Again.
A band set up their instruments and began to play classical music. If the other guests weren’t already tired, they soon would be.
Feeling despondent, I approached the bar and ordered a Titan ale.
After all that excitement, I’d lost her. In a palace of this size, she could have gone anywhere. I would never find her again. She might as well be on another planet.
It wasn’t like anything was going to happen. I didn’t even expect anything to happen. I just—
What? What did I expect?
I sighed deeply. I just wanted to look at her. I looked at the portrait of my wife all the time but that was two-dimensional and incapable of conversation—no matter how often I spoke to her.
It was probably a good thing. Nobody liked to be ogled and stared at. Especially by someone they didn’t even know.
“One ale,” the bartender said, sliding it over to me.
I cupped it between my hands and watched as the tiny bubbles popped, making a squeaking noise that only ever seemed to get louder the drunker you got.
Get drunk. Now that sounded like a good idea. Then I could forget this whole thing had ever happened and maybe, if I was lucky, I might mistake this whole thing as yet another dream I had about her.
I took a healthy drag on the ale and turned.
I almost spat it out. Some of it did spill down my costume.
There she sat, on a barstool at the other end of the bar.
She idly stirred her brightly-colored drink with a tiny umbrella. I’d never seen a drink with an umbrella before. It looked… exotic.
I sized her up from this angle, and as she turned to peer at the stage, I got a good look at her ass.
Wow.
She was in excellent shape. A little taller than I thought and with bigger curves. Her dress clung to her figure, dark against her pale skin. Her black hair spilled down to her shoulder blades.
She was stunning.
I should go over and speak with her, I thought. Before someone else does.
But I didn’t make a move. I huddled back over my drink and drank another mouthful. Maybe if I drank enough, I could work up the confidence I needed… and then fail spectacularly when she couldn’t understand a single word I said.
I turned to her and opened my mouth…
But no words came out. I focused on my beer again.
Next time, have something to say to her, asshole!
“Don’t you just hate these things?” she said.
I looked her over. Who was she talking to?
The bartender had disappeared into the cellar and no one else was within earshot. She must be speaking to me.
“Uh, yeah,” I said. “They’re never much fun.”
She turned to face me and leaned her elbow on the bar.
“A bit of a stuffy party if you ask me,” she said. “But all these lord and lady types seem to enjoy them. I guess they must be stuffy too.”
I’m a lord and lady type…
“Yeah,” I said. “Right.”
She looked me over.
“I always manage to stick my foot in it,” she said. “You’re one of the guests here?”
“One of the stuffy lords,” I said, raising my hands in surrender.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you. I just meant… Forget I said anything.”
“To be honest with you,” I said, checking over my shoulders. “I’m not sure how many people would be here if they didn’t have to be.”
The girl slid along the bar a little closer.
“Didn’t have to be?” she said. “What do you mean?”
I’d better watch my tongue. The ale was beginning to loosen the knots.
“I mean, it’s a forced social gathering,” I said. “We were invited here but we’d prefer not to have to travel all this way.”
“Right,” the girl said, and now she checked over her shoulders. “I thought some sort of political thing was happening, like those insect things were taking over or something.”
I was surprised by her level of insight. I didn’t want to get her in trouble so I changed the subject.
“So, what brings you here?” I said.
“I’m here to entertain all you rich and powerful people,” she said.
I looked her over. At least this time she gave me an opening to do so. “Are you a dancer?”
She laughed. It rang like a bell.
Just like my wife’s.
“I’m the worst dancer you’ve ever seen,” she said.
“I’m not sure about that,” I said.
“Oh, I am.”
“You haven’t seen me dance.”
She grinned at me.
“Then you must be a singer,” I said.
She almost choked on her drink.
“Correct,” she said. “Boy, you’re good. Remind me never to play twenty questions with you.”
I slid my drink along the bar toward her, so close I could smell her perfume. It filled my senses and made me feel like I was flying.
“Where are you from?” I said.
“A little out-of-the-way place called Earth,” she said, looking up at me through her eyelashes.
“Earth?”
I’d studied many star maps over the years but I couldn’t remember ever hearing of a planet or moon with that name. I would the moment I got a chance.
“It’s not well developed yet,” she said. “It’s still going through its first real technology phase.”
“What’s that you’re drinking?” I said, motioning to the funny little colorful drink on the bar.
“Translator,” she said, addressing the translator strip on her neck, “allow original pronunciation. It’s called a mojito.”
“A mojito,” I said, practicing the sound on my lips. “Translator strip, save pronunciation under ‘delicious Earth drink.’”
“Woah. You don’t want to do that.”
I frowned.
“Why not?” I said. “It’s not delicious?”
“It is to me. But maybe it doesn’t suit your taste buds.”
I looked the drink over. It was brightly colored and I could smell the alcohol from over here.
“It looks plenty delicious to me,” I said.
A smile spread across her gorgeous wide mouth. I was so embarrassed. I’d actually looked her in the eye when I said it. I must have come across as a seedy pervert.
“Here,” the girl said, sliding the glass over to me. “Try it.”
“I can’t,” I said. “It’s yours.”
She pushed it further toward me.
“I insist,” she said.
“Do you want
