When Ben arrived at the office that day, Rey was already at her desk opposite him. Ben smiled at her and she smiled back. That smile was just what he needed to start his day off right.

Rey had only been with First Order Stationary Supplies for two weeks, but she was already Ben's favourite addition to the office, pushing his beloved peace lily down into second place.

'Well that was a weekend to remember!' Ben exhaled as he took his seat. Rey smiled back at him, she looked amused.

'I don't know why my mother thought it would be a good idea to turn up on my doorstep and announce she was staying for the weekend and with her pet bulldog too! I've spent the entire weekend showing her the sights and sounds of London and cleaning up dog hair when all I wanted to do was watch that documentary about the Star Trek universe.'

Ben sighed. Rey gazed at him over the top of her monitor and cocked her head to the side. Ben smiled back.

'I know, I know. I should appreciate my mother more, right? She won't always be with me and I should be happy that she wants to spend time with me. Okay, Rey. I get the message.'

Rey's eyes moved back to her keyboard, so Ben assumed she was satisfied with his answer.

They worked in silence for a while, before Ben realised he hadn't had his caffeine fix. He made a motion with his mouth and hand of tipping a drink up to his lips. Rey smiled and nodded at him. He returned with two mugs of coffee and placed one down on Rey's desk. She grinned up at him.

'I know what you're thinking,' he said, returning to his seat. Rey glanced at him blankly.

'You think I forgot your sugar, but I didn't. Go on. Taste it.'

Rey took a sip of her coffee and gave Ben the thumbs up. He looked smug.

'See? I'm very observant. I noticed how you scrunched up your nose yesterday after a few mouthfuls, so I asked around and everyone told me you took two sugars in your coffee. Personally, I think that's an overload of sweetness but each to their own!'

Rey ran her tongue over her lips and Ben felt a flush of pride that she was enjoying the drink he had made her. As wins go it was a very small victory, but it was a victory all the same.

Then she ran her thumb over her bottom lip and Ben forgot his train of thought. Rey did little things like that all the time and they always scrambled his circuits. Tucking a curl behind her ear, biting the tip of her finger, emptying her hole punch, it was all a big turn on.

Maybe today was the day… the day that Ben would finally pluck up the courage to ask Rey out. He didn't know how she would respond. She was very shy, but he thought perhaps some of her behaviours suggested that she might be mildly interested in saying yes. If nothing else, she always smiled as she listened to him which was encouraging.

Ben mulled it over until lunchtime, then decided striking up a conversation about food would be the best segway into asking Rey out to dinner.

Ben pulled out his homemade salad and showed it to Rey. As usual she scrunched up her nose and shook her head. Ben laughed. Rey didn't seem to think anything green counted as food. She held up her box of chocolate pop tarts and Ben put a hand over his face.

'Seriously, you are in dire need of some nutritional education,' he said. Rey ignored him and bit into one of her pop tarts. Ben cleared his throat. It was now or never.

'Actually, I was thinking… maybe you would like to go out to dinner with me, sometime? Perhaps I can tempt you to eat some vegetables for once if they were disguised properly under a mountain of butter. I know a really nice little restaurant just around the corner, Maz's it's called. Then afterwards, if you were into it we could go back to mine and watch the Star Trek documentary I mentioned earlier?'

Rey didn't say anything. Ben started to panic.

'It wouldn't have to be a date or anything! We could just go as friends, I mean, it could be a date if you were interested in me that way, but I understand if you just wanted to keep it… casual,' he babbled.

Rey still didn't respond, and Ben's heart plummeted down to his stomach.

'I get the message,' he said. 'Can we still stay friends though?'

Rey smiled at him and he let out a relieved sigh.

Ben didn't talk for the rest of the afternoon. He felt down about Rey rejecting him and he didn't even realise the time until he heard Rey stand up and start to pack away her things. Usually Ben left an hour before Rey did. He checked his watch. It was 6pm. How had he let time get away from him?

He opened his mouth to say something to Rey and then watched in horror as she removed a pair of wireless earbuds from her ears and smiled at him.

'Ben, why are you still here? You aren't usually here this late,' she observed.

Ben blinked back at her.

'Do you wear those every day?' he asked, pointing to the buds in her hand.

Rey nodded. 'Yeah, I like to listen to music while I work. So, I keep these in so I can switch between calls and my tunes. Don't tell the boss!'

Ben connected the dots. 'So, you haven't heard a word I've said to you for the past two weeks?'

Rey looked horrified. 'No, oh my god! Have you been talking to me? I'm so sorry! I didn't realise!'

Ben's shoulders slumped. She hadn't heard a word he had said. She hadn't been flirting with her eyes or trying to be suggestive because of some ulterior motive. She literally hadn't even been aware of his existence. Brilliant. That was a real kick in the nuts for his self-confidence.

'Ben?' Rey said again in a small voice, looking worried. He didn't want Rey to feel bad, after all, it wasn't her fault he was an idiot, and at least he had the knowledge that she hadn't heard his embarrassing attempt to ask her out earlier. That was a small mercy.

He plastered a fake smile on his face. 'Oh, don't worry, it was nothing important. Just idle chit chat, you know, about my weekend and such.'

He turned back to his computer and pretended to be really interested in whatever file he had open on the screen.

'Okay,' Rey said looking concerned. She turned to leave, but then hesitated and turned around again.

'Actually, there is something I wanted to ask you.'

Ben looked at her with interest.

'It's just... when I was in the break room last week, I mentioned to Poe how much I was looking forward to watching the documentary about the Star Trek universe, and he mentioned that you were a big Star Trek fan too. I still haven't got around to watching it so I was wondering if you would like to watch it together? If you haven't already seen it?'

Ben was stunned. He decided the first thing he would do in the morning after arriving at work was kiss Poe square on the lips.

'That would be great actually, I haven't had a chance to watch it yet either,' he replied.

Rey beamed.

'Would you like to come to my place now? We could grab some food on the way. I know this great little restaurant around the corner called Maz's. Do you know it? Maz is such a darling. She forces me to eat my greens but at least she has the decency to smother them in butter first.'

Twice. He would kiss Poe twice. Ben couldn't turn his computer off fast enough.

'That all sounds great,' he said with a smile.

Rey grinned. They headed to the elevator together. Once they were bundled inside, Rey turned to Ben.

'I'm glad we're doing this. I've wanted to spend time with you outside of the office for ages. We never get a chance to talk at work.'

Ben nodded and suppressed a grin.

'I want to know everything there is to know about, Ben Solo,' Rey said as they reached the lobby and stepped out of the lift.

'To be honest I'm not much of a talker,' Ben replied, hiding his smile.