a/n: This story is absolute trash but writing it made me happy. ;) It will ultimately have four parts.
Ben sips his beer slowly, trying, and utterly failing, to think clearly.
This bar is terrible. Even by Hux's shit standards. It's dirty, with overflowing ashtrays on the tables and sawdust on the floor. And the televisions mounted on the walls are too loud to allow normal conversation.
But the fact that it's impossible to hear much over the bar's din isn't the only reason Ben is having trouble focusing.
Or even the main reason.
"Hey," Rey murmurs in his ear. They've both been drinking tonight. But her words are not slurred; Ben is quite certain she's sober. She knows exactly what she's doing to him. "You… um. You wanna get out of here?"
—-
Ben doesn't make a habit of going home with girls he meets in bars.
Or going home with girls he meets anywhere, really.
This certainly wasn't on his itinerary this evening.
When Hux suggested they go out to celebrate the summer positions they just landed at Kenobi & Jinn, Ben figured all that would happen, if past experience was any guide, was they'd play some pool, get drunker than was entirely wise, and then stumble home on the brown line sometime around 1 a.m.
But an hour into tonight's outing, while Hux was in the back at the pool table and he was ordering his second Guinness, a gorgeous brunette with long, pretty eyelashes and a beautiful smile came up to him at the bar.
She told him her name was Rey, and that her friends had just ditched her.
They got to talking. And then they talked some more. She told him she hated her job and had just gotten her heart broken, and that she'd come here to forget about her life for a night.
He told her he went to Harvard, and that he fucking hated it.
Then he rolled his eyes, making her laugh.
The sound of her laughter, and the knowledge that it was in response to something he'd said, made him laugh, too.
Ben Solo doesn't laugh very often. But laughing here, tonight, with Rey…
It feels really fucking good.
—
"Hey," Rey says again, when Ben doesn't answer her question. She finds his upper thigh with her small, warm hand and gives him a gentle, purposeful squeeze.
He covers her hand with his, and squeezes back.
She puts her free hand on his upper arm, and inches the hand resting on his thigh gently upwards. Ben swallows, digging his fingernails into his palm in an attempt to keep some semblance of control.
"You wanna get out of here?" she asks again. "I mean - it's ok if you don't. I just thought that… I don't know, maybe we could–"
"Yes," Ben says quickly, cutting her off. Why not? he thinks, wildly. What's the harm? "I think… I think that sounds fun."
She smiles at him, looking genuinely relieved.
Ben glances around to see where Hux has gotten off to. He finds him at a table not ten feet away. To his surprise, Hux has been watching him. Watching them. His eyes are wide, astonished, unbelieving.
He supposes he can't really blame Hux for being surprised.
Ben gives Hux a sheepish grin and puts his hand low on Rey's back. And he nods, wordlessly telling him he'll see him in the morning.
Rey pours herself a cup of strong black coffee in the office kitchen, bracing herself for the monster of a day she's about to have.
She's already on her third cup, which means that even though it's only 8:30 in the morning she's already had more caffeine than she usually does in an entire day.
Given her assignment this week, though, Rey figures she needs all the help she can get.
"You sure you're all right?" Rose asks, folding her arms in front of her chest and leaning back against the fridge. To her credit, it sounds like she actually feels a little guilty about Rey's predicament. Not that any of it's her fault, of course. And not that there's anything she could do about it even if it were. "Spending your entire week running summer associate orientation. That's rough." She trails off, shaking her head in sympathy.
Rey takes a big gulp of coffee from her mug and waves her hand in the air dismissively. "Of course I'll be all right. I like working with law students." That's a total lie, of course, but she hopes she sounds convincing. "Either way, even if I don't want to do it I don't think I have much choice in the matter."
That last part isn't a lie, at least.
According to the files Rey saw from H.R., all fifteen of the summer associates this year are getting their law degrees at either Harvard, Yale, or Columbia. That's nothing new. The firm puts a lot of stock in pedigree when it comes to hiring decisions. It always has. While exceptions are sometimes made for exceptional candidates from lower-ranked schools, it's rare for a Kenobi & Jinn summer associate to come from any school outside of the Ivy League.
And if this crop of interns is anything like the ones Rey's worked with in the past, she's about to spend the next twelve weeks of her life training a bunch of twenty-five-year-old, overly entitled, self-important douchebags how to check citations and use Lexis-Nexis.
She's sure they'll all do well here, if for no other reason than the firm rarely hires people who don't. Doesn't mean she has to like it, and doesn't mean she's looking forward to the snide attitude they're almost certainly going to take towards her, a lowly paralegal.
