Chapter Text
Rey had opted out of a skimpy dress and chosen long satin black pants and a black decolleté blouse that was barely held closed by a thin golden chain. She wore low leather boots for comfort. A line of kohl under her eye was her only makeup. She put her hair up in a loose bun. Gold hoops completed her look.
Rose ran in around nine, and rushed to get dressed up before they called a taxi.
She chose a snug red dress and high-heel pumps, and looked ravishing. “If he won’t come with me,” she explained to Rey, who understood ‘he’ was the guy she had been seeing, “I’ll find someone who will.”
“Finn will be there,” Rey slipped in.
“Your handsome cousin?” Rose considered, then switched to a more appealing lipstick. Rey smiled. Rose smiled. “I hope you have fun tonight, Rey, you deserve it. It’s the new year in three hours, how you start it is up to you. There will be some exciting people there.”
“We’ll keep an eye out for each other, then?”
“I won’t let anyone whisk you away, no. But maybe collect a few phone numbers?”
“I can do that. Same for you.”
…
They made it just before ten and the place was already filling up. While they waited shivering in line, Finn showed up, smartly dressed, and Rey invited him to join them in the queue.
“Hey, Rose, you remember my cousin, Finn?”
“I do, and I’m glad he could join us. What have you been up to, Finn?”
While the two exchanged news, Rey scanned the people in line with them. People with money. People with debt, dressed to look like they had money. People with big ambitions: powerful jobs, fancy cars, business trips and multiple designer condos.
She thought of the kitchen crew: simple, happy people who helped other people who had lost their way, or been betrayed by the very people she was expected to meet and date from now on.
Once they were finally inside, they met with other aspiring professionals and after some handshakes and greeting-kisses they found a booth. Rey saw how Rose and Finn really hit it off this time; she was glad for them. She got up and made for the dance floor.
Rey always thought it was the only good thing about a bar. The music had rhythm and she was certain the DJ was an empath: he could read the room and soon Rey felt like he was queuing music just for her… so she let loose. She closed her eyes, moving carefully not to hit anyone — not that there were that many around her; most were already working hard at networking — and she let the music carry her. And where it carried her, it felt like a tall, dark, and near-wild man was holding her in a warm embrace.
The MC cut the music and announced the plans for the next hour and Rey blinked. There were at least three guys staring at her. Two of them handsome devils, one pale, one dark. One looked like a nice guy. She suddenly looked at her cleavage, but thankfully nothing had popped out. She walked back to her booth only to find another couple had joined Finn and Rose.
Seeing the booth full, Rose got up with her cousin to make room for her, and they left for their turn on the dance floor. The couple in place were people she had met, but couldn’t quite place. After a few polite exchanges they turned back to their conversation. One of the handsome devils made his move.
“Can I buy you a drink?” He had to yell to be heard over the music. Rey thought of how deaf she would be by the end of the evening.
She nodded, knowing she wouldn’t drink half of it. Knowing she should think of her future instead of fantasising about someone who still had a lot of struggling ahead of him. Who didn’t want to be jerked around and deserved to be offered something solid.
“I’m Chad,” the young man offered, having called the attention of the barmaid. He had a strong jaw and thin lips and grey-blue eyes under carefully groomed eyebrows. His hands were carefully manicured. His hair was carefully coiffed, just so, with one rebel strand in just the right spot on his square forehead. He wore a nice combination of dark blue slacks and a flowery shirt with two buttons undone. Compared to big nosed, lopsided-jaw Ben Walker, he looked almost perfect.
For an answer, she yelled back, “Rey, Rey Johnson.”
Chad blinked at her accent. “You’re very pretty, Rey. What college do you go to?”
“McGill. MBA.”
“Same. Software architect,” Chad said, obviously very pleased with himself. “I thought I’d seen you around.”
The barmaid came and Rey asked for rosé wine. Chad had his drink already. When she got her glass, the aspiring engineer proceeded to tell her all about his plans for his future.
Time passed. Chad’s friend ‘Brad’ joined them and Rey was boxed in by two perfectly groomed men. She wondered at the attention she was getting. She would listen to one, then have to crane her neck to watch the other tell his stories. She didn’t feel like she had much to tell, and they weren’t listening anyway. If she wanted, she could bring either home.
Men are such sluts, she thought. She looked around her at all the women who had really made an extra effort for tonight, curled their straight hair or straightened their curls and put on light dresses and sandals despite the cold, while she was dressed simply and was not looking to hook up. Maybe that was it. Don’t the women know they don’t need all that artifice?
At some point, she started feeling very tired; the place was packed and hot and loud and she felt a little woozy. She motioned to get up to go to the restroom. “I’ll be back,” she announced, and the two men smiled at her and let her pass.
