Work Text:
The first time Ben Solo shook out 7 sugar packets into Rey Johnson’s coffee, she tipped an extra 25 cents.
“I know it’s a lot of sugar,” Rey grimaced as she watched him place the lid on the to-go cup. “I just need it sometimes, you know?” The bags under her eyes seemed to agree. Loose tendrils of dark hair spun wildly out of her three buns as she dropped her change into the tip jar with one hand and reached for her coffee with the other. Her tiny, cold fingers briefly touched Ben’s as he handed over her coffee.
“We don’t judge here,” Ben said. It was the only thing he could think to say when their fingers were touching and Rey looked so tired and in need of a pick-me-up. Plus, a lady had just come by the Starbucks drive-thru earlier that morning and ordered 10 extra pumps of vanilla and extra-extra caramel drizzle (“make it to where it covers the entire inside of the cup”) in her iced caramel macchiato. There were customers who needed a lot more sugar a lot more often than Rey did.
To his surprise, Rey laughed. “Really? You wouldn’t judge if I needed, oh, 15 extra sugar packets?”
Ben shrugged. “To be honest, I’ve seen a lot worse.” He leaned over the counter a little more and lowered his voice. “We have one guy- a policeman- who orders 8 shots of espresso in a Venti cup. I’m really worried that we’re going to give him a heart condition.”
Rey shivered, staring into his eyes. Then she shook herself and straightened up, leaning away from him and shoving her gray sweatshirt sleeve up to look at her watch.
“Ugh, I need to hurry and get to my final,” she groaned, already starting for the door.
Ben watched her go, her hair buns bouncing with each movement as she tried to sip her coffee and walk quickly at the same time. He saw a couple of drops spill their way onto her sweatshirt, but she didn’t seem to notice or care.
“Thank you, Ben!” Rey called over her shoulder, and then she was gone. Ben wiped his hands on his green apron absentmindedly. It took him several seconds of staring before he realized that his coworkers were calling to him on his headset, and he had 4 new drinks waiting for him to make.
_________
The next time Rey came for her coffee, she looked considerably more put-together and well-rested. Her loose hair swept over her shoulders in a shining, sleek cut, and a hint of blush dusted her cheeks, complemented by her pale pink sweater. She stood at the cash register and chatted with his coworker, Rose, while Ben stayed busy making drinks.
He wasn’t doing much of a good job. When the milk he was pouring into the pitcher for steaming started to overflow onto the counter, Ben realized he was distracted. He’d been counting the freckles on Rey’s cheeks, because that was a completely normal thing to do.
“Hi!” Rey said brightly, smiling at him over the espresso machines. Ben glanced up from mopping away the spilled milk with his towel.
“Hi, Rey,” he said. Rose handed him Rey’s cup, and he lifted it in front of him, taking a look at the Sharpie instructions that Rose had scrawled. He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t want 7 sugars today?”
“You know, I’m feeling much better today now that my finals are over and I’m about to finally graduate,” she grinned. “So I can do without the 7 today. Just make it 3, maybe?”
“You got it.”
Ben started shaking the sugar packets, and Rey giggled.
“What?” he asked, ripping one open and pouring it into the empty cup.
“Why do you do it like that?” Rey asked.
“Like what?”
“You shake the sugar packets- what does that do, exactly?”
Ben huffed and shook the last two packets before pouring them in. “You know, I never thought about it. Maybe it makes it easier to open? The sugar all collects down into one part of the packet and then you can pour it in better, I think.”
“Really?” Rey leaned over the counter, her eyes twinkling. “You’re not just putting on a show?”
Ben rolled his eyes and began pouring in the coffee. “Do I seem like the kind of person to do that?”
Rey laughed outright, her cheeks pink with mirth. Ben didn’t realize he was staring again until she reached out a hand for her cup.
“Can I have my 3-sugars-only coffee now?”
Their fingers touched on the cup again, and Ben met her gaze with a confidence he didn’t know he had. “You got it,” he said softly.
Rey lingered there for a moment, looking dazed but happy, until she had to run off and prepare for her college graduation. Ben had forgotten to say congratulations. He had also forgotten to ask for her number.
_________
The second time Ben Solo shook out 7 sugar packets into Rey Johnson’s coffee, she sighed in relief.
“Ben, I don’t know how you knew it was a 7-sugar day, but it totally is.” She slumped against the counter as she watched him work, tightening the drawstrings of the purple hoodie that covered most of her head.
“I just know these things,” Ben said mysteriously, shaking the last sugar packet. He didn’t want to say that she looked tired, and her being tired was an obvious indicator that she’d want the extra sugar option. Even a shy grump like himself knew better than to say something like that. Plus, she looked exceedingly cute when she was tired, dressed for comfort with her messy hair and delicate yawns. What if Ben slipped and told her how adorable she was? He couldn’t risk that yet.
“I love it when you do that,” Rey chuckled.
Ben finished shaking the packet and poured it in. “Well, you know I aim to please. Especially when I’m making coffee for a college graduate and all.” Rey’s smile got even bigger from beneath her hoodie, and Ben felt his cheeks heat up.
