12am


"When were you planning on paying for that?"

Ben's voice comes off as bored, but he wouldn't have wandered over to where Rey is currently sitting if he wasn't curious. It makes her press her lips together in order to hide a smug smile.

"In the morning after we open." She straightens up and flicks her eyes over to the tall man hovering near her chair. "I promise I'm not stealing, Boss Man."

His nostrils flare.

It's been nearly an hour since she journeyed outside for her precious tequila. She's been stealing small swigs periodically until around five minutes ago, when she'd promptly decided that it might be more fun (and less disgusting) to take proper shots.

She'd marched right over to the comic section where they sell a plethora of superhero merchandize and grabbed a four-pack of Marvel shot glasses before making her way into the back.

They have a long table set up as a makeshift dining area where employees can take their breaks. Rey is now commandeering it, setting up the four shot glasses along with her tequila and a bottle of lemonade she'd nabbed from where they sell cold bottled drinks by the registers.

She rubs her hands together in delight, the warmth from what's she's already had to drink spreading to her fingertips. Rey wouldn't necessarily describe her current state as tipsy, per se, but she's definitely feeling a little bolder than she had an hour ago.

Ben looks more skeptical by the second.

"Which one would you like to use?" Rey gestures dramatically to the shot glasses. "We've got Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, and Thor."

His brown eyes flick up toward the ceiling. "I'm not drinking with you."

"You're right, the Hulk makes the most sense." She pushes the glass over in front of the seat next to her, indicating with a jerk of her head that Ben should sit down before grabbing Captain America for herself.

Ben seems torn between wanting to argue with her shot glass choice for him and protesting the fact that she's beginning to pour shots for them both.

He settles on the former while reluctantly sliding into the seat next to her. "Why am I the Hulk? Are you trying to apply that I have anger issues—"

Rey can't help the giggle that escapes from her mouth. "You definitely have anger issues."

"Wow, fuck you Rey. I do not have fucking anger issues—Why are your pouring lemonade into your tequila shot?"

Rey shrugs. "It makes it less gross."

Ben looks so startled that he seems to have forgotten his tirade. "I've never seen someone do that before."

"Well, I don't exactly have what I need for margaritas, do I?" She taps her fingertip to her temple. "Gotta improvise."

He scoffs. "Yeah, okay."

There's a pause. "Do you want lemonade in your tequila sh—"

"No. That's not necessary."

Rey feels very much as if she's won a battle here, so she pours Ben's shot with a bit of a flourish. She takes her own shot in hand and holds it up, thinking for a moment that she and her manager will clink glasses and perhaps come to some sort of truce for the night.

Except he quickly tosses back his shot, face not changing at all despite what Rey knows must be intense unpleasantness. He then shocks her by grabbing the liquor bottle and pouring himself a second shot. Rey watches with wide eyes as he quickly takes that one as well before standing up and striding purposefully away from her.

Rey resigns herself to a cold, cold night by taking her own second shot.


1am


Rey has had four lemonade tequila shots. Which, technically, might not be much to some. But Rey is feeling pretty good. She's not necessarily a lightweight but—

She certainly wouldn't be this elated to annoy Ben while sober.

She's perched cross-legged atop the GUEST SERVICES help station, corded desk phone in her left hand and her personal cell phone in her right. Rey has barely seen Ben in the past hour; he's spent most of it completely avoiding her. In fact, if she wasn't the one commandeering the tequila bottle and subsequently the one allocating the three more shots he's taken since midnight, she suspects she wouldn't have seen him at all.

It's times like these when she really does begin to question her unending crush on Ben. Finn and Rose certainly do.

For the most part she can't explain it. They'd vibed that first day, if people still believed in that sort of thing. Which, if Rey is being completely honest with herself, she doesn't really know if she does. But despite the fact that Ben is consistently a snide asshole to her most of the time, she'd gotten a glimpse of how sweet he could be when one wasn't on his bad side. It's torture to Rey, not being able to understand where she went wrong. Why she isn't worth getting to know and committing to. Again.

