Chapter Text
saturday.
Plutt’s Coffee opened exactly thirty seconds ago. In those thirty seconds, Rey had turned on the open sign and started to count the cash in the register. She worked her way down, counting bigger bills first. One twenty and—
One, two, three tens.
Just as she reached for the five-dollar bills, she was interrupted.
“Coffee. Black.”
Rey looked up from her counting, a little startled.
She didn’t hear this man come in.
And this man…well.
He was all man.
Rey had never seen someone so tall, so wide, so strong. His facial features were interesting, but everything seemed to work. Big everything. Eyes. Nose. Lips. And his voice was deep. Rich. Like the coffee she served every day.
She stared at him, wide-eyed, wondering where the hell he came from.
Not just because he managed to sneak in with his large frame right at opening, but also because Rey was really wondering where he was from.
Everyone knew everyone in Jakku, Texas.
Placed in the middle of nowhere West Texas, Jakku wasn’t a place people usually passed through. The population wasn’t too small, around 13,000 people, but everyone knew everyone. If you didn’t know them, you knew their cousin. Their sister. Their great aunt. Something.
Small city. Big town. Middle of nowhere.
Jakku.
Just Jakku.
Rey swallowed, still drinking in the stranger.
He cleared his throat, “Do you mind? I’ve got a lot to do.”
Oh.
He was handsome and rude.
Rey’s customer service attitude went out the window. She tightened her jaw and pushed a button on the register, before speaking in a harsh tone.
“One seventy-one.”
The man didn’t look at his wallet as he took out a bill, handing it to Rey.
She pressed her lips together, wanting to roll her eyes, “I don’t have enough change for you this early in the day. Got any other bills besides a Benjamin?”
He looked down at his wallet, frowning a bit, before putting the bill back. The man gave her his card, now.
AMEX.
She wondered if he had money. Like, family money. Money money. Someone with a one-hundred-dollar bill to spend, plus an American Express credit card must have that old money. That’s what growing up in Jakku taught you.
Rey barely had a debit card with her local bank.
She sighed at the sight of his platinum card.
“Sorry, we don’t take American Express. Got another card?” Rey cocked her eyebrow, staring at the way the man seemed to huff a laugh. Whether he was laughing at himself, at her, or at the dingy coffee shop she worked at, Rey didn’t know.
“Right,” he muttered, “Here.”
Mastercard.
Perfect.
When the transaction was complete, Rey gave him a fake smile, “Be right back, Black Coffee.”
As he went to sit, Rey started to make the bitter drink for the seemingly bitter man. Well, maybe he wasn’t bitter. She didn’t know that yet.
She just knew she didn’t like his attitude, the small glimpse of it she got to see.
Rey fixed the man’s black coffee, pouring it into a clear mug that she begged Plutt to order last year to make the place ‘more aesthetically pleasing’. It barely worked. The coffee shop was downtown, in an old building. She put in string lights, painted one wall a pretty blue, got clear mugs, and the place still looked depressing.
Just like Jakku.
Just Jakku.
Rey frowned at the thought of ‘just Jakku’, the phrase she repeated to herself almost every day. She felt like she was waiting. Waiting to leave. To get out of there. She was saving money to move. Rey wanted to go to New York. She liked to paint. Maybe she could get a job at a gallery as she sold paintings on the side.
It was no fucking fair that she had to get adopted into such a shitty town to start out in.
Rey shook away the thoughts of her wandering mind and walked to the table the stranger was sitting at. She set down the mug, next to his laptop, and put her hands behind her back.
He didn’t look up at her.
No ‘thank you’. Not even an acknowledgment.
Rey pursed her lips and spoke first, “Black coffee. Need anything e—”
“No.”
He typed away, never looking at her.
Rey squinted at him. She worked her jaw and started to grind her teeth. She’d like to yell at him. Tell him to have some manners. Maybe give his arm a punch. She wanted to respond like she usually did when people gave her trouble.
But she needed to keep her job, so Rey simply took a deep breath and muttered, “Let me know if you need anything,” before walking away.
It started to get busy in the shop with people coming in, sitting down or getting coffees and pastries to-go. Rey was walking back and forth between the register and the machines, making lattes, espressos, cappuccinos…the whole works.
At noon, the man—the rude stranger, more accurately—was still there. He sat at the same table. He was still typing away.
Plutt’s opened at seven in the goddamn morning.
Rey wondered what the fuck he was doing on that laptop for so long.
Every half hour or so, he’d finish his coffee. She’d take his cup, try to sneak a glance at his laptop, then go get him another black coffee. Rey would take the full mug back to him and try to sneak another glance.
