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Rey is Ben's favorite regular. She orders simple drinks, never anything hard, and is open to trying his suggestions, she actually looks him in the eyes when she speaks to him, tips more than she should, and never relies on a tab, always paying her bill in full at the end of the night. She's the ideal customer. Ben's day starts better when he knows she'll be showing up to the bar. She's bright; literally, always dressing colorfully, seeming to favor the color green, she wears her hair in a different style every time he sees her, styled as multiple buns to curly ringlets to go down to her back, she smells of something sweet he can't identify, and has a smile that never falters.
Tonight she's moving around the bar, talking to random patrons and showing them the pictures on her phone. Ben is relieved there's not a sober person in the vicinity or he'd have to try and talk her down from bothering anyone. She's been in a good mood since she walked in, practically bouncing in her steps. There may have even been dancing at one point. She had good news to celebrate. The best news as she called it. Her best friends Finn and Poe had been under the adoption process for a long time and were finally picked by an expectant woman a few months back. Last night a beautiful, 6lbs, 7oz baby boy named Henry August Dameron was born. Rey couldn't stop boasting about him; her camera roll had hundreds of photos of the little guy. She was proud to show off her godson.
"Ben!" Rey yells from the middle of the room and then rushes up to the bar.
He's worried she might run into something. Her drink is just a 7 and 7, but the whiskey combined with the sugar of the lemon lime soda and the extra sugar from the cherries she likes to add is certainly having an effect on her.
She slams her empty glass down on the bar with a thud. He anticipates that she'll probably want another.
Instead she shocks him: "Ben, we would make good babies together."
He chokes on nothing, his faces flushes, he laughs awkwardly at lack of not knowing what else to say at her statement, and then he pours himself a shot. "This one is on you." He tells her. Rey nods her head happily.
"Seriously, Ben, we would. I mean, look at you. Tall, dark, and handsome and you can fill a plaid shirt very well. Very well. That thing could pop from the seams at any point." Then she says something under breath about red being a good color on him.
She seems very pleased with her observation. Ben focuses his mind by making her another drink. If she notices that he's taking his time, she doesn't comment on it.
"I think you have baby fever," He observes in return.
"How can I not? Look at him!" Rey has her phone out again. She has a picture of Henry who is sleeping as her lock screen and one of the baby with Finn and Poe as her home screen. Ben imagines frequent changes in the future as the baby grows or does something cute.
"He was so small, Ben. Small, and soft, and had that new baby smell. He curled into my arms! I didn't want to let him go."
He slides her finished drink across the countertop and she takes a quick sip.
Ben isn't opposed to babies, far from it. Never mind that his mother occasionally drops hints that she'd like grandchildren, he believes in commitment and would like to have a family one day. The only problem is—a thirty-five year old who put their business degree into opening a bar and is at said bar seven days a week isn't ideal to potential partners. If he ever found the right one and had children, we would make the time; he has the money to hire more help. His family would be priority. But dating never got far enough to have that conversation.
Rey is showing him pictures of Henry he's already seen, but he doesn't say anything; it's not a bother. She has abundance of Henry sleeping, sometimes smiling, and bundled in a baby blanket Rey had custom made to have the baby's name stitched in, occasionally Finn and Poe show up in the roll, but the ones with Rey in them are his favorite, of course.
"We have a child... Hypothetically..." He has to stress hypothetically. Giving her any reign when she's been drinking might not be a good idea. He at least has to take her out for dinner first. "Boy or girl?"
Rey doesn't hesitate. "Girl! A little girl that’s all you with my eyes would be a dream."
"What would we name her?"
"Elisabeth with an S. Its prettier spelled that way. We'd call her Elisa."
"What if we had a boy?"
"No. We're not going to have a boy. It's a girl."
"No? But what if we did? Humor me," He leans over the bar and smiles at her. "Please."
He's getting into it. He must be flirting now.
Am I?
Rey thinks about it. She seriously thinks about it while drinking more of her 7 and 7. When she finally answers, she surprises him again.
She's good that one.
"What's your grandfather’s name?"
"Anakin," He answers. His father's father was dead by the time he was born and Anakin is the only grandfather he's ever known.
Rey thinks again. "Ani. We'd call him Ani."
Ben thinks back to the pictures of Rey holding Henry, only he pictures Rey holding a little boy or girl with a dark mop of hair with his arms around them. It's not a bad image.
"I like that. Elisa and Ani Solo." Ben doesn't know why he does it, but it feels right when he leans over Rey to leave a soft kiss upon her forehead.
When he pulls away, Rey's never-ending smile grows impossibly bigger.
"I guess we should get started. The bar closes at two and I have an apartment upstairs. I can be ready by 2:05. I'll try hard for a girl. I promise."