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The Perk- Saturday morning

Rey arrived a little late for her shift at the Perk. It was such a crazy day already! She'd fallen down a stair, she'd missed the train, and she'd broken a heel, all before getting here. So with a "Sorry sorry sorry!" (She was American now) she put on her apron and got behind the counter, and started making a customer's drink. Which she immediately spilled all over the counter.

"I see it's going to be one of those days."

One day she'd make it big and could have a better life. One day!

[Here, have a coffee shop AU! You can either talk to plucky romcom klutz heroine Rey or do your own thing!]

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Luke Skywalker, Wedding Planner to the Stars, strode into the coffee shop already very busy with the million problems that would go wrong when you worked with extremely high-strung people with more money than sense.

"Yes, yes, yes," he said, "I'm sure we can commission a special tulip color in your honor. That won't be ready by Tuesday, though because of, well, biology. Can we just find one that already exists and rename it?" He rolled his eyes at the cute barista. "The usual, please," he mouthed.

Rey winked and mouthed, "Got it," back, and took the cup from the NPC barista who had planned on making the order. Everyone knew Rey was the only one who could get it right.

She quickly and easily made the drink, only bumping into one person while doing so, and set the drink in front of him. "Here you go! Perfect as usual."

It was too bad her real talents were so wasted here.

"And that's why I come all the way from LA to get these twice a day," Luke said realistically, beaming at her in a super appropriate way.

"And I'm glad you do," Rey smiled back. "How's it going? Is the wedding planning business booming?"

Her dream!

"We're right in the thick of the fall wedding season," Luke said, nodding. "My last bride is demanding that I change the weather because the leaves aren't changing quickly enough and she's afraid they'll clash with the bridesmaid dresses."

"Why don't you just individually paint the leaves to match?"

She was a genius!

"That's genius!" Luke cried. "All of that creativity, plus you can make a double-shot half-caf flat white with extra whipped cream!"

"I try," Rey said, shyly. "It's always been a dream of mine to help people plan their weddings. I just love love."

"If you love love, I'm not sure the wedding industry is the best place for you," he teased, sipping from his coffee. "Ahhh, perfect as always. How do you do it? Are you secretly magic?"

"No," Rey giggled. "What's wrong with the wedding industry? Does that mean you don't have someone waiting for you back home?"

No reason.

"Oh, I'm far too busy with other people's love lives to have one my own any more," Luke said, sounding both wistful and vague. "Not since she..."

You could almost hear the "dot dot dot" out loud.

He shook his head. "--I'm sure you heard of it. It was in all the papers."

"I heard. I'm so sorry," Rey said sympathetically. "But I'm sure once you find the right person, everything will change. Like magic."

Luke smiled sadly. "What are the chances I find two people who would skywrite 'screw you, Luke' over a major city, anyway?"

"Exactly!" Wait, was she supposed to sound so enthusiastic about that. "I'm just saying, you're a real catch, and any girl would be lucky to have you, if you're willing to just open your heart."

HINT HINT.

Luke gave her a clueless little smile as his cheeks went pink because surely a woman who made such amazing coffee wouldn't be interested in a world-famous ~~because that could be a thing~~ wedding planner. "Well, thank you."

"Like, ohmygod, Becky, you are not even going to believe what Chad totally said to him...."

And that, of course, would be Summer, chatting away on her phone like it was her job, rolling her eyes and tossing her ponytail like she pretty much got paid royalties any time she did. Which, really, wasn't too far from the truth, because you know that shit was, like, so totally insured. She paused in her long string of gossip enough to grunt and roll her eyes again at the line at the coffee shop, taking a second to idly check her manicure, and then groan again when she finally got up to the counter.

"Yeah, no," she kept talking, "I'm at the coffee shop, and you know how it is. Baristas. Ugh, they never get it right...uh-huh...yeah, yeah...I don't know! Like, probably. I mean, they all kind of look the same, don't you think? But, yeah. Probably. She's totally the worse. ...ohmygoooooooooood, yes! We totally have to go shopping later, ohmygod!"

Rey exchanged a little eyeroll with the NPC barista who didn't matter because she would never have a name or ever say anything, and tried to get Summer's attention to take her order.

She totally knocked some empty plastic cups down by waving.

The falling plastic cups, while totally annoying and super klutzy and ohmygod why couldn't they just hire normal people?, at least managed to snag Summer's attention, even if it was filled to the brim with utter disdain as she looked the clumsy clearly-nobody barista up and down with a barely held back sneer.

"Sorry, Becky, just a sec, this barista is being, like, so totally rude right now." She lowered her phone just enough. "Yeah, I need an extra-hot no-foam no-fat cappuccinno with exactly one quarter of a pack of Splenda put in, and don't go and mess it up like you guys did last time, okay?" How a smile and a sneer could share the same expression so perfectly was anyone's guess, but there it was, right there on Summer's face. "Thhaaaaanks."

And then back to the phone. "Anyway, as I was saying, Becky, her butt? It is so big. She looks like she could be one of those rap guys' girlfriends...."

"This is exactly why I need to get out of here," Rey sighed, both at her normal time and too quietly for anyone else to hear.

But she started making the drink, extra determined to get it absolutely perfect. This may not be what she wanted to do for the rest of her life, but by god she would get this one order right, just to prove her wrong!

She set it on the counter with a flourish, and you knew she meant it because she didn't spill.

It was a flourish that was completely wasted on Summer, who was clearly not going to pay it any mind, but, as she picked up the drink and gave it that first sip, there was perhaps...a pause. Of surprise. Perhaps she might have been, momentarily, a little bit impressed, because it almost was perfect, maybe a little too hot, but Summer certainly wasn't going to let some nobody barista know that they actually did a good job.

