chapter seven: ridesharing with the enemy
"A job?" Finn asks her over breakfast in the morning, a brow lifting skeptically. "Don't you have a job? Isn't that why you're here?"
"I need a cover," she explains. "I thought this would be a smash and grab situation, but it looks as if it's shaping up to be a more delicate procedure, requiring some careful planning. I need to make my cover story verifiable, and it would help to have a little more cash that what I initially planned for. So — you know any?"
"I mean," Finn shakes his head, baffled. "I don't even own a car, how would I know of any mechanics?"
Poe lifts his head from the other side of the kitchen where he's been working on his laptop. "Isn't that girl you've been talking to at school a mechanic?"
Finn startles, pointing a finger at Rey as his eyes widen. "Oh man, he's totally right. Wow, what a convenient coincidence. Yeah, she works down at this auto shop by the waterfront. I'll text her and ask her what the name is."
"Hey, you got her number?" Poe asks, eyebrows waggling suggestively. "When did that development happen?"
"Oh, uh…" Finn fumbles around his phone, tapping out the message, clearing his throat. "We ended up on this group project together for Civ, so…that's how I got it."
"Boring," declares Poe, attention returning to whatever work he had on his screen. "I thought you might've made a move for once in your life."
Rey picks at a pomegranate, waiting for Finn to hear back from his friend. She regards him curiously. "So you like this girl?"
"I mean." Finn avoids eye contact, picking the crust off the sandwich he's made. "She's cool, and funny. She's fun to hang out with. I don't know if I have a major romantic interest in her yet or not. Jannah's kind of cute too."
"Jannah doesn't play for your team," Poe reminds him.
"She told Zorri she's open to new experiences," Finn fires back.
"That might not mean you, pal."
"You don't know that it doesn't!"
Poe sighs dramatically. "You need to focus."
"The field is wide," defends Finn. "I'm just exploring my options."
"You're too busy exploring, you never actually ask anyone out!"
Rey snickers, but doesn't jump in. Finn's phone buzzes, but he's too busy arguing with Poe to notice. She surreptitiously turns it towards her and looks at the message on the screen.
Rose: Lol of course I remember you, dummy. It's called Niima Auto and Tire. You don't have a car though, why do you ask?
Rey searches for the name on her phone and finds it. It's definitely too far to walk, and not really in the direction of Han and her search parameters, but it doesn't matter. She finds a bus route to take here there, since it looks like parking might be tricky. She nudges Finn.
"Ask her if she's working today."
He glances at her and then down at the phone. "Oh. Well, I have class with her this morning, so probably not."
"So ask if she's working after."
While he taps out his reply, Rey throws away the husk of her fruit and washes her hands. If Rose won't be at work for a while, maybe she'll go watch the chop shop until she is.
Poe waves her over to ask her opinion about a new color option for one of their winter coats. She likes it, though it makes her think of traffic cones. He laughs. It's surprisingly easy to be here, in Poe and Zorri's home, with the couple and Finn and Jannah as company. It feels natural, like no relationships in her life ever have. She wonders vaguely why she wasn't able to find this sort of effortless friendship before, and part of her is waiting for them to declare that the jig is up and they're tired of her. But still. She isn't sorry that she's decided to take a longer time catching Han. It means she can linger here with them a little longer.
"Yeah, she goes in at one," Finn tells her. "Want me to tell her you're coming by?"
"Sure," says Rey.
"If you have any hope of asking this girl out at all, buddy, tell her she's your cousin or something," Poe advises.
And then they're at it again, debating the merits of making a girl jealous or making her feel like she's the only interesting person in the world, even if she isn't. Rey slips away to get ready for the day.
Niima Auto is a dingy little hole in the wall auto shop, smashed between two warehouses, a small lot out front absolutely packed with cars, a long narrow workshop with two bays comprising the rest of the property. There are several workers on site, working on cars as quickly as they can, a classic rock station blaring Zeppelin from an unseen radio somewhere.
Rey walks into one of the bays and asks for Rose. A guy cleaning off his hands points her over to a minivan up on a lift, all four tires off. A short Asian girl is busy replacing a break pad, her hair pulled back in a tiny bobbing ponytail.
Rey makes her way over. "Are you Rose?" she asks.
The girl turns around and gives her a quick look before a friendly grin breaks out over her face. "You must be Rey, Finn's cousin?"