But attraction to Ben is still undeniably there. Rey always finds herself looking his way when they work together, always finds herself smiling at the patient way he treats kids, always feels her heart swelling when, despite how gruff he can be with his fellow employees, he consistently defends them to rude and unfair customers. She likes the man underneath the mask of arrogant mystery he seems to shroud himself with.

It's why she's preparing to lure him out of wherever he's hiding with what she knows is music he hates. She'd overheard him loudly complaining about this artist to Poe Dameron in the back office a couple of months ago.

If there's one thing she's figured out about Ben Solo since she's started working here, it's that the man is a total music snob. He seems to have an opinion on almost every artist to play on the radio. And the majority of those opinions are negative.

Smirking, Rey scrolls through her Spotify account until she lands on Cardi B. She hits the button on the desk phone that turns on the intercom that'll echo throughout the entire store. Then she presses play.

The beat begins, then Cardi starts rapping. "This goes for all my nasty hoes, yeah / From across the globe woo (hol' up)…"

Rey hears Ben before she seems him. He turns swiftly out of the Bargain Section (Rey has no idea why he's there) and onto the main aisle that cuts down the middle of the store. His steps are teetering just so, just slightly enough that most wouldn't notice unless they weren't already attuned to how Ben's body usually moves. But Rey's gaze zeros in on how he's leaning every so slightly to his right. Seems like he's feeling the tequila too.

He looks thunderous.

Rey is already openly tittering by the time he reaches her.

"Rey—"

"Hi, Ben."

"—turn this absolute trash off."

Rey places her hand on top of her phone and slides it closer to her bent knee, delighting in how Ben's eyes follow the movement sharply. "What, you don't like Cardi B?"

"Now, I said luxury apartments (wow) / I'm young and I'm heartless (yeah)—"

"No, because I have ears. Holy shit, this is super fucking loud—" He cuts himself off, fumbling for the desk phone, only to be effectively blocked from pressing any buttons by Rey unfolding a leg and flinging it across the desk. Ben will have to touch her calf if he wants to mess with the intercom.

"But I like Cardi B." Rey can't help but bite her bottom lip, trying and failing to hold in her playfulness.

Ben scoffs, looking genuinely affronted. "Well, it's not my fucking problem if you have shit taste in rap."

Despite herself Rey bristles. "And what, pray tell, would you consider "great rap"? And don't you dare say Nicki Minaj."

"She's much better than this drivel." Ben's lower body is pressed against the GUEST SERVICES desk, eyes roving back and forth between Rey, the desk phone, and Rey's leg. Needless to say, he is quite close. Rey can feel the heat subtly coming from his body, can smell him. He's always smelled so good to her, ever since that very first day.

"Nicki Minaj is a spoiled brat and overrated!"

Ben moves impossibly closer, as if he's going to lunge for the phone at any moment. Rey could so easily touch his chest…

"Bitch you pressed, you can flex / Get some money, hoe, tell me why you stressed—"

"Rey." Ben looks like he's in sincere pain. Then he changes tactics. He does lunge forward, like Rey had been suspecting he would, but not for the desk phone but for her cell phone. His hand, it's so large and she remembers how it had engulfed her own that first day and why Ben Solo, Rey wonders, why did you have to decide I'm not worth it

Her own fingers curl around her phone first, but then his hand is on her own and he's prying—Rey didn't know someone could pry gently—it away from her. She scrambles, trying to grab it back before he turns off the music. She gets a grip on it and suddenly the two of them are having a tug-of-war over her phone. Rey lets out a shriek of mirth when an inch slides out of his grasp, grin stretched so wide across her face that her cheeks hurt. A ghost of a smile crosses Ben's mouth then, as if he can't bare to see Rey so joyful and not react as such. It makes something in Rey's chest squeeze, and suddenly she can't remember why they're tussling over her cell in the first place.

Ben looks a little startled when Rey all but hands her device over to him. With obvious relief he opens the phone, fiddling with the Spotify app briefly before…

Silence.

