"Finn, quit panicking."

"I am not panicking!" Finn says it like a man who is clearly panicking.

He's Rey Johnson's best friend and favorite coworker, which is why she simply crosses her arms over her chest and gives him a patient smile. "If you want to leave, I don't mind staying and covering the rest of your shift."

His brown eyes widen a little with genuine surprise before his shoulder slump with relief. "You would do that for me?"

Rey represses a sigh. She briefly looks around at the large bookstore and video game emporium that they both work at, notes how there are approximately zero customers, notes how the snow is really coming down outside and if Finn doesn't leave now he'll absolutely get stuck.

And getting stuck overnight in the store isn't really the problem; it's who Finn would potentially be stuck with that's making him freak out.

Ben Solo is the most horrible person to work for in the entire world, Rey is sure of it. He's the closing manager on duty tonight, and from the way she hears him stomping about over in the children's section she suspects he's already resigned himself to being snowed in.

From an outsider's point of view, letting Finn leave and staying trapped in here with Ben Solo would be a very large sacrifice on her part.

Except, technically, it really wouldn't.

She's jolted from her thoughts when Finn suddenly wraps his fingers around her wrist to ger her attention.

"Why don't you ask Solo if you can leave too?"

Rey presses her lips together to keep from letting out a humorless laugh. She already knows that would be a losing battle. "There always has to be two people closing. You know that."

Her friend is growing frustrated. "Okay but let's be real here, the likelihood of the store remaining open is—"

"What are you two talking about?"

For all his stomping about moments before, Ben Solo has managed to sneak up on both Finn and Rey with surprising aplomb.

Finn looks away quickly to hide his scowl, hand dropping her wrist. Rey watches as he breathes deeply through his nose before turning to face their manager.

Solo is watching Finn with a bored, petulantly expectant expression, arms crossed over his chest in obvious displeasure.

"Rey and I were discussing how, because of the weather, we should both maybe go ahead and leave—"

"There has to be two people closing the store. It's company policy. You know that, Finn." Ben repeats the words that Rey had just said moments earlier, but he somehow makes it sound condescending, as if he can't believe that he has to be the one to point out what's obvious.

It should completely and utterly rankle Rey's nerves. Except…

Finn exhales through his nose again, clearly gathering patience. "If we don't leave now we might not make it home—"

"It's okay." Rey leans her hip against the countertop of the front register. "I already told you that I don't mind staying."

Finn's gaze darts back and forth between Rey and Solo. Solo, for his part, has turned and pinned his eyes on Rey, eyebrows narrowed.

"Rey." Finn is pleading. He's pleading because, well. He's trying to be a good friend.

He's trying to keep her from having to potentially stay at work overnight with Solo, who absolutely despises her. In fact, Rey didn't know someone had the capacity to hate someone as much as Ben Solo apparently hates her.

And yet…

"I don't mind," she says again, offering her friend a small, close mouthed smile. "I need the extra hours anyway."

Now that she thinks about it, this will probably push her into overtime. She pauses, waits for the backlash because she knows it's—

"It doesn't matter if you don't mind, Rey. Finn is the one who is scheduled to close with me tonight, not you." Solo doesn't quite snarl out the words, but they still ring harshly around the air between them

"Look," Rey snaps out, trying in vain to quell her rapidly pounding heart. She gestures toward the large front windows, where two inches of snow already cover the ground outside. "If Finn leaves now he should be able to make it home; he only lives two miles away."

And Rey lives much, much farther away, in an apartment complex she'd rather not let her coworkers and friends find out about.

"Because even if I did leave instead of Finn, as scheduled, there's no way I'd make it home in time. My car will get stuck and I'll end up walking to some random store or house or shed or god knows what in order not to freeze to death, so just let me stay and camp out here."

She proposes the idea almost as if she wants to stay.

Finn is eyeing her like he's beginning to understand her ulterior motive.

They both then turn to Solo.