Rey laughs. "Uh, yeah, I'm Rey, nice to meet you."
She offers her hand and Rose shakes it, despite the grease.
"So you think you want to work here?"
"I need something temporary. I'm good with my hands and I have years of experience."
"I mean, I would love to have another female here to associate with." Rose glances towards the office. "But Mr. Plutt is kind of an ass. I don't know if he'll want to hire you for temp work."
Rey follows her gaze to the office, a hint of mischief playing at the corner of her mouth. "I had an idea about that. Don't worry, I know how to deal with his type."
It doesn't take long to emerge the victor in that first encounter with the boss. She walks into Plutt's room in the office and immediately starts barking at the man, who looks like he's made out of melted strawberry ice cream, about how it's been a whole week since he hired her and she's still not on the schedule and so why did he even bother if he wasn't going to put her to work? Plutt tries to argue that he doesn't remember her, but Rey just gets angrier and louder. Bewildered and annoyed, Plutt directs Rose to pull her file and make sure she starts working immediately.
Rose takes Rey to the front part of the office and gets Rey the paperwork, they fill it out and backdate it, and immediately put it in a new personnel file. Twenty minutes later, they both return to the minivan where a newly hired Rey begins to help Rose with the rest of the break pads.
Rose is in awe.
"I've never seen anything like that," she says. "You're my new hero."
Rey laughs. "That's basically how I got my first job at an auto shop like this. Nobody wanted to hire a sixteen year old girl, so I just bluffed my way in."
Rose shakes her head in amazement. "I can't believe it worked. Plutt is a total cheapskate. I'd have thought he'd keep meticulous records about who he has to pay, and who he doesn't."
"I'll make sure to stay out of his way."
Rose agrees this is a wise decision. After the break pads, they put a new set of tires on.
"So you go to school with Finn?" Rey asks conversationally as she hefts a tire.
Rose nods, coming up beside her to drill on the lug nuts. "I'm studying engineering. I like doing this, though. It pays the bills and it keeps what I'm learning practical instead of all theoretical."
"I like it," Rey says approvingly.
"What about you? What are you studying?"
"Oh I — I'm not. I don't go to any school." Rey has never really thought about getting a university degree. She was a good student in high school, but she was already so busy working with her hands and making comfortable money that it never occurred to her to pursue something higher. She doesn't need a degree for bounty hunting either, so it has never come up. Thinking about it now, she's pretty sure that experience can teach her at least as much as a doctor of philosphy in a classroom can.
Rose's brow ticks up in surprise. "You just want to be a mechanic?"
"I guess so, yeah. I haven't given it a whole lot of thought."
"That's cool." But the way Rose says it carries a strange caveat laces into her cheerful demeanor.
Rey waits for her to say whatever it is she's not saying.
Finally Rose laughs a little and says, "You seem like you're way too smart to be wasted doing just blue collar work though."
Rey shoots her a wary glance. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"You know. Like…" Rose shrugs. "There's no shame in doing that sort of thing, of course. But also there's more you can do with it. You can take what you love here and do really cool things, like design bigger machines. That's what I love. And there's kind of a stigma that comes with tradesmen. It's totally unfair, of course, but I guess I just kind of got caught up in the stereotype since that's what surrounds me all day here, and you don't seem like…"
"Trash?" Rey suggests.
Rose blushes. "I wouldn't have said trash. It's horrible. I'm sorry."
"Funny enough, you're the second person to tell me that in as many days," Rey says, and she isn't quite sure what to make of it.
"I'm sorry," Rose says again. "It's cool that you know what you want to do with your life."
Rey hums thoughtfully, returning to her work while trying not to let that final remark sink too deep into her brain. She does know what she wants to do with her life, even if it comes with a stigma of making her low class trash. Is she, in fact, what both Rose and Ben think she isn't? She was living in a literal junkyard before sneaking onto Mando's RV, and she has lived her entire adolescent life in a trailer on the road. Mando makes a living, a decent one, but he's frugal and they aren't wealthy by any means. Rey didn't go shopping with the other girls in high school, she didn't get dolled up and go hunting for boyfriends, she doesn't have the latest gadgets or sneakers or even a laptop of her own. She doesn't have all the trappings of a normal middle-class life, and she isn't pursing a degree like everyone else her age seems to be. Instead she chooses to spend her time tinkering with engines and chasing criminals. What does that say about her?