Ben's eyes meet her hazel ones. He slowly hands her phone back to her, and now that Cardi B isn't ringing across the store Rey's heartbeat feels a little too much inside her chest, too loud and too furious for her liking.

Ben shocks her by saying, "Did you want to do another shot?"


2am


Rey is definitely kind of drunk, at this point.

She and Ben are sitting in the small, makeshift lounge area in the middle of the store that's set up for customers to read. She'd suggested to Ben that they hunker down over here if they're going to keep drinking, and she can't quite remember why, exactly, they'd opted to sit with their backs against the couch instead of on the couch itself. Rey supposes the reasoning must have been pretty sound at the time.

But now her butt cheeks are turning numb against the carpet covered concrete.

Either way, she's sitting next to Ben. Ben, who has been nicer to her this past hour than he's been since her very first week. Rey is smiling happily to herself, unable to care about how dopey she would probably look if anyone saw her like this.

Ben's own expression isn't as carefree as her own, but he's relaxed. He's cradling the tequila bottle, now over two-thirds of the way empty, against his stomach. Fully prepared to let Rey have another swig if she reaches for it. They've both given up on using shot glasses; perhaps it was always too grandiose of an idea.

Ben lets out a low, deep breath of contentment. Rey isn't quite sure how much he's had to drink, but she suspects they're about on the same level, intoxication wise.

Which is why drunk Rey's brain deduces that drunk Ben probably wants to munch on candy as badly as she does.

"Look what I snagged from the front register." Rey pulls a pack of Sweetarts from the pocket of her hoodie, not even bothering to conceal her delight. "Would you like—"

"Are you stealing again?" Ben's tone sounds accusatory, which is why Rey jerks her head to look at him. She opens her mouth to explain that no of course she isn't stealing, and she fully plans on—

Except his mouth is turned upward in playfulness. He's watching her, waiting to see if she'll continue speaking. But Rey can't seem to find her tongue, or her attention span, or her rational thought. She can't stop looking at Ben Solo, can't stop taking in the way he's still watching at her, with a softness that a long time ago she had stopped hoping would ever be directed at her.

He finally speaks, clearing his throat and breaking through the fog that had briefly overtaken her senses. "No thanks." Rey's confusion must be all over her face because he huffs out a laugh before clarifying. "I don't want any candy."

"Oh." Rey glances down at the bag in hand. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"But they're yummy."

"I'll bet."

"They're yummy like you're yummy."

Every atom inside Rey's body freezes. Because, while the statement had been completely true, Rey hadn't actually meant for that private thought to fly out from between her lips without so much as a thank you, mam.

She swallows, suddenly feeling a tad light headed, and forces herself to look at Ben and gage his reaction.

He's shaking his head, not looking put out but…not looking happy. "Yeah, okay."

Something inside of Rey's chest crumbles a bit at his displeased expression. Does he…

"Ben."

Now he won't look at her. Her and her stupid mouth.

"Ben."

A muscle in his jaw jumps.

"Ben, do you not think you're attractive?" She asks tentatively and with good reason. His whole-body tenses at her words.

She skootches a little closer to him, her knee brushing up against his own. Rey wills her drunk brain to sound articulate. "Because, um, you are."

She mistakes the shortening of his breath for excitement, maybe uncomfortableness. She presses on. "You're super into the coolest shit ever and you always smell good and you're fucking big and you're always so sweet to kids and all animals love you even if you don't love them, which means by Disney standards you're pure of heart—"

"Rey." She misses the warning in his voice.

"And you're so big, did I already say that? And you've got nice hair and—"

"Rey."

"—your ears. I love them so much. I just want to fucking lick—"

"REY!"

She shuts her mouth immediately.

Ben is—shaking. He stands, taking the warmth he'd been giving out with him. Rey is left bereft in the coldness of his sudden absence. He even left the tequila bottle.

He runs both hands through his hair, indicating max stress. "Rey," he begins, and his voice quivers in anger.

She squeaks out an apology, wary and confused over where this situation is heading.

"You are," he continues, "the fakest person I have ever had the displeasure of meeting."

