Zoe wanted a quiet evening. Just a quiet evening with thoughts that were bothering her. She also wanted a quiet evening to work through some facts that had nothing to do with the thoughts that were bothering her. She settled down near a man who looked a little troubled, and seemed to have a small bubble of free space around him. People knew that he was not normal.
She order apple juice. There were cheaper ways of getting apple juice, but she liked the idea of being able to add something to the juice should she want it. She took a sip.
Her head lifted when he asked something. What was he doing there? She looked around to see who the guy might be talking to, and she supposed it was herself.
"I don't know." He grew quiet, so Zoe took that as he had meant to ask that in a quiet rhetorical fashion. She shook her head, took another sip of apple juice. More people came in, and a couple wanted to sit together at the bar. Zoe nodded and moved closer to the troubled fellow, who was now talking about Galactica - sounded like some planet she'd never heard of. Or some ridiculous spaceliner from the Core.
She just took a sip of juice, and was about to turn to leave when he said something. He'd been moving oddly as it was, shifting on his stool in ways that just weren't normal. Well, not normal in some regular bar, other sorts of bars maybe, but not a regular one.
"Excuse me?" Had he just told her to take her clothes off while doing whatever he was doing right beside her?