On her way, she saw Rose and signed to her.
In the restroom, she told her roommate she might call it a night.
“Can you make it just a little longer? It’s almost midnight.”
“I… can make the effort, yeah.” She patted cool water on her forehead and neck.
Rose stayed with her until she shooed her away.
Rey stepped into a stall to pee. She pulled out her phone. Texted Ben Walker.
>How’s your evening going?<
The reply came almost immediately: >It’s good, almost midnight. You?<
>It’s hot and noisy<
>You take a taxi home, alright?<
>I will< Of course he would think of that. Suddenly her stomach felt like lead. Was the steak bad? It had seemed alright.
>I’m feeling a little sick. You?<
>Rey, where are you? Is Rose with you?<
>Monkey Bar, u kno it?< Now she definitely felt bad. Her stomach heaved. She barely had time to turn around and vomit.
>Sick!< she barely texted, kneeling in the stall.
>Find Rose!<
>k<
She heard the DJ announce the last minute before the countdown. She dropped her phone on the black tile floor.
The outside door opened with all its noise and the vibrations from the too-loud music made her dizzy and faint. She heard Rose call, “Rey?”
Rey couldn’t answer.
How can I be so drunk? I barely had that one glass of wine. And I’m sure the food was fine. Now she was cradling a public toilet seat, unable to move or cry out. No one was in here with her, everyone was out on the dance floor for the countdown. She heard Rose being called back out by her friends and Finn, who garbled something she couldn’t hear. Then the door closed again and mercifully shut out the noise.
Rey kneeled there, and noticed she had vomit in her hair. Her face was damp and sticky with sweat. If only she could get up. She didn’t know how much time passed until she heard the door open again and someone pushed open each stall door, calling: “is someone in there?”
It wasn’t anyone she knew, but now she just wanted help. With a huge effort she managed to croak out, “here!”
The stall door was locked. “I can't,” she tried to say. Then she saw movement beside her and someone slipped under the partition and came into the stall with her, and then unlocked the door.
A man.
“You need some fresh air,” he said, and then he picked her up. She saw herself in the mirror and she was a fright: pale and sweaty, eyes smudged. The guy helpfully had a cloth and he wet and wiped her face with it.
“Everyone is busy right now, staring at the MC,” he said, and Rey thought it might be Chad’s buddy ‘Brad’ that had come to help her.
Her phone rang. Her phone that was still on the floor. ‘Brad’ picked it up, cancelled the call, and threw it in the garbage.
That’s when Rey knew she was in trouble.
A second guy came into the restroom, and together, they lifted Rey up and hoisted her between them. They made it out the door.
‘Brad’ was right. No one was looking to the back where she was. Where the back exit was. Where the two men were taking her. The countdown was loud and booming.
She tried to fight, only managed to croak a desperate ‘no!’ soon drowned out by the noise of cheer as the New Year 20— was finally rung in. They passed from too-hot and loud to suddenly silent, deathly cold.
Jan 1st
She saw the black car. The door was open, the engine running, purring like a black cat in ambush. The cold slapped her and she heaved to get free.
“Whoa there, pretty, we have a much better party for you,” one of the guys announced.
She’d heard of this, of a new drug that was ravaging American clubs-goers and girls around the world. If she was lucky she would wake up tomorrow and have no memory of this night but for the bruises on her body. If she woke up at all.
Suddenly, ‘Brad’ dropped her.
She saw him fall to the ground with her. Things started moving around her, bodies, garbage bags. She lay on the ground and heard shouting and the sound of fists striking flesh.
The sound of tires squealing as the black car sped off.
After another moment, she felt something warm cover her, something that had a familiar stench. Ben’s coat.
“Rey, I found you. It’s alright.”
He picked her up.
…
When she woke up, she was in her nightshirt in her bed. Her knees and a hip hurt. She felt sick again and stumbled out of bed to the toilet. Everything was quiet. She peed and rinsed her mouth, feeling better, but confused.
When she came out, Rose was waiting. She spoke in a whisper.
“Come with me.” Rey followed her friend to her bedroom where they sat on Rose’s bed. The lamp was on, and Rose gave her a damp washcloth for her face.
“What happened?” Rey asked, thankful for the cool cloth.
“You don’t remember?”
“I was sitting between two guys… what time is it?”
“It’s almost five am. Do you remember who they were?”
Rey shook her head. “I missed the countdown? How could I miss the countdown?”
“Rey…” Rose paused, “I think you were hit by that drug that makes you forget things.”
Rey’s eyes widened in alarm; she put her hand to her mouth and barely squeaked out, “Did something happen to me?”