He looks pissed, taking turns glaring at both Rey and Finn, as if he's not sure which person he'd like to yell at first.

He finally rounds on Rey. "Fine." Then he turns on his heel and stalks away, tension woven all throughout his body.

"Are you really, super sure about this?" Finn is already putting on his coat and fiddling with his car keys, but Rey knows that if she changed her mind right this instant she knows he would stay. That's one of the many reasons why she adores him.

Rey nods, patting Finn's shoulder once he's all prepared to head outside. "It'll be fine."

He shakes his head as he looks at her. "Well, keep me updated." He waves his phone at her for emphasis.

She huffs out a laugh. "Got it."

And then Finn is gone, disappearing out into the swirling, snowy landscape of the Skywalker Book and Game Emporium parking lot. Leaving Rey very much alone, with nothing but thousands of books and games and a grumpy manager for company.

A grumpy manager who very much hates Rey.

A grumpy manager who Rey very much does not hate right back.

ONE YEAR EARLIER

Rey is feeling significantly less stressed than she was twenty minutes ago. And that's all thanks to Finn.

Everything about him seems to soothe her—the way he moves his hands while he talks, the cheerful tone of his voice, the way his smile seems to take over his whole face. And he keeps making Rey laugh with his lame jokes.

She finds herself sincerely hoping that they become friends.

It's her first day at Skywalker Book and Game Emporium and she'd walked through the chiming front doors shaking with nerves. She'd expected to be greeted and shown around by Luke, the grouchy older man who had interviewed and subsequently hired her. Instead it had been Finn enthusiastically waving to her from behind the front counter before walking over to her, leaving a petite young woman named Rose to man the fort for the time being.

"We're not super busy," Finn explains. "Mondays usually aren't, at least not until the afternoon when kids start getting out of school."

He spends the next twenty minutes leading her around the store, pointing out stands and displays that change according to the season and describing the importance of displaying the books so that they look appealing to the eye. Eventually they make their way into the graphic novel and manga section, where Finn starts enthusiastically showing her a best-seller.

Rey blinks down at the manga in his hand while he tries to go over the overarching plot. He talks faster when he's excited, she realizes.

"—I guess the basics is that it's a post-apocalypse story about giants eating people, and you said you like horror so I really think you'll like this! Plus, it's been made into an anime which has made it even more popular and—"

"Finn, Rose needs your help up front. I can take it from here."

Contrary to Finn's voice, which had soothed her, this new voice instantly puts Rey on high alert. She quickly turns around and spies what is absolutely, without a doubt, the hottest guy she's ever seen in her life.

Rey had no idea human beings were this attractive outside of the CW.

The guy, unquestionably a manger given the way he'd bossed Finn around, shifts from one foot to the other, eyeing Rey with an unreadable expression on his pale, mole dotted face. His eyes are dark, but not as dark as his hair, which is just long enough to cover the tips of what Rey suspects to be above averagely large ears.

"No problem." Finn interrupts Rey's ogling, shoving Attack on Titan back into its appropriate spot. He waves at Rey, smiling. "I'll see you later."

Rey watches as he walks off, steeling herself for a moment before turning back to the manager. Mr. Dark Eyes is staring right at her, gaze seemingly more intense than it was seconds before.

He suddenly sticks out his hand, clearing his throat. "You must be Rey. It's nice to meet you. I'm Ben."

"Pleasure to meet you." Rey reaches out to shake Ben's hand with her own. His palm slides against hers before his hand engulfs her much smaller one. In fact, pretty much everything about Ben engulfs everything about Rey. She shivers with the knowledge. She flicks her hazel eyes up to find him watching her intently, mouth not quite smiling but…

That's the moment Rey knows she's a goner.

Ben releases her hand, clearing his throat again. He gestures for her to follow him and she immediately does so, moving behind him as he leads her around the corner and down into the next aisle.

He stops on a dime, causing Rey to walk into his broad back and bump her nose between his shoulder blades. He smells like fresh laundry and guy, which makes Rey bite her lip.

