Chapter Text
“This is Rey from Takodana Alumni Relations, Class of 2011, how may I help you?”
Poe, her desk neighbor, snickers as the no doubt ancient alum on the other end of the line launches into a tirade about the delays in construction for the new golf course.
“Mm-hm, mm-hm, we hear your concerns,” Rey says, trying to sound as pleasant as possible, as she lobs a crumpled up Post-it note at Poe’s head. “I’ll be sure to pass that on to the administration. Will that be all today?”
Mercifully, it is. Rey hangs up, and rolls her eyes at Poe. “I think that’s the fifth golf course complaint this week?”
“Cut ‘em some slack, Rey,” Poe says, smirking. “Are you really expecting them to play on the plebeian grass on the old course?”
“Yeah, how dare admin invest in the equity office instead,” Rey retorts. “What is this, the 21st century?”
Talking to crotchety alums is always the worst part of her day. Their boss insists that they all do so for a couple hours a week, even though Rey privately thinks this is something they should just have the student employees take care of. The friendly alums, some of which had been at Takodana at the same time as her, are too few and far between.
“Just a half an hour more, Rey-baby. You got this.” Poe pats her on the shoulder, turning back to his laptop.
Rey glares at the phone on her desk, bracing herself for the next call. Nine years out of college and here she is, answering calls from randos who went to the same school as her and are probably out there living infinitely cooler lives.
It's a conversation she has with herself nearly every day. You should be grateful you have a steady job, she tells herself, regurgitating the same old arguments, plus good benefits plus coworkers you mostly like.
But there’s nothing keeping you here anymore, another traitorous part of her whispers.
As the phone rings once more, Rey pushes that thought away.
If only that were true.
After work, Rey grabs dinner with Finn at the snack bar in the student center, which he’d liked to joke resembled “an ugly ass bamboo shoot” as it was built during their freshman year. Despite looking like a modernist nightmare from the outside, it’s always been one of their favorite campus spots.
“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Director of the Office of Inclusion and Equity himself,” Rey exclaims, sliding into their favorite corner booth. “How was work today?”
Finn heaves a sigh. “Not the greatest. I had a meeting with Phasma— the finance lady— and it’s not looking great for our budget.”
“Well, that’s dumb. They just created the office!” Rey grumbles. “You know she’d rather put that money towards the new golf courses or some other bullshit.”
“I guess this is what I get for working in higher ed.” Finn shakes his head, picking at his plate of fries. “All talk and no action.”
“I know you’re gonna convince her,” Rey tells him, stealing a fry off his plate and dunking it in ketchup. “If you can’t change this place, no one can.”
Finn just came back to Takodana to revamp the crumbling “multicultural” center, and Rey can’t be more excited that he’s here. They’ve been inseparable ever since they met at first-gen orientation the week before the rest of the freshmen moved in, relieved to meet another foster kid at this fancy college they felt like they could never belong at.
“Thanks, peanut.” He manages a half-smile. “We haven’t caught up in a while! How’s stuff at home?”
“Oh, you know,” Rey says, moving to steal another fry and scowling when Finn swats her hand away. “Living with my ex-wife. Same old, same old.”
She reflexively looks around to make sure no one heard, but it’s deserted aside from a few students studying across the room, hunched over their textbooks with their earbuds in.
Finn grimaces. “So Amilyn’s being her charming old self?”
“You wouldn’t believe that a lesbian with purple hair could be so uptight,” Rey grouses. “She’s always talking about ‘boundaries,’ like that’s gonna do any good. We were together for seven years! I moved to the other guest room so I wouldn’t have to share a floor with her.”
Finn shakes his head sympathetically. “You know you’re always welcome to come stay with me.”
“She’s convinced that me moving out is gonna ruin everything for her. Like anyone gives a crap about our marriage,” Rey says. “But anyways, there’s no way she’ll let me leave until she hears if she got dean.”
“I guess she has a point. You know admin would love to have an excuse to not promote more gays,” Finn sighs. “Doesn’t mean she should hold you hostage, though.”
“Order for Rey!”
“Oh, thank God, I’m starving.” Rey races to pick up her veggie burger and curly fries from the counter, smiles and thanks the student worker at the grill, and is about to move to the condiment station when someone says her name.
Rey whirls around, and almost drops her tray, because Ben Organa-Solo is standing right there, at the ketchup dispenser.
She tries to take him in without seeming too obvious. He’s wearing a button down shirt and tie, and his hair is a little longer than it was the last time she saw him— what, eleven years ago now?— but he’s still stupidly tall and broad.
And hot, her horny lizard brain unhelpfully supplies. Unfairly hot.
“Ben,” Rey hears herself say. “What are you doing here?”