“No,” Rose spoke quickly to head off panic. “Ben got to you just in time; that guy is great, Rey. He came all the way from where he was and just beat those guys until they took off.”
“How did he know, did you call him? I can’t remember…”
“Oh Rey, I’m so sorry, I must have just missed those guys taking you outside! I went back to the restroom and heard a phone ring from the garbage and when I saw it was yours, I rushed back out to find Finn and a bouncer but by the time we got outside, Ben Walker had already chased those guys off and I had to convince the bouncer he was a friend.
“Then another car pulled in and Ben said it was Éric, the older man from the kitchen you told me about. So we got into the car and came here. Finn will be back later.”
“Where’s Ben?”
“He’s on the couch. I let him stay.”
“Let me go see him.”
“I think he’s still sleeping, he’s pretty beat up.”
“Oh no,” Rey covered her face in shame, “this is my fault.”
“Rey, those guys were looking to hurt someone.” Rose reached out to Rey and gently pulled a hand down, looking at her roommate of three years. “You’re lucky you managed to contact your friend.”
My friend, Rey thought. And Éric. Good people.
“Rose I’d like some water, and to go back to sleep, I’m still… not right.”
Rose let her leave her room and Rey silently got some water from the kitchen. Seeing the couch, she couldn’t resist checking up on her saviour.
She padded silently in the pre-dawn. There he was, stretched out on the sofa, feet hanging over the edge, arm thrown over his eyes. In the light cast by the street-light, she thought she saw his lip was split. His huge feet were bare.
He moved his arm and she saw she had woken him. He beckoned to her.
She sat on what little edge was left beside him. She laid her hand on his chest; his wide, warm chest where his big, warm heart was beating. They looked at each other for a silent moment, then he put his hand over hers and squeezed it. She saw the bruises on his knuckles. There were more on his face.
“Thank you,” she whispered softly.
He made a soft noise like a sob. “Thank you for calling me.”
Rey realised how much it had meant to him that of all the people she could have called for help, she had called him.
She trusted him.
Rey got up and pulled him to her and made him follow her to her bed.
Sometime between six and seven in the morning Rey took off her nightshirt and drew Ben Walker over her and into her body.
He was so beautiful, trembling slightly in the dim light as he held himself over her, kissing her softly and letting her reach into his hair and look at him unhindered. He didn’t shy away. In that moment when she finally took him into her, it was beyond what she expected, filling her with promise. Their lovemaking was passionate yet softly intimate, borne of the trust they had formed with one another over the week. He ground pleasure into her in a way she'd never felt before. When release came, it felt… almost sacred.
In the morning, she made him bacon and eggs. He made the coffee. It was the best coffee ever.
Epilogue:
Over the next three months, Rey pressed charges against ‘Chad and Brad’ and it turned out they had quite a few accusations against them already. She also made a few phone calls and got Ben a student room not too far from the soup kitchen. They washed his coat and scarf, and when he was ready, they got him a new coat.
He kept his scarf.
The bookstore-slash-coffeeshop opened and Ben was hired to help in whatever capacity he could. He turned out to be very capable. Poe and Amilyn saw his drawings and poems and offered to put them up on the walls and after a while, they started selling for their own sake. He put off going back to the repair shop.
Both Rose and Rey graduated in the spring. Rose moved out to the West of the island, in Pointe-Claire, near her job in the industrial park. Rey did get a nice cushy office job that pays enough to afford the rent by herself; so Benjamin moved in. He fixed Rey’s lamp. He fixed every one of her other problems too.
Today, Rey is just as passionate as ever. Her day job is tolerable, with Ben at home to cook (he can cook!) for her and take care of things. He is attentive and patient and committed.
And loving.
Rey finds time to volunteer at the ‘Soupe Populaire et Popotte Roulante du Quartier Centre-Sud’ at least once a week. The crew is always glad to have her. They share their wisdom with her during the post-service lunch break and Pierre-Luc showed her how she can help with financing and running the place.
But Rey prefers cooking and serving the clients so she can see them, the people nobody wants anymore, abandoned by their parents, or their children, or a system that couldn’t protect them. They come to the kitchen for a hot meal and a place to sit down with some company, and Rey took the time to compile a list of resources for the ones that are ready to use them. She post it up on the wall, and when a client asks her she sits with them to help find the service they need and makes phone calls for them. Every little bit helps.
Every now and then, some hot-head comes in to do some community service time and she always smiles at how life-changing that can be for those who can appreciate the people around them, and the need for compassion for those who fall on bad times. Like Ben Walker, sometimes all they need is the time it takes to get back up, and someone to welcome them and believe in them; someone who cares.