None of her peeking was helpful. She couldn’t really see much going on or read whatever he was Googling.
Each time she took away his mug or brought it back, Rey always did the same, “Black coffee. Need anything el—”
The man always did the same thing, too.
He always interrupted her with a, “No.”
Rose—Rey’s coworker—came in around three o’clock to take over shifts. They whispered about the stranger in the back of the shop, Rey telling her all about how impolite he was and how she’d never seen him before. How he even tried to pay with a one-hundred-dollar bill, that psychopath.
Rey gathered her backpack and put her hair up in three buns, ready to go home in the Texas heat. She glanced at the stranger, biting her lip, wondering if she’d ever see him again.
A face like that in a place like this was hard to find.
She just wished he was a bit nicer.
Rey walked out of the shop and unlocked her bike, where she rode home.
She thought about the stranger for the rest of the day.
sunday.
Rey rode up on her bike at six thirty in the morning to Plutt’s Coffee, locking her bike and unlocking the front doors. She stretched, made herself a cup of coffee, texted her boss—Unkar Plutt, himself—that she was in, and prepared for the day.
Sunday was a slow day. Most people were at church or making good with their day of rest, probably at home. Plus, it was a nice day. Citizens were probably hiking or getting out of town to go to the lake in the next city over.
Rey set out the croissants, the bagels, the sandwiches, and the biscuits. She swept and put down the chairs. Rey did each opening chore that she did every single day.
At seven o’clock on the dot, Rey turned on the open sign and started to count the money in the register.
Again, thirty seconds after opening, there was that sneaky voice again.
“Coffee. Black.”
Rey jumped, unable to hold her tongue, “Jesus!”
The stranger. The grumpy stranger with the laptop. At Plutt’s. Again.
“Not my name.”
"Sorry," Rey gathered herself and cleared her throat, “You’re huge but quiet. You scared me yesterday, too.”
She gave him a small smile as she punched a button on the register.
He didn’t smile back. Instead, he asked very seriously, “Total?”
Her face heated. Asshole.
Instead of actually saying that, though, Rey spit out, “One seventy-one, Black Coffee.”
The stranger squinted at her while handing her a card. Thankfully, it was Mastercard. He wasn’t making the same mistake as yesterday.
“My name’s ‘Black Coffee’?” he asked, “Thought it was ‘Jesus’.”
Rey slid his card through the reader and put it on the counter, not bothering to put it back in his hands.
“Would you rather ‘Black Coffee’ or ‘No’ as a name?” she stepped over to the coffee machines, ready to make his boring drink as she went on, “Because those are the only words you seem to know how to say.”
She finally saw him smile, just a little.
“I like Black Coffee as a name.”
He went to sit down. Same spot as yesterday.
Rey eyed Black Coffee as he got out his laptop from the backpack he brought. He put his phone on the table. Plugged in a few chargers to the wall outlet. Ran a hand through his wavy, black hair. The ends curled at the base of his neck.
She wondered what it’d feel like if she touched the ends—the ones that swooped.
“Black coffee for Black Coffee,” Rey padded over to his table, clear mug of black coffee in hand. As she set it on his table, there was still no utterance of a ‘thank you’. She thought she heard a grunt. Maybe a huff? Perhaps that was his ‘thank you’.
Either way, Rey said in a very dramatic tone as she walked away, “You’re welcome.”
It was an incredibly slow shift. It was so slow for a Sunday, that Rey deep cleaned the bathrooms as she waited for people to come in. She also reorganized the cabinets. Rey even mopped.
She hated mopping.
Between cleaning, Rey would fill the stranger’s cup back up with black coffee when it was empty.
Today, he surprised her.
He made eye contact with her a few times.
Rey couldn’t believe the way her heart cheered at him doing basic human things like making eye contact. God, what was Black Coffee doing to her?
Around eleven in the morning, Rey smoothed down her AC/DC shirt and brown apron before stepping over to his table. His eyes were focused on his laptop, but as he saw her approach, he shook his head and pointed at his cup.
“No coffee yet.”
It was halfway full.
But Rey wasn’t there to get him coffee.
She sat across from him.
“You’re not from here,” Rey stated, “What are you doing here, Black Coffee?”
He stared at her. Closed his laptop a little. Opened his mouth slightly, as if to speak.
Then, Black Coffee frowned. He opened his computer again and his eyes went right back to the screen as he mumbled, “If you don’t mind, I’m doing something.”
Rey figured if she had to be at work and she had to stare at this gorgeous, rude man all day, she might as well annoy the hell out of him.
“Okay…so what are you working on?” she asked, eyes hopeful.