Ben turns around, hand running through his hair. "I heard Finn say you like horror?"

Well, that's kind of random, but Rey finds herself scrambling to answer regardless. "It's probably my favorite genre. That, and science fiction."

There's an odd stretch of silence as Ben watches her for a beat too long. Then he shakes his head, bouncing on the balls of his feet and nervously running his fingers through his hair again. "Yeah, horror is my favorite genre too." His eyes roam about her face. "I just downloaded a bunch of new horror games onto my desktop, actually. Steam was having a sale."

Rey raises an eyebrow in interest. "Oh? I love horror games! Well, sort of." She feels herself flush slightly with embarrassment. "I don't own any gaming systems or anything, but I watch people play on YouTube."

Ben nods before opening and closing his mouth several times, clearly trying to come up with a response. Rey represses a smile at his awkwardness. She finds it extremely endearing. Admittedly, she'd been interested the moment she saw him, but discovering that he's sort of a dweeb is making him significantly less intimidating.

"What was the last game you watched?" he finally manages.

She can't help but let a smile burst forth all over her face, sluggishly sorting through her memories of the last few weeks because, what was the last game she watched someone barrel through on YouTube? She can barely concentrate, given the way his eyes feel upon her.

She finally remembers. "The fourth Mass Effect." A pause. "It's crap."

Ben chuckles, and Rey feels her heart grow three times because oh how his smile transforms his face. And he's just so tall; she wants to fist her hand into his shirt and pull him down to her level.

That's how she spends the rest of her very first shift—walking around the store and chatting with Manager Ben. He brings her to the back toward the end of the day, letting her poke around at the stacks of books and merchandise that can't be put out on the floor yet. She fills out the necessary paperwork of a new hire, sneaking looks at Ben out of the corner of her eye from time to time. She even thinks she catches him looking back at her once or twice.

Rey goes about her first week at the store periodically pinching herself. She's not sure how she managed to get this lucky.

She loves her job. They give her the hours she needs to actually afford her bills and she's got nearly the entire layout of the store memorized after just a few days. And she adores her handful of coworkers. Finn makes her laugh all the time and they've already grabbed food together after work on a couple of occasions.

But she most adores Ben.

Ben, who finds excuses to pull her into quick but beseeching conversations multiple times throughout every shift. Ben, who has already recommended a bunch of horror graphic novels to her. Ben, who brushed his hand over the small of her back the night before while he walked past her.

Rey hasn't had a crush this ridiculous on anyone since elementary school. She wants to scrawl her name with Ben's last name all over her nonexistent diary back home, wants to gab to anyone who will listen about how nice she finds his hair and his voice and his hands and his smile and his—

It's bad.

The good news is Rey is fairly convinced that these feelings are reciprocated. He's into her too. Either that, or Ben Solo has decided to be the friendliest person on earth to her and her alone.

It's early evening on a Monday, a week after her first day, and Rey is straightening up the front counter when Finn groans from behind her.

Rey jerks her head up. "What's wrong?"

"It's Mr. Hutt. He comes in a couple of times a month with his…dog. It's debatably the most horrible creature on this planet."

The way Finn hesitates before saying the last word makes Rey put down her cleaning rag and peer out the large front windows. A very fat man is making his way into the store. The oldest, ugliest dog that Rey has ever seen in her life is lumbering along behind the man, belly hanging low to the ground.

The dog looks like a very fat Rizzo the Rat from the Muppets.

As soon as the dog walks through the front entrance it pisses on the floor. Rey, who is typically a lover of all animals, instantly despises the critter after that. Ugly Rizzo starts yapping at an unsuspecting customer standing by the Best Sellers while Rey mops up the mess.

Hutt's awful dog ends up shitting in the Fantasy section twenty minutes later, trying to hump Rey practically to death while she cleans up the feces and wipes down the floor with a wet wipe.

After Hutt leaves (without purchasing anything), Finn and Rey immediately start cracking jokes.