The rest of the afternoon passes swiftly. Rose is chatty and bubbly, and her joyful attitude is infectious. Rey likes her a lot. By the time their shift ends at six, Rose has decided that they are definitely friends.
"What are you doing now?" she asks. "Want to go grab a bite?"
Rey motions to her phone. "My roommates are going to get drinks. Come with us."
Rose's expression lights up. "Sure! I'll tell my sister I'll be home late tonight."
Rey knows she should dump the social invitations and go follow Han to see if she can find where he lives, but she needs a break from that tonight. She just wants to enjoy her new friends and forget about Han and his son. She really doesn't want to risk running into him again right now.
She sends a quick message to Jannah asking if Rose can come.
"Finn will be there too," she informs Rose. "You should know that he isn't really my cousin."
Rose blinks, surprised. "Oh! Why did he say that, then?"
"Advice from a friend," Rey says with a smirk. "He didn't want you to think I was a romantic interest of his. It's not like that with us. I'm just temporarily staying at the apartment he rents."
A pinkish glow blooms in Rose's cheeks. "I definitely would have assumed you were. He wanted me to know you weren't? Does he have expectations? I didn't really think of him like that. He's just this nice guy in my class."
"I don't know." Rey is in unfamiliar territory here. She laughs. "He says he's considering his options."
"Wow." Rose laughs too, and it is effervescent. Rey's smile grows.
"I have a car but I didn't bring it," she explains a few minutes later when Jannah's text comes back confirming Rose and giving the location of the speakeasy they're meeting at. "Are you okay to drive?"
"Oh, I don't have a car," says Rose, cleaning up. "Sold it to pay for school. I walk or take public transportation everywhere."
"Cool, that works too." Rey taps the address into her maps and looks at the public transportation options. "There's a Lite Link station four blocks away. It'll take us almost right to the place."
"Sounds like we better get walking." Rose hoists a messenger bag over her head and clicks off the last light in the bay. "You got any siblings?"
"No — well, sorta," Rey replies as they head out into the night. "My guardian took in another foster kid a few years ago. Dyn. He's five."
"So like a really little brother," says Rose.
Rey smiles. "Something like that. You said you have a sister?"
"Paige, yeah. She's a couple years older than me. We live together here. There's no way my parents were gonna let me come to school by myself. They're kind of overprotective like that. But it's cool, I like living with Paige. We get along."
Rey wonders vaguely what it would be like to have a sister. Her female companionship department has been sorely lacking. Maybe that's why she enjoys the easy company of Rose and Jannah and Zorri so much.
Maybe that's why she's dilly-dallying on the Han situation. Procrastinating the inevitable goodbye.
A couple blocks before the Lite Link station, Rey catches sight of an eerily familiar black Maserati sedan stopped at a light. They cross the street in front of it. She can't see past the headlights but she tingles with recognition anyway. Her hand tightens on the collar of her jacket and she avoids looking at it, trying to decide if the sudden knot in her stomach is of dread or anticipation. Hopefully he didn't recognize her.
But just as she fears, as soon as the light changes, the black car turns right and pulls over next to them. The window rolls down.
Rose notices and stops, probably expecting some lost driver asking for directions. Rey doesn't look over, staring deliberately ahead instead.
"You're in the wrong neighborhood," he says, and his voice somehow carries directly to her without needing to shout.
Rose stops her approach to the window abruptly. "Excuse me? We are? Or you are?"
He ignores her, addressing Rey again. "He doesn't live here."
Rey finally glances at him, and immediately meets those coal-dark eyes. "Good to know."
She wants the interaction to end before it gets intense again, because everything gets so damn weird when he shows up and she forgets how to behave normally, but then he's getting out of his car and coming around the other side.
"Where are you going?" he asks.
He's getting wet. The light drizzle is deceptively effective at soaking everything within minutes. Rey allows herself a brief moment to wonder what that great hair looks like after being in the rain — does it get frizzy?
"Uh, I'm sorry," Rose says in a way that clearly conveys her confusion. "Who are you?"
Ben barely glances at her. "Ask Rey."
"He's no one," Rey says quickly. Too quickly. "And it isn't any of your business where we're going."
"Actually it completely is my business, since you made it my business." His words are hostile, but his tone isn't. "I need to know if I should be worried."