"I guess it's okay," she informed Rey, narrowing her eyes slightly before turning around and continuing her conversation and heading for the door, without any regard for anyone who might also be trying to come in at the same time.

"Rey!" Duke greeted, practically tripping over himself in his rush to get into the Perk. He was an absolute wreck, his hair unkempt and falling in his face, his clothes rumpled. There was even a small ~~artistic~~ smear of engine grease on his cheek. As usual, he was much more concerned with the state of the world than he was with his own appearance. "I'm so glad you're here! You won't believe what happened this morning!"

Hey, what romcom didn't need a hapless and likely snarky friend to offer advice and make the heroine look better?

And now you knew Rey wasn't like the other girls because her friend was a boy!

"Duke! What happened, what'd I miss?"

And he wasn't even a typically stylish gay boy! Rey was so unique.

"First off, plastic straws are still destroying the environment." He was so politically aware! "Also, apparently my great-granduncle or something was an actual duke? And I'm his only heir." He pulled out a letter, printed on beautifully creamy parchment paper and bearing a very fancy and ornate wax seal. "My life is over. I mean, technically his life is over, but that means now I have to run his duchy, so . . . yeah." He dropped his head on his arms on the counter. "What am I going to do?"

But could they really be friends??

"Oh, Duke, this is wonderful! I mean, it's terrible, but imagine all the things you could do!" Rey told him. "You could really make a difference this way!"

"You think?" Duke looked up hopefully. "I mean. How much power do dukes really even have? It's all . . . riding around in carriages and going to fancy balls."

"And that sounds so amazing," Rey said, leaning on the counter to rest her cheek on her hand with a dreamy sigh.

Duke propped his own head on his hand across from her. "Oh Rey. Still dreaming of a prince of your own, huh?"

"Oh, I don't think it's going to happen for me," Rey said, Totally Fine with that, Really. "And I'm totally fine with that, really. I'm so busy trying to figure out how to be a successful wedding planner, I don't have time for relationships. It's just nice to think about."

Duke sat up, shaking his head. "That's just nonsense. You're a catch! You'll find someone who respects your ambitions, and then you'll get to plan your own wedding."

That was the only way to get a happy ending after all. By getting married.

"We'll see. You never know, right?"

If only Rey knew how pretty she was.

"So what about you? What do you think you're going to do?"

"Panic?" Duke said. "Run, maybe?" He dragged his hands down his face, smearing that grease streak down towards his mouth. "I mean, look at me. I am not noble material. Though I guess now I know why Dad named me Duke. . . ."

"I think you've got more going for you than you know," Rey said, reaching across the counter to gently rub some of that smear off his face. "All you need is someone to help you see your potential."

Because self-worth was nothing unless someone else forced it on you!

Um, where else would self-worth come from if not another person?

Duke melted just enough at her touch for the audience to notice while still leaving both of them completely oblivious to the potential romantic tension.

"I don't know. If I'm a duke, does that mean I'll have to marry politically? Unite the rival duchies of Windsorhampceistershire and Rhys-Midland?"

Why did that make her feel weird? Obviously it was nothing.

"I think that's something to worry about later." Like the sequel. "What do you want to do?"

"Sell my nautically themed recycled scrap metal sculptures to raise money to save the whales," Duke said immediately. He was politically minded and artistic. A real quirky guy, this one. "So long as that doesn't keep me too busy to make centerpieces for your first big wedding plan."

That was definitely how wedding planning worked, right? Eh, who cared.

"Oh, you," Rey said, happily. "Why can't you do it all? Just like I will someday."

"Ah, see, that's because you're insane," Duke said fondly. "I mean, just handling all these demanding coffee orders is already pretty superhuman."

All those coffee orders she was definitely not taking if she was talking to him. Oops?

"Oh, this is nothing, I'm just okay at it," she said, somehow hitting a pitcher of milk with her elbow and sending it crashing behind the counter.

Adorably.

"That happens all the time."

Duke laughed. "Yeah, but that milk was talking trash about you earlier. So you're just teaching it a lesson."

He was totally going to end up doing voices. Audiences loved it when the quirky friend did voices.

Rey grinned as the nameless barista started cleaning up the mess. "It was talking trash about me? What did it say?"

Duke affected an absolutely ridiculous Brooklyn accent and proceeded to regale her with the various insults to her barista-bilities, throwing in a devastating critique of the Perk’s non-dairy options for spice. There were wild hand gestures involved. It was quite the performance!

“So really it’s a good thing you took that milk out, otherwise the soy was probably going to have to do something drastic. You know how sensitive it is to lactose.”

"That'd be terrible," Rey laughed, as the other patrons in the shop began a slow clap for his performance.

If only they hadn't known each other forever! Maybe then she'd allow herself to see him in a new light!

Maybe once he learned to buckle down and get serious in order to take on his new role as duke of Windsorhampceistershire, they could finally both find their way out of each other’s friend-zones!

“Exactly. Which I know is exactly the sort of commitment I’d want out of my wedding planner.”

"Future wedding planner," she corrected, and said, "Soooo did you stand up for me to the milk at all?"

No reason. Just curious.

“Nah,” Duke said, waving a hand dismissively. “I can’t go around fighting all your battles for you.”

He was completely incapable of keeping a straight face.

“Okay, fine, I may have told it off just a little. No one mocks my friends and gets away with it.” He gave her a pointed, knowing look. “Not even them, themselves.”

"I don't do that all the time," Rey said shyly.

No world ending when I get to use icons of Daisy as herself!

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The Perk- Saturday morning

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Your own thing

OOC