You Can Be The Boss | Kylo Ren x Reader AU

Chapter 6

"Can I have a lemon drizzle cake and one espresso," the customer in front of you said.

Your parents owned a café which you would pop in occasionally to take care of whenever you were off work or if they were in need of extra help.

You wrote the order down and began making it. It wasn't ideal for you to come here whenever your parents needed you, but you were scared of their business owning skills. They weren't good at managing their money. There were many times that they had almost spent your entire paycheck in one day. You had to sit in the back and make sure they were spending every penny they got on the right things; bills, appliances, ingredients, upgrades. You were insistent that it wouldn't be spent on useless decorations which your mum wanted to buy or fishing equipment which you knew your dad was never going to use.

You gave them their order and waited for the next customer.

"I would like one chat with my best friend, please," Troy announced as he walked into the café.

"You are insufferable," you said and laughed. You allowed him to come over behind the counter as you walked into a secluded room. It was pretty usual for Troy to barge in and ask to talk to you and today was no exception, especially because you were having dinner with your boss's parents tonight.

"So, how are we feeling?" Troy asked.

"I'm okay," you said as you took your apron off. Troy was going to drive you home and help you get ready.

"Oh, totally," Troy said sarcastically. "Seriously, are you alright?"

"Honestly?" You said. "I'm terrified. I'm not even fucking sure if this is real life. I mean, in what world does your boss ask you to be in a fake relationship with him, let alone Kylo fucking Ren?"

"Mr Ren," he corrected you.

You flashed a spiteful smile. "Look at you," you said jokingly.

Troy laughed. "You got this. I believe in you." He held your hand. "You've always adored acting, so I know you can do it. You managed to fool so many men with Scarlett Williams, this is going to be easy for you."

You scratched the back of your neck as you sighed. You knew he was right, but your anxiety was getting the best of you.

****

"It's so nice to meet you, Mr and Mrs Solo," you said as you shook each one of their hands.

You caught a glimpse of your reflection in a random mirror and almost jumped. You looked completely unrecognisable. It was probably the setting too, you thought. The restaurant you had arrived at could be described with a word even more extravagant than fancy. It was similar to that of the Doge's Palace in Venice. Paintings on the ceilings, gold plated archways, large ballrooms. You could tell the food was going to be expensive. And most of all, you could tell that you weren't going to be full after this.

"So, this is the famous Scarlett," Han Solo said as he chuckled.

You sat down all together at the table. You and Mr Ren next to each other. Leia and Han opposite you.

"I have to admit, from what we heard about you from Ben, we did not expect you to look like this." Leia said.

"I told you not to call me that." Mr Ren sighed.

"Really?" You said, trying to change the subject as you could tell your boss was upset. "How did you imagine me?"

"Well, you seemed like such a free soul with your art degree and lifestyle."

"I do get that a lot." You laughed. "I don't know. I guess I've just tried to maintain a sophisticated look so people would take me more seriously in my field."

Mr Ren's Scarlett was a lot more different to your Scarlett. She was career driven and she was an artist, often creating art displays in different venues. She was into sculpting and life size paintings. She was exotic and she had a creative mind. Whereas your Scarlett only cared about one thing—money.

"I understand," Leia said.

"So, how long have you two been together?" you said with a friendly smile.

"Oh, god. I thinks it's been..." Han paused in thought. "Sixteen years now?" Him and Leia said at the same time.

"Wow," you said. "And how did you get together?"

"You don't have to ask them questions," Mr Ren whispered to you.

"We met at work. We were both very hesitant on starting anything, but after a while of teasing and making each other jealous for silly reasons, we finally started dating," Leia said with a smile. "Ever since then he's made me the happiest woman alive."

"Aww," you said, placing your hands on your heart. "That's honestly the way I feel with Kylo. Ever since we met at Harvard things have just been... magical." You hooked your arm around his as you leaned slightly closer. You could feel his muscles tense as you did so, but to you it was all a part of the act.

"How did you two meet?" Leia asked.

"She already told you we met at Harvard," Mr Ren said with a slight temper. In the file, in order to make it plausible that the two of you had met at university with your rather large age gap, you had to pose as a thirty-year-old. You hardly thought you passed at all.

"Kylo," you said, making it seem like you were teasing him. "He doesn't want to tell you because it's kind of embarrassing for him."

Mr Ren looked at you with a confused look on his face.

"I was running around on campus during a snowstorm, I remember that I was alone outside because let's be honest, who would go out in a snowstorm other than me? Well, the answer is Kylo Ren. My hat blew off of my head, so I chased after it. I ran very very fast and fortunately for me, straight into Kylo. We were the only people outside that night. So, we just walked together and talked. Then, we immediately clicked. It's embarrassing because then he'd have to admit that he actually fell for someone at first sight."

"Wow," Leia said. "That's beautiful."

"I couldn't be more thankful for meeting her," Mr Ren said blankly and you nudged him. His acting skills were abysmal. He looked at you and you turned to meet his gaze, smiling as you stared into each other's eyes.

"I'm happy that you found her, son," Han said. "You can tell she's had a positive impact on your life."

"He's had a positive impact on mine too," you said. "Although, if our relationship isn't like yours in the future I'm going to be very disappointed."

They laughed.

"Are your parents together?" Han asked.

This felt like yet another quiz, but you had it all memorised this time. "No, they're not. My mum currently lives in England and my dad is trying his hardest to help the starving children in Africa." Middle aged white people loved hearing about some other white person saving a minority. You didn't even have to mention what country in Africa. "They separated because they wanted different things out of life."

"Your whole family is just so determined and free