"You can relax, I'm off duty tonight," she sighs in exasperation. "If you must know, I'm meeting some friends at a speakeasy called Hos."
A single brow lifts. "I know that place. It's pretty far from here."
"Right." Rey waits. Surely that can't be the extent of his observation.
"Where's your ugly little car?"
She prickles, frowning at this small insult. "I didn't bring it."
"So how are you getting there?"
"Why am I getting the third degree?" Rey demands. "What's it to you?"
He glances from her to Rose and then up at the street sign. His face contorts into disgust. "Tell me you're not taking the train."
"What's wrong with that?" Rose asks, clearly offended now.
He sighs. "Congratulations, your Uber has arrived. Get in."
"What? No." Rey cannot figure out why he's interested in their transportation choices this evening, but she's sure as hell not getting in his car. His beautiful, clean, expensive car. He likes to corner her in awkward spaces, and this feels like another attempt to repeat the performance of their last two encounters.
"It's raining, it's rush hour, the train will be crowded this time of night, and you're not as well-defended as you usually are," he observes, his eyes roaming to take in her less tactical, more comfortable grease-stained jeans with small female pockets clearly not stuffed with pepper bombs and taser cartridges. His raking gaze draws warmth to her cheeks and she desperately hopes the gloom and her hood hides it.
"I can take care of myself without all those things," she says acidly. "And anyway, why the hell do you care if something happens? Wouldn't that solve your problem?"
He starts walking back to the driver's seat. "Just get in the car."
Rey waits, debating, her heart beating way too fast for this simple, stupid situation. She doesn't know why she doesn't just walk away, but like every time it happens with him, she feels trapped by his presence. It's not an unpleasant kind of trapped, though.
Finally she inexplicably but begrudgingly goes to the car. Rose follows her.
"Really?" she asks, and there are so many questions behind that one word. She lets only one follow. "We're getting a ride from this rude dude?"
Rey can't really come up with an answer, so she just opens the door and gets in the front seat. Rose waits only a moment, then shrugs, bewildered, and gets in the back.
The car smells amazing. Like new leather and a faint hint of expensive cologne. The seat is buttery soft and perfectly contoured, and the console controls glow in a muted, welcoming light. It is, as she suspected, impeccably clean.
"We just came from work," she says in a clipped tone. "So, sorry if we get your car dirty."
Ben barely glances at her. "I can smell the motor oil. Just don't touch anything you don't have to."
He pulls out into traffic once more, apparently not needing directions.
"Buckle," he says firmly after neither of them remember to do it. Rey hears Rose's click into place a second before she clips her own.
Nobody speaks at first. Rey peeks back at Rose, who gives her wide-eyed look and a small shake of the head. She turns back around and slumps down a little in the seat.
"Why exactly are you working as a grease monkey instead of being a nuisance?" Ben ventures after another minute of awkward silence.
Rey bristles automatically, though there's nothing inherently confrontational about the question. He says it almost conversationally. She watches the rain on the windshield, observing the streaks that form commuting lanes the drops use to get down the glass.
"Girl's gotta eat."
"You were running out of funds?" He says this like it amuses him.
"Well someone is making my life complicated," she explains, throwing him a resentful side-eye. "It's taking longer than I planned for."
He gives a brief, satisfied nod. "Good."
Rose is still silent, but Rey is keenly aware of her. The two interactions with Ben have been intense and strange and somehow always uncomfortably personal, so she doesn't really know how to feel about having someone witness this third one.
Ben seems aware of her too. He glances at her through the mirror. "You didn't introduce me to your friend, Rey."
"Ben this is Rose, Rose this is Ben," Rey replies in an impatient rush.
Rose clears her throat and speaks carefully. "Nice to meet you Ben, I think. How exactly do you two know each other?"
They've stopped at a light. Ben turns and gives Rey a look of mild surprise, and then his expression is wickedly entertained. He's caught the thread of something fun to play with. He again looks at Rose through the mirror as he addresses her. "Oh, she didn't tell you? Rey, don't you want you new friend knowing what you do?"
"I was getting to it," Rey snaps. "It's not something that usually comes up in the first couple hours of knowing a person."
"On the contrary," Ben says and there is way too much enjoyment in his voice, "I think it's exactly the kind of thing that would naturally come up."
