been with the chicken soup.

"I think you'd better go home," Cally suddenly said, turning toward Lanna. "He's making everybody nervous." By "he," of course, she meant Boba Fett.

Lanna sighed. It had been such a wonderful evening until...until Mr. Fett had stalked in and ruined everything. Who does he think he is? she wondered angrily. Hanging her head, she nodded. "I'm afraid you're right," Lanna conceded. "I shouldn't ruin the evening for everybody else, too."

Cally hugged her. "We will miss you," she said and was gone.

Lanna stood gazing at her reflection for a while. I just have to tell him clearly that he is not wanted, she thought. Her lips twisted into a tight grin. At least I won't have to get a psychiatrist on Monday.

She grabbed her purse, wondering if its steel-reinforced bottom would make a dent in Fett's helmet -- or if the bounty hunter wore a cod piece.

Cally had already announced her departure, and when Lanna returned to the group everybody stood up to hug her good-bye. Everybody except Jereko, that was. Lanna felt like strangling Fett with her bare hands, or shoving that helmet up unlikely places. But the object of her anger sat calmly in the exact place he had when she had left. He could have been a statue for all he moved.

"Take care," Jarend told her. "I'll call you tomorrow … to see if .. if nothing happened," he added, with a side glance toward Boba Fett.

Lanna nodded. "Don't worry -- I'll be all right." With a last look at her friends she left.

Of course, her public transport left just the moment that Lanna got to the stop. She could see its taillights disappearing around the corner and cursed. Then she decided to walk to the next station so she wouldn't freeze to death. And all because of that stupid bounty hunter.

The aforementioned fortunately didn't seem to have followed her, because Lanna felt more than ready to apply her purse to any available part of his body at that moment. She fumed, again wondering whether the bounty hunter wore a codpiece or not. It would be a pity, she though grimly, if all the places that really hurt would be covered with armour.

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

When she arrived at home Lanna had cooled down a little. Unfortunately, mostly physically, her mind was still rolling in an angry red haze. Still she did not see Boba Fett coming up the stairs after her. She would have expected his boots to make a lot more noise than they actually were, and so suspected nothing.

But when she turned to close the door, she almost banged head-first into Boba again. "What?" she shouted at him.

"I love you," he said simply.

"Oh, please," Lanna slammed the door shut in his face. Whatever it was he was taking, she thought, he'd better be more careful with the dosage.