Star Wars - Kenobi

later, Annileen walked behind the counter. She looked in wonderment at the stack of packages Leelee had brought to ship. Leelee was a talented sculptor in her spare time, specializing in primitive designs; she had customers on worlds all over the Outer Rim. “How do you find these people?” Annileen asked.
    “Ex-boyfriends,” the Zeltron said, smiling primly. She ran a crimson finger down a digital list of names on the manifest she was holding. “They’re all still fans.”
    “Of your work—or you?”
    “An artist tries not to ask,” Leelee said. “You could use a hobby yourself, Annie. You’ve been a bundle of energy for the last few weeks. What’s going on?”
    “I don’t know,” Annileen said, processing the packages. Leelee was right, of course. Just during the last couple of weeks, Annileen had changed the layout of the packaged goods section, helped Kallie re-fence the dewback run, and streamlined the store’s accounting procedures. That morning, she had built a new table by hand especially for Bohmer and his new hoverchair, when he finally got the okay to return and resume his caf intake. If the facts of her life hadn’t changed in recent days, she’d made sure it felt like a whirl, all the same.
    “I know what’s wrong,” Leelee said.
    “No advice requested, Leelee.” Annileen stopped transcribing. “Look, I get it. The big things in my world are never going to change. But there’s a lot of little stuff I can fix, and I might as well get to it.”
    “Phooey on that,” Leelee said. “I say you haven’t seen Ben since he ran out of here that time, and it’s driving you up the wall. And onto the ceiling,” she added.
    Annileen rolled her eyes. “Really,” she said icily. “What makes you think that?”
    “Because you’ve just given my latest masterpiece a shipping label for something called the ‘Kenobi system.’ ”
    Annileen looked at the letters she’d absentmindedly printed and blushed. “Oops.”
    “It’s okay,” Leelee said, gesturing to the mislabeled package. “It is a fertility statue.”
    “That’s all I need.” Annileen laughed. She shook her head and corrected the label. “Okay. I admit it. It bothers me that he never came back.”
    She’d almost lost track of how long it had been since the Tusken attack—and the crazy, surreal day after. The visit by “Master Boopa.” The strange change in Orrin’s behavior toward her. And Ben’s vanishing act upon becoming the center of attention. He hadn’t returned since.
    “I guess we scared him off,” she said. Newcomers were like that, sometimes. They didn’t know the locals gossiped about every new arrival, just to forget about them when someone else came along. Only two people had even mentioned Ben to Annileen recently. Orrin asked occasionally whether he had returned. And Kallie asked the same thing, only every five minutes.
    Orrin appeared in the hallway from the garage. Annileen saw him give a moment’s glance to the scaffold before disappearing into his office without a word.
    “That’s another weird one,” she whispered to Leelee. Orrin’s best behavior around Annileen had been a thing of wonder lately; it was the new story captivating the regulars’ attention. “You want to talk to someone, talk to him.”
    Leelee snorted and made a pronouncement. “Annie, my friend, Ben is exactly what you’ve needed.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “Because you’ve kept Orrin at arm’s length for years,” Leelee said. “And he got used to it. But now that there’s another suitor for Princess Annie, he’s got to make his move.”
    Annileen cast a horrified glance at the office door. “I don’t want him to make his move!”
    “Is that so?” Leelee smirked. “I think you want Orrin interested—so it’ll force your mystery man to do something.”
    “You’re mentally ill,” Annileen said. “Seriously, what is it with you Zeltrons? You’d matchmake for droids, if they’d listen.”
    “They do listen, Annie. That’s why there are so many droids.”
    Annileen groaned. This really wasn’t what she needed—or was looking for. Things were fine with Orrin as they were. Well, no they aren’t. But Orrin was more an older brother—or, sometimes, a third child. He had been Dannar’s friend, and that was how she still saw him. Why did he want that to change now?
    She started to say something when Leelee shushed her. Orrin emerged from the office, having changed his shirt and neatened his hair