Work Text:
Her time with Phasma felt a dream sometimes. So distant from Rey’s day-to-day slog through her engineering classes and labs that even when she got a text from Phasma it seemed impossible. That the first class, send-it-back-for-being-too-well-done investment shark had ever glanced at Rey for more than a minute was just too unlikely.
Even more strange to Rey was their arrangement. They’d shared a few meals together - all at high end restaurants without prices on their menus - and Rey had been the bit of glitz on Phasma’s already glamorous arm at the theater. This was after their first lunch date after which Rey’s new paramour gleefully bought her a suitable wardrobe to be taken out to the places she wanted to bring her.
From little black cocktail dresses to the jeans and flannel she wore in lab, everything was new and tailored. But even that just felt surreal. At the end of the day she was still just wearing some nice clothes. Any girlfriend could buy their new flame some cute clothes to puddle on the bedroom floor.
Rey flips her phone case open and pulls out her student ID. There, more reality. No matter how nice her weekends might be, there was still the dining hall during the week. Her carefully planned dining hall visits. Rey’s scholarship had helped with tuition, and her decision to be an RA on top of her internship hours covered her room on campus. That all did shit for her food budget. Buying the cheapest, shittiest meal plan was a stretch that required Rey to work her ass off in the summer down at the garage. And it only covered a certain number of visits, total. Once she was out, she was stuck with whatever was in the plastic bin under her bed that could be microwaved in her dorm room.
Standing in line, Rey bounced on her heels. Her classes were over for the day, but she needed to get in, eat, and get out in time to make the bus into the city. Just because she was sleeping with the boss’s boss’s boss didn’t mean that she could arrive late to her internship at the firm.
Finally the line crawled forward and Rey swiped her ID through the scanner. It beeped for her fingerprint and then the always anxious moment of updating her mental count of swipe-ins…
Student: Rey J.
Lifetime Swipes: 302
Plan: Unlimited
Rey froze in front of the screen. That wasn’t right. Well, 302 that was about right. Three semesters of meals and then some visits to the engineering department over the summer which had paid for those swipes --
But unlimited? Her plan was very much limited. She ran her ID through the scanner again. The screen cleared until she pressed her thumb again to the lower panel.
Lifetime Swipes: 303
Plan: Unlimited
Behind Rey, the line grew more discontent. “It’s green, hon,” the monitor at the desk said shortly.
“Goddamn freshmen,” someone else growled. In a daze, Rey shifted out of the way to look up at the monitor.
“Is there something wrong with the system today?” Rey asked.
The woman’s eyebrows vanished into her curly, grey hair. “No. If it was down, you’d know it. Go on in,” the monitor snapped.
Her feet carried her without much input from Rey’s conscious brain. She shuffled through the burger line and set her tray down on one of the counters against the wall. There wasn’t anything in her life that was unlimited. Other than annoyances. Even her damn phone plan was bought in packages of minutes and messages.
Rey flipped her phone case open again and pulled up her student email. There wasn’t a single indication of a new charge to her account, no new bill notification. Just the same weekly reminder of when her next tuition payment was due.
Stumped, Rey shook her head and tackled her burger. She wasn’t going to assume anything for now. Tomorrow she would be able to go to the help desk to see just what was going on. The last thing Rey wanted would be to trust this windfall and then end up with a bunch of missing swipes for the end of the semester.
Soon enough her phone buzzed on the table next to her, letting her know that bus was fast approaching the stop in front of the dining hall. Rey scampered to her feet and hurried her tray to the dish station, dumping everything in an unceremonious pile. Her nose wrinkled at the half-finished sandwiches left on the trays before her. People could be so ungrateful.
The office insisted that her plan was correct. An upgrade had been added and paid for on Sunday evening. Rey made them check three different times and even then she wasn’t convinced. It was probably a mistake. It had most likely been intended for someone else and they’d put in the wrong student ID.
She stuck to her one meal a day schedule, munching on her stash of crackers and hummus and other filling foods to make up for the difference. Getting lunch and dinner out with Phasma on the weekend was messing with her usual appetite. By Friday Rey was out of coffee grounds; caffeine was an easy appetite suppressant, especially the high octane beans that Rey picked up at Costco. And it wasn’t that she wasn’t eating enough. She’d done her research on what her calorie count should have been.
Foie gras and dessert platters were great treats, but it wasn’t like Rey was going to be living at that level of extravagance outside of Phasma’s company. Nor did she need them.
Rey’s phone buzzed on her desk at work. Every important person in Rey’s life got a custom vibrate setting so she knew what notifications to ignore or not. Three quick buzzes meant her fellow RAs. One long tone meant her “cousin” Ben. A pair of buzzes in a heartbeat pattern was always reserved for someone special.
Finish up by 5. I’ll drive you home tonight.
Red warmed Rey’s cheeks. The last time Rey had left work with her they had stopped by Phasma’s townhouse to allegedly get Rey into something nicer for the evening. They’d ended up ordering in instead after Phasma decided the nicest look in her closet - that would fit Rey - was her satin sheets.
It made the last hour and a half difficult for Rey to focus on work. She ended up logging off her computer and heading down to the lobby a full ten minutes early, her thoughts buzzing about anything but paperwork.
As if she’d read her mind, Phasma was already in the lobby herself. Spotting her platinum hair and roguish grin put a matching smile on Rey’s face. Even more so did Rey’s mood brighten when, after getting in her sedan, Phasma promptly pulled Rey’s mouth over to kiss her.