He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. Her plan of annoying him was clearly working. It made her smile. Black Coffee opened his eyes again and rested his chin on his hand, his elbow on the table.
“Will you leave me alone if I tell you?”
“No,” Rey giggled at his frustrated face, “I’m teasing. Yes. I’ll leave you alone. Just tell me what you’re working on. I’ve been dying to know ever since you stayed for hours yesterday.”
Black Coffee lifted his brows, acknowledging her comment. Then, he bit his lip before pulling something out of his bag. It was a large manilla envelope.
He pushed his laptop aside and put the contents inside the envelope on the table. There were pictures scattered about. There was a letter. A keychain.
“What is all this?” Rey asked curiously.
Black Coffee hesitated before answering, “It’s—It’s someone’s—” he stopped himself and gathered the items back up, putting them in the envelope again. He left one out. One of the photos.
A picture of a house.
“I’m looking for this house. I’m looking for a lot of things, I guess. I just—I just need to find this house and I have an address,”
He flipped the photo, revealing an address written on the back in cursive.
He went on, “I tried to search the address. I searched it all day yesterday and today and I looked at map after map of this town but I can’t find the house. This fucking city is small, but it’s too big to drive around every goddamn neighborhood to find it and I need to.”
Black Coffee swallowed, “I just really need to find this house…at least just the house.”
Rey took the photo in her hands. She looked at the address and didn’t recognize the street. She didn’t recognize the house, either, but the address said it was here, in Jakku.
“Whose house is this?” Rey asked, still peering at the picture.
“Just someone’s—Someone that I’m trying to figure out.”
She bit her lip.
“Well…I can help you. If you know whose house it was then I can—I can help you find it.”
“What?”
Black Coffee looked shocked. Eyes wide. Brow furrowed. Rey was just as shocked by her own words, too.
But she kept going.
“You’ll need someone to help you around, I assume,” Rey shrugged.
She saw his jaw clench. His eye twitch. He was thinking.
“I could,” Rey shrugged again.
“What?”
“I could help you.”
He shook his head and took the photo away from her, stuffing it back in the envelope, “It’s fine.”
“You don’t really know your way around here,” Rey stated.
“I can figure it out.”
“I know this place like the back of my hand.”
Black Coffee put his laptop back in front of him, eyes on the screen again, “Not much to know about it. Place is a dump.”
“You’d be surprised,” she said quietly, “I just—I could help.”
She did want to help. Not that he deserved her help. He could get lost and eaten by the coyotes for all she cared…but she did want to help, just a bit. She was intrigued. Intrigued by this stranger and the house he was looking for and why.
“You’d really help me? I need—I need a lot,” he said, finally looking at her again.
He looked nervous.
Rey nodded, “You’ll have to give me the name of who you’re looking for but yeah, I can help. I know people and—and I can find out whatever you need for your little project or whatever you’re doing.”
She gave him a smile.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” Rey tilted her head.
He nodded, “You can help…I—I don’t know anything about this fucking place. I came all the way from New York and—”
“I want to go to New York!” Rey blurted, “I mean—I’d like to move there. Hopefully in the next year.”
Black Coffee studied her for a moment as Rey shifted uncomfortably. She thought she said something wrong. Maybe she was being too much. Whatever. He can deal with it.
But then, his arm stretched across the table out to her.
“I’m Ben,” he pressed his lips together, then, “I prefer ‘Ben’ over ‘Black Coffee’.”
Rey took his hand. Felt how small hers was compared to his. She gave a polite smile.
“Rey.”
Ben nodded slowly, repeating, “Rey.”
She took her hand away, afraid she’d get lost in the warmth of it.
“I get off at one today. I can—We can start then, if you’d like,” Rey offered.
Ben cleared his throat and spoke, “Sure. Yeah. One. I’ll be here.”
Rey stood and smoothed down her shirt and apron again, a nervous habit. She gave him a nod and repeated, “One, then.”
Rose showed up ten minutes early. Rey and Rose gossiped in the back again, just like they did every time they overlapped shifts.
“You’re doing what?” Rose gasped.
Rey shrugged, “Just taking him where he needs. He isn’t from here and he’s doing some kind of weird scavenger hunt. I don’t know.”
“You don’t know him!”
“I could get to know him, you know.”
Rose rolled her eyes, “He’s a stranger.”
“No. His name is Ben,” Rey smiled proudly.
“He could murder you.”
“I could murder him.”
Rose paused. Smiled.
“You make a good point…but you have to text me every hour where you are and if you’re safe.”
Rey agreed.