Finn starts. "That dog—"

"Oh my god." Rey slumps over, propping her elbows up by her register. "He's the worst."

"I told you. Is he not the ugliest thing you've ever seen?"

Neither of them hears the set of feet moving around the Hallmark display to the right of the registers, out of sight of them both.

Rey nods vigorously, spreading her arms for emphasis. "He's hideous! And his ears. Normally I don't make fun of looks but holy hell, those ears could pick up channels."

Finn barks out a laugh at that, grinning. "And the way he kept trying to hump your leg? Take a hint."

"I know! Like, quit trying to hump me because I'm not fucking interested."

Both coworkers dissolve into sniggers and the day passes without further incident.

A few days after that and Ben writes her up for being two minutes late.

NOW

"Are you just going to stand by the window and stare out at the snow all night?"

Ben's harsh tone takes Rey by surprise, makes her jump. She turns, arms crossed under her breasts, and regards her manager with a single arched eyebrow. "I'm not even on the clock."

He scowls at her, mirroring her body language and crossing his own arms. "Well, you have my permission to hop back on the clock and make yourself useful." He gestures vaguely to his left. "Middle-grade fiction needs to be alphabetized again. I saw a lot of titles out of order when I was shelving truck yesterday."

"I'm not doing that."

Rey can almost feel his irritation thicken and grow headier in the air. She moves her weight between her feet, trying not to wince.

Ben blinks at her, expression becoming more and more livid. "So, you're just going to stand there—"

"We are snowed in," Rey snaps, losing her patience. "I'm here because I literally cannot go home. It's almost eleven 'o'clock and I am not going to crawl around the kids section resorting books. In fact—" She cuts herself off, grabbing for her coat and car keys underneath the counter before jerking her head toward the front entrance. "Can you unlock the doors for me?"

Rey isn't really sure how she expected Ben to react to that request. Happily let her outside and lock the door behind her to leave her trapped in the snow, perhaps. She is not expecting him to blanch, shoulders stiffening in obvious discomfort.

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, refusing to make eye contact. "Jesus, Rey. You don't have to resort middle-grade fiction. I was just… You don't have to… I don't want you to try to walk home in this."

It's probably the most concern he's expressed over her well being since her very first week working here.

Rey feels her lips part a bit in surprise. "I'm uh, not trying to leave."

Ben's face goes blank. "You're not?"

She shakes her head. "No. I just want to try and get something out of my car."

"Oh."

There's a brief but loaded silence before Ben holds out his hand.

Rey draws away from said hand in confusion, causing her manger to roll his eyes. "Give me your keys, Rey."

"Why?"

"So I can grab what you need from your car."

"I can just get it myself."

"No. It's nasty outside."

"But I'm parked literally right there."

"Yes, in the parking spots typically reserved for customers."

Rey wants to throttle him. "It was snowing when I got here—"

"Just give me your keys."

"I can get my own stuff out of my own car."

"For the love of fucking god, Rey—"

"Just unlock the damn doors!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Ben storms over to the front entrance, fiddling with the lanyard around his neck where his store keys jingle. He unlocks the front doors and holds the door wide open for her, allowing snow to flutter and swirl through the doorway. It's all quite dramatic.

Rey makes a mad dash out into the white covered parking lot, stepping with care so as to avoid slipping on ice. She makes it to her car and grabs what she needs out of the backseat, thanking all her lucky stars that the locks in her car doors haven't frozen. She cradles the object protectively under her arm, coat obscuring it from Ben when she quickly makes her way back inside.

Ben locks the door behind her as she shudders appreciatively in the heat.

The store is quiet again now that the howling winter winds are back outside, making Ben's next statement seem much louder than it actually is. "What was so important to get?"

Rey sniffs. "It's how you and I are going to survive tonight."

Ben's look of skepticism melts into one of pure shock when Rey pulls the treasured item out from under her coat.

It's a bottle of tequila.

then hurries away. She hears the door leading into the back slam shut seconds later.