He was staring down at Rey’s coffee, fitting the lid on it, when he gathered his courage and cleared his throat. “Uh, Rey? I was wondering-”
But one of Rey’s college friends had come to grab her in an excited hug, the boy who Rey called Finn, and the two were chatting about job applications and grad school applications and Ben was left standing awkwardly with Rey’s coffee. He set it on the counter for her and turned to make the other drinks that were waiting in the queue. He was so busy making chai tea lattes that it took him a moment to register that Rey had called out a cheerful, “Bye, and thanks, Ben!”
He looked up, but Rey was on her way out with Finn, chatting animatedly with her coffee in tow. Sighing, Ben turned back to his work. “You got it,” he muttered.
_________
Rose was lying in wait for Ben in the break room on their next shift together.
“Ben, you got it bad,” she declared. She beamed up at him as he grabbed his apron from the hook by the door.
“What do you mean?” he asked, but he already knew he didn’t want to know the answer, and what’s more, he didn’t want to have this conversation. Especially not with Rose, who not only seemed to pick up on way too many of his hidden feelings but was also friends with Rey. He threw the apron on over his head and started tying the strings behind his back, watching Rose warily.
“You know exactly who I mean,” Rose trilled. “When are you going to ask out Rey?”
“How do you know-” Ben stopped short. Whoops. This was why talking too much was dangerous.
Rose clapped her hands together, delighted. “I knew it! I’m so excited for you guys!”
Ben ran an exasperated hand through his hair. “Rose, nothing has happened yet, and I need to go clock in-”
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you,” Rose immediately interrupted. She nodded her head to herself. “You’ll see. This is a great idea, you two are perfect for each other.”
“Whatever,” Ben grumbled and headed to the front to clock in and start making drinks, not noticing the careful way that Rose slipped her phone out of her back pocket and started texting furiously. When she was done, she came to the front with Ben to take orders at the cash register.
About thirty minutes into their shift, Rose sidled up to Ben and waggled her eyebrows at him. “I see you’re making that coffee in a very interesting way,” she said.
Ben stopped shaking the sugar packets instantly. “I always do this,” he said.
“No way. You didn’t shake those packets so much until Rey started watching you.”
Ben sighed and finished making the drink, handing it to their coworker, Poe, to give his drive-thru customer. He was going to try and ignore Rose, but the way she was looking at him made it hard to do that. He figured honesty might get her to go back to her work faster. “Yeah, I guess I kept doing it like that because . . . she likes it or something.”
Rose squealed, her ponytail bouncing joyfully as she skipped back to the register. “I love it!”
________
The next day, Ben walked outside to the Starbucks patio and sat down with his lunch. He picked up his own coffee- straight espresso in a short cup- and buried his head in his book. With the warm sun on his back and the cool breeze in the air, Ben was lulled into a drowsy peacefulness and therefore jumped dramatically when a hand touched his shoulder.
“Oops!” Rey yelped as Ben, in his surprise, moved his arm and knocked over his espresso. It started dripping unceremoniously onto the concrete.
“I’m so sorry!” Rey exclaimed. “Let me get some napkins!”
She rushed back inside, leaving Ben frozen, dumbfounded, with a tipped-over cup and slightly damp book. When she came back, she hurriedly started mopping up the mess. Ben bent down and gently pulled the napkins from her hands.
“I’ve got it, Rey,” he said. “Nothing to worry about.”
Rey frowned. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that, I should have said something.”
“Scare me?” Ben smirked. He finished cleaning and, picking up the sopping napkins, threw them away in the patio trash can. “I wasn’t scared. Just startled.”
Rey smirked back at him, settling into the chair beside his. “Sure you were.”
Ben sat down and picked up his wet book, starting to shake it in the breeze to dry the pages. Rey burst out laughing.
“You shake the book just like the sugar packets!”
Ben couldn’t help but smile, just a little. “You like it,” he said.
Rey didn’t respond at first, and Ben glanced over at her. Her hair was curly today, soft on her shoulders, and her bright yellow dress and cream cardigan draped her body in a way that was simply breathtaking. Ben had never seen her so dressed up before, and suddenly he didn’t know what to say. Today was certainly a 3-sugar day, but Ben had to admit, her 7-sugar days endeared her just as much to him, if not more.
“I do like how you make my coffee,” Rey confirmed. She paused, fumbling in her cardigan’s pocket and pulling out a scrap of paper.
“I also like you, actually,” she said simply, and she pried open his fingers to stick the paper into his hand.
Startled for the second time that day, Ben stared down at the phone number on the paper. “Oh,” he breathed.
“That’s for you. You should use it sometime.” Rey’s fingers brushed his shoulder as she stood back up.
“Wait, where are you going?” Without thinking, Ben grabbed her hand to hold her in place. He let go quickly, not wanting to alarm her, but Rey was smiling down at him with a knowing gaze.
“I have to go to a job interview,” Rey said. “Thankfully I had just enough time to catch you on your lunch break.”
“How did you know when I take my-” Ben stopped. “Rose?”
“Rose is a good friend.” Rey wrapped her cardigan closer around her body, looking a little self-conscious. “Well, I do need to go now,” she said, but her eyes studied the ground and her feet didn’t move.
Ben reached out his hand again, slower this time, and took her hand in his. Rey drew in a quick breath as he laced their fingers together.
“Rey. I like you, too.”
He watched as the smile lit her face like the sun. She squeezed his hand warmly before letting go and slowly starting to head to her car.
“Rey,” he called. “Want to meet for dinner this weekend?”
Rey looked over her shoulder and winked. “You got it.”