Not mine, I tell you! Dude, I wouldn't be worried about Catholic high school tuition if it was. I could probably buy the darned school!
Chapter 2: Two weeks later, Shada got her few belongings together and walked toward the main landing port of the Imperial Palace where she was to board the Wild Karrde. Her heart pounded; she had no idea why. Reaching up, she checked to see that her hairpicks were in place. Although they appeared merely decorative, they were lacquered Zenji needles that served her as weapons in a pinch. They were all there, so she checked the knives strapped to the insides of her boots and made sure her blaster was fully loaded and that she had a spare power pack. It was routine for her, except she'd done it 10 minutes ago and knew nothing had changed. She did it to calm and distract herself, but it wasn't working. So she ran over the three weeks of training she'd had with Mara Jade to ensure that she knew all she needed to about being Karrde's 2IC. It still didn't distract her.
Seated in the cockpit of his ship, Talon Karrde was no calmer than his newest employee, a fact that did not go unnoticed by his crew. They all knew Shada and her time with them was fresh in everyone's minds. When Shada boarded and seemed as off-balance as their captain, gears began to turn in their heads. In the mess area that day, many bets were laid down and many theories debated over what would happen next. Most were in agreement that the two had it bad for each other, so most of the activity was over details like first kiss and who would cave in first. Favorite kissing point was Karrde's office, but no one could agree on who would admit their feelings first. Both Karrde and Shada were remarkably stubborn. The romantic ones concocted insane matchmaking plots while their more cynical comrades laughed.
Aves, a close associate of Karrde's, knew the plots would never work. Instead, he proposed a subtle encouragement, involving complex ideas and help from the queen of sneaky plans, Mara Jade. He sent a quick message to Coruscant and was rewarded when not only Mara, but her fiance and her future in-laws agreed to help out. This was a windfall; everyone knew that Councilor Organa Solo had spent years playing matchmaker for her brother. She had dozens of plans, many of which only required a few alterations to fit their new targets.
Both Shada and Karrde were oblivious to the plans being made for them, but they had begun to notice their attraction to one another. It scared Shada; this was the sort of thing she'd always avoided, believing that romance would bring nothing but trouble. Karrde wasn't so concerned...or he wouldn't have been, except that he felt more than mere attraction. He wasn't sure how much more, but he felt he had to find out. If it was what he was starting to think, he was in real trouble. It was at times like these he thought of Han Solo. Deep feelings for a woman had changed Solo's entire life; if Karrde was in as deep as he feared, what would change for him? Talon Karrde had first felt what he thought was true fear on Myrkr, when he'd realized that Grand Admiral Thrawn would hunt him to the edge of the galaxy. He knew now he'd been wrong; true fear was when you had no idea what your mind, and more importantly, your heart, were trying to tell you.