They left the backroom and went out to the front, where Rey walked to Ben’s table. His cup was full—which meant he wasted his last cup of coffee—but Rey didn’t mind. She was too excited for this adventure she was about to go on.
“I’ll just get this and grab my stuff,” she told Ben.
He nodded.
As Rey picked up the mug, her hands didn’t really register with her fingers. She didn’t grip around the cup. It wasn’t stable.
So, coffee ended up on the table. The mug on the floor. Shattered.
“Oh my God—”
“Fucking seriously?”
Both of their hands went to the main item on the table that was now covered in coffee.
The photo of the house. But not just the photo. The back of it, where the address was.
Ben grabbed a napkin and wiped the back of the photo.
“Don’t wipe!” Rey spoke urgently, “Dab it! You have to dab!!”
“Shut up!” Ben muttered, concentrated on wiping at the address to rid it from the liquid, “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Dab it, dummy!”
The ink on the photo started to smear.
“Shit!” Ben yelled.
Rose was peeking over the counter, watching.
“I told you to dab it!” Rey groaned.
Ben stopped. He looked at the ink.
The address was unrecognizable.
“This is your fucking fault,” he spit.
Rey rolled her eyes, “Look, I’m sorry for spilling the coffee. Okay? I am. But—But you were Googling the address for the past two days. It’s in your search history—” she reached for his laptop, “Here, just go to the history.”
He was quiet. Watching her open his search history.
And it was blank.
“Um, I don’t understand.”
Ben sighed, “I deleted my history thirty minutes ago.”
She turned to him, throwing her hands in the air, “Why would you clear your history?!”
“It saves storage!”
“Fucking Mac owner,” Rey mumbled. Macs had zero space. Of course this idiot had to clear everything just to save one goddamn photo of a family vacation, probably.
“You spilled the coffee!”
“I’m sorry!”
Ben rubbed his mouth, “Jesus fucking Christ. Great. Just fucking great.”
“Do you remember the address?”
He rolled his eyes, “No! I don’t have photographic memory, Rey.”
“Shit,” she whispered.
“Shit is right.”
Rey got an idea.
She faced Ben again, “I—I know someone in records for the city and maybe they can—if you gave them the name of who you’re looking for—maybe they can find the address. We can search for it and we can find it—”
“I don’t think I need your help anymore,” he muttered, packing up his things.
For some reason, Rey felt like she got slapped. She was trying to be helpful. Offer something. Now, he didn’t want her help. Didn’t want her.
“You don’t want my help?” she asked, mouth twisting.
He stood there, breathing hard.
She understood.
“Oh…fine then,” Rey cleared her throat and gave him a dirty look, “Have fun with your scavenger hunt, asshole.”
Rey turned on her heel and went to the counter—where Rose was still watching them—and took off her apron, throwing it in a bin for cleaning. She grabbed her small backpack and clocked out, telling Rose to have a good day.
Rey stomped by Ben and didn’t look at him.
She heard him say her name.
Nope.
Rey walked out the door and went to her bike, unlocking it from the chain. The coffee shop door opened a few feet away, then she heard steps coming toward her.
“Rey.”
“What?” she stood and put the bike lock in her backpack, “What do you want Mr. ‘I don’t need your help’?”
Ben gave her a small smile, “I thought my name was Mr. ‘Black Coffee’.”
She rolled her eyes and walked her bike down the sidewalk, away from him.
“Oh, so now you’d like to be funny, I see. Good riddance,” she waved over her shoulder.
He jogged next to her.
“I’m sorry, Rey. I’m—I really need this and I’m sorry. I was just mad and I’d really like your help,” Ben put his hand on her bike’s handlebar, accidentally touching her fingers.
He took his hand away and looked at her. He was biting his lip. Anxiously.
Hm.
Rey thought for a moment.
“I’ll take you under one condition,” she said, walking with her bike again down the sidewalk.
Ben stayed walking next to her, “What is it? Anything. Please.”
“You pay for my food while we do whatever you’re asking of me,” she said, boldly, then, “A-And I get to take you to fun spots around town.”
“I’m sorry, fun spots?”
Rey nodded, “Yes. Fun spots. Jakku sucks ass, but it’s not half bad. Plus, if I have to hang out with you, we might as well have some fun in between instead of doing whatever the fuck you’ll be making me do…which you still need to explain to me at some point. Also, you’re a grump and could use some fun.”
She stopped walking and turned to him. His eyes were up at the blue, sunny sky.
Ben was thinking.
“Yes or no,” Rey cocked her brow, “Deal or no deal, Black Coffee.”
Ben’s eyes went to hers. His mouth slightly quirked up.
“Deal.”