It's such a stupidly dumb and inaccurate statement that the first thing Rey does is snort.

Then she's mad. Because if Rey has done anything consistently throughout her life, it's be herself. Being herself is why she's right in this very spot. Rey doesn't know how to be anyone else, doesn't know how to put on a mask and twirl through life pretending to feel and think and be differently. Rey doesn't know how to be anyone other than herself. It's why his insult cuts so deep.

"What do you mean I'm fake?" She's on her feet now too, determined not to appear any shorter than she has to.

"I mean you're fucking fake."

Rey marches forward until she can prod the point of a finger right into Ben's chest. She hopes it leaves a bruise. "And how would you know?! You don't know a damn thing about what I think or how I feel!"

Ben doesn't step away from her, only looks down at Rey with a ferocity she happily matches. "I know that you're a liar."

Rey's temper flares, hot and bright, and she almost shoves him. "When have I ever lied to you, Ben?"

He snaps, face twisting in fury, before turning around and knocking over a display. Books and the cardboard display box slam into the floor, the bang of it reverberating throughout the store.

"You literally lied to me just now!" Ben has shifted back in her direction, eyes wide and intense. "You sat there and talked about all these things that you apparently like about me—"

"I do like those things about you!"

"You said you'd lick my ears!"

"Of course I would!" Rey growls. "They're fucking adorable!"

Ben looks disgusted. "If that's true, then why did you say they were 'so big they should have their own channels'?!"

Rey's brain, which is still fairly drunk and hyped on adrenaline, goes blank. She has no idea how to answer that, because she's definitely made that joke before, remembers saying that joke in the past to Finn. But of course she hadn't been talking about Ben

"Why the fuck would you stand there, at the front of the store, and say all that bullshit to Finn about my ears and me humping your leg, when you'd spent that whole week before being so sweet?" He pauses, coughs. When Ben starts speaking again his voice is thicker. "Honestly, it would have been completely—it is completely fine if you don't like me. Most people don't. I would just really appreciate it if you weren't, you know, fake about it."

And then Ben is walking, towards the back and away from—

"Do you mean Crumble?"

Ben stills, pinches the bridge of his nose as he turns back to her, as if he can't believe he's about o humor her even further. "What?"

"Are you talking about Crumble? Hutt's dog? You know, the one with the big ears who likes to hump my leg?"

Ben slowly lowers his hand to his side, still not fully facing her. His face has gone very pale.

"Because I make fun of his ears every time he comes in. And he came in around my first week, if I remember correctly. If you've ever heard me mocking someone's ears or implying that they've been humping me, then I can guarantee I'm talking about that horrible canine-adjacent creature."

Ben's throat bobs as he swallows, and he won't look at her. Probably because he's afraid of what he'll see if he does, the earnestness written all over Rey's face something he cannot allow himself to accept just yet.

Rey decides to close the space between them; she steps right up to him, keeps her arms across her chest so that she won't be tempted to touch him. Not just yet.

"Ben." He inhales at the sound of his name. "I—I really like you. You can ask Finn and Rose if you don't believe me. They'll tell you all about my absurd crush on you. And it is absurd because I've been into you since the moment I saw you which is silly, but it's also absurd because…you're…a total dick to me."

Ben makes a quiet sound from his chest, low and soft, almost a whine. It gives Rey the courage to continue. She lowers her hands, inhales and exhales deeply.

"And that's been pretty lame, but I can see why, now. And despite everything I still—I—"

She's already said it and yet somehow, this time it is by far the most difficult. She's already made her point and spoken most of her peace. But saying this next thing makes her feel so vulnerable, so minutely terrified and raw and open for a wound.

"I really like you, Ben."

Rey looks up and his gaze finally meet with hers. His brown eyes are wide, mirroring the same alarm that she'd been experiencing just a moment ago.

Ben opens his mouth, snaps it closed, then hurries away. She hears the door leading into the back slam shut seconds later.


A/N:

The last installment is coming soon! I suspect some tension will finally be released ;) Thank you for reading! If you liked let me know?