"Well, if you change your mind about how you feel about all this, my door's always open." Rose smiles at Rey. "Come by and vent to me anytime."
Rey smiles back at her. Most of the attorneys here are actually pretty decent. But for all her quirky mannerisms Rose is, without question, her favorite. "I may just have to take you up on that offer."
"Good." With a smile and a nod, Rose leaves the kitchen, her shoes clicking on the linoleum tile floor as she walks away.
When her friend is safely out of earshot Rey closes her eyes and sighs. She takes a deep, steadying breath.
She can do this.
She supposes she'll have to.
—-
The law students are all waiting for her in a big, nervous-looking cluster, right in front of the Starbucks, when Rey gets down to the lobby at 9. Most of them are already wearing their official Kenobi & Jinn summer associate badges, but even if they weren't Rey would have been able to spot this group a mile away.
Summer associates always have a specific look about them. Especially on the first day.
"Good morning, everyone." Rey greets them as warmly as she can manage, hoping her smile doesn't look too fake. "I'm Rey. Welcome to Kenobi & Jinn."
The young woman nearest to her makes a small noise of surprise. "Just Rey, huh?" The woman is short and petite, with long blonde hair piled high on top her head in a tight bun.
"Yep. That's me," Rey says, forcing herself to smile a little wider. "I'm Rey."
The blonde woman flashes her a smile faker than a three dollar bill. "I would have thought they'd have sent down a partner to greet us on the first day." She shrugs, then looks away.
Rey digs her fingernails into her palms and counts to three, very slowly, in her head before answering. She gets this – and the unspoken implication that she's somehow less than the people she works with just because she doesn't have some fancy letters after her name, all the time.
She wonders if it will ever get any easier to bear.
Rey closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them again.
"Right then," she says, putting on her best tour guide voice. Just get through it, Rey. Just get through it. "If you'll all follow me to the elevator I'll take you up to the thirty-second floor and show you where you'll be working this summer."
The interns follow her as instructed to the elevator bank without further incident. When they get there, Rey swipes her badge across the keypad, and taps her foot on the floor impatiently as she waits for the elevator to arrive.
When at length the door finally slides open for them, she puts her hand on it to keep it open.
"Come on, then," she says, motioning to them to hurry up. The interns file inside, murmuring nervously to one another and crowding together.
Just as Rey's about to join them in the elevator someone comes up behind her and clears his throat.
"Oh. Oh. Oh, my god," he says. "Um. Hello there, Rey."
Confused, Rey turns to see who it is. And her eyes go wide with shock.
"Oh," she says back to him, the syllable slipping out of her involuntarily.
The guy stares at her, eyes wide, his face slowly going the color of a ripe tomato.
It's that guy she met in that bar a few weeks ago. It has to be. That guy with those deep brown eyes, serious expression, and that eight-pack she couldn't believe.
She'd been so upset that night about work and just… just, life, in general. But then she'd met him, completely unexpectedly. He was quiet, and reluctant to talk at first. But he turned out to be really nice. And he made her laugh.
Rey is not someone who usually goes home with strange guys she doesn't know, but on impulse, after a couple of beers she asked him to leave the bar with her.
And he did.
He took her to his apartment and fucked her on his living room sofa. And then he drove her home the next morning like a perfect gentleman.
Rey never did get his name. But she suspects she's about to learn it, because, oh god, oh god, he's wearing a Kenobi & Jinn summer associate badge.
"I… um." He rubs awkwardly at the back of his neck. "I think I missed the speech or, uh, whatever, that you gave earlier. I'm a little late. Sorry about that." His face is still red, and his eyes are fixed firmly on his feet. "And, um. I also think I'm probably supposed to be on that elevator that just left." He points over her shoulder to the now-closed elevator doors.
"What? Oh!" Rey quickly turns around and realizes the elevator full of eager new summer associates has left without her.
The guy clears his throat again. "Can you, uh… push the elevator button again? I mean… yeah. I don't want to be any later for my first day than I already am."
"Oh." She blinks at him. "Right." With shaking hands, Rey reaches for her badge again and swipes it across the keypad. She drums her fingers impatiently on the wall, willing the elevator to appear again as quickly as possible. "You, um… definitely don't want to be late for your first day –" she chances a quick glance at his name tag – "Ben."
Ben catches her looking at his nametag, and the corners of his mouth turn down a little into a small frown. "That's me. Ben," he says, flatly.
The elevator doors swing open with a loud ding, and Rey wastes no time getting inside.
"Come on," she says, motioning for him to join her.
He follows her inside, and Rey wonders just what in the hell she's going to do now.