“I missed you this week,” Phasma purred. They kept things quiet between them at the office. Rey wasn’t planning on staying in the investment field beyond her tenure in the intern pool, but it still seemed inappropriate to waste her time in the office making doe eyes at her girlfriend.
Her immensely powerful, high class girlfriend who honestly had nothing to gain by wasting her time on a college kid like Rey.
Who kissed Rey like she meant it; Phasma had missed her. Rey clutched Phasma’s hand in hers, that giddy, familiar smile returning to the corners of her mouth.
“What’s got you so happy?” Phasma pressed as she started to drive, her right hand reserved solely for Rey.
“Nothin’ in particular,” Rey said. She glanced over at Phasma. “Just looking forward to good company.”
“And even better eating out,” Phasma replied smoothly. Rey laughed at that even as her cheeks tinted pink.
As they meandered through rush hour traffic Phasma asked Rey about her week, how her classes had gone, and if anything else “interesting” had come up. Rey trailed off her story about grad students blowing up a fridge in the physics department.
“You never ask me if something ‘interesting’ happened,” Rey said quietly. A stray thought had entered her mind yesterday about the whole meal plan mixup, one that she’d initially dismissed, but the way that Phasma’s tone had shifted to be carefully casual. Well. Now she was considering it again.
Phasma lifted one shoulder. “I just was curious, that’s all,” she replied, still remaining aloof.
Rey tipped her head. “There was one weird thing. My meal plan changed without warning. Unlimited swipes now. I think it’s a bug,” Rey said, equally aloof.
“That’s a pretty nice bug,” Phasma countered. “Unlimited access to - hang on, I know this - chicken and cranberry salad sandwiches.” She was losing control of her neutral expression, one lip curling up into a smile.
“It was you.”
Phasma wouldn’t roll over quite so quickly. “What was me?” she said.
Rey levered a wry look at her girlfriend. They made eye contact at the red light. It was enough to break her composure, and Phasma’s smile emerged in force. “You caught me; I was trying to surprise you. Had you going for a bit, yeah?” Phasma said cheerfully.
They pulled into the parking lot for the townhouse. Rey struggled with the tide of emotions that had surged with Phasma’s admission.
“I don’t know whether to kiss you or-” Rey shook her head and stared at the roof of the sedan. Hot tears pushed at the corners of her eyes, threatening to overspill. “Or to get out of this car right now,” she finished.
The seatbelt next to her unbuckled with a snap, and Rey could hear Phasma shifting to face her. “Get out? Why would you get out?” Phasma asked softly. “I thought you’d be happy. I wanted you to be comfortable.”
Rey swiped at her eyes. Her stomach had been unsettled before when she’d thought it was all an accounting mishap; now it was an ocean in a storm. “I don’t- I-,” she babbled. Rey paused to suck in a breath and to think through what she wanted to say. The car fell silent, possibly for too long.
“I don’t want to be bought,” Rey finally said. “Gifts, dinner, things, vacations - that’s all in the moment stuff. But my meal plan? That’s my life. And right now I feel like the fact that you just swooped in and paid for it just… Just puts me in an even more vulnerable place.
“What about next year if you’ve moved on to someone younger and prettier than me? What if we just get bored of each other? And I didn’t budget the right way anymore because you’d been covering everything for me? And don’t just say I’d be able to ask you for help because you know I couldn’t. Not if we were over.” Rey finally looked over at Phasma. It only hurt more to see the twisted, painful expression on her face.
Phasma reached over the console to clasp Rey’s hand. Rey didn’t pull away. “I wasn’t trying to interfere with your life. And I’d never hold that over you. You’ve got so much stuff to worry about - school, work, those damn kids in your dorm - I didn’t want ‘where’s dinner coming from’ to be another one,” Phasma explained.
She took a deep breath. “But I should have asked. I like surprising you with things. I feel like that’s pretty obvious. I want you to have everything you’d ever need and more. So long as you’re comfortable,” Phasma said.
Rey squeezed her hand before leaning in to kiss Phasma’s cheek. The churning in her stomach had evened out. “Thanks,” she said simply.
“I don’t want to buy you or your affection,” Phasma said.
This wasn’t what Rey had wanted. The conversation was over, and Rey opened her mouth to tell her as such. Phasma held up a hand. “I don’t have a lot more to say. I just wanted to say this so you know I’m serious,” Phasma said quickly.
“Okay,” Rey muttered. The dome light in the car had clicked off. They’d been sitting in the parking lot for that long.
Phasma ran her fingers down Rey’s face. The motion was soft, soothing. “I’m not trying to buy you. I like spending money on you, on things that will make you shine from inside out. But that’s not why I’m with you,” she murmured. “Okay?”
Her eyes didn’t leave Rey’s until Rey nodded. A tentative smile spreading over her face, Phasma asked, “So will you still be coming upstairs? Or...?”
Rey opened her door. “Oh, I’m coming upstairs. I was promised a nice meal and I don’t count dining hall food as ‘good’ on any day,” she teased.
Phasma followed suit, leading Rey to the front doors with a splayed hand on the small of her back. With her head dipped down to reach Rey’s ear, Phasma purred, “I didn’t say anything about dinner. I said we’d be eating out. And I’m thinking now that I’ll need to do it a second or third time, so you know that I’m sorry. And that all I want is your breathless, mind-blowing happiness.”