"She's a mechanic," says Rose, but a little uncertainly.
"Yeah," agrees Rey. "I am."
Ben smirks. "Oh, but that's not the whole truth, is it?"
She hadn't been exactly hiding the truth today, but she was hoping it wouldn't come up because the more people who know, the more complicated it is. And besides, she went after this job partly as a distraction from the Han situation, so she doesn't see why the two needed to intersect, or why anyone at Niima would need to know about it. But with how quickly friendship developed between them, Rey knew she'd probably tell Rose at some point, maybe even tonight at the bar. Instead, Ben grabbed it and dragged it around like a dirty little secret to be revealed, and made it weird.
She sighs and hurries to explain, turning in her seat to look at Rose. "I'm a fugitive recovery agent. A bounty hunter, basically. I'm trying to catch his father. That's how we know each other."
Rose's eyes widen into huge discs. "You're what?"
Ben catches Rey's resentful glare. His sable eyes glitter with delight. The light changes and they start moving again. Rey grimaces as she addresses Rose once more.
"I swear I wasn't trying to hide it."
"How in the world are you friends, though?" Rose's bafflement grows with each word. "Why are we in this car right now? What is going on?"
"We're not friends," Rey says firmly. "And...I don't know the answers to the rest."
Ben is silent. Rose looks out the window and shakes her head, eyes still wide. Rey can't guess what's going through the other girl's head right now.
She turns back around and slumps further down in her seat. "Where's the book that tells you how much or how little you tell new friends when you first meet them?" she grumbles to herself. "I'm not familiar with the whole friends thing."
Ben glances at her. He says nothing.
A silent minute later, her phone buzzes in her lap. Before she can pick it up, Ben's hand darts out to grab it. They're at another light, so he risks a glance. "Jannah says they are there," he informs her.
She snatches it back with a furious glower. "You have to stop that."
"Stop what?"
"That thing where you just grab whatever you want with your sneaky fast hands," she grouches. "It's driving me crazy."
Once again his glance flashes to hers, and it's like that moment with the handcuffs, like her words carried a meaning they didn't intend and he is laughing at her, though no sound passes his full lips. The hint of a grin toys there, and Rey is hot with embarrassment all over again. She closes her mouth with a click and turns her head to stare out the window, determined not to say anything else for the rest of the ride.
Rose clears her throat a little, but offers no commentary about the exchange.
The rest of the ride is awkward.
He pulls up in front of the bar and Rey breathes a sigh of relief. She is eager to get out.
"Why did you pick a bar so far away from your new work?" Ben asks as Rose bolts out of the back seat.
"It's where my - my friends wanted to eat." Why is she still bothering to answer his questions? Rey moves to open the door, but catches a glimpse of his face, and it makes her pause.
His expression is strange. He looks at her, his mouth pulling at the corner and his brow low and furrowed, as if confused...or maybe misunderstanding. "How long have you been in this city?"
"A few days."
His gaze travels beyond her, and she glances over her shoulder to see Finn giving Rose a hug. Jannah, Poe, and Zorri are coming up behind him.
When Rey looks back there is a brief flicker of something else in his face before he turns to face the front again.
"I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll annoy you," he says, dismissive now. "See you around."
She opens the door, frowning just a little. "Yeah…" she's slow to get out of the car, trying to figure out what it is she wants to say. "See you…"
As soon as she closes the door, he drives off in a low hum of a fine engine. She puzzles over the feeling lingering inside her, trying to decipher that look he'd worn for just a second before he masked himself again. Was it…wistful? Jealous? What was that?
"Rey!" cries Jannah, pouncing on her. She sweeps her into a tight hug. "I had the craziest day at work! I can't wait to tell you about it. But tell me about you! I assume you got the job?"
Rey laughs, the tightness in her chest dissolving. Thoughts of Ben fade to the background as she turns to her friends. "Yeah, I took a page from your book and demanded the universe grant me a same-day offer of employment, or something like it."
"Love that," declares Jannah. "Let's go inside to celebrate!"
A/N:
Your reviews are feeding my muse :D I love them. Also, Hartmannclan - Your PM's are disabled but I wanted to let you know that I have planned a fix-it for that sad one-off story of Rey in mourning. An idea came to me a few days ago. So don't worry, I have some chapters outlined for a happily-ever-after! I'll probably finish this one up before I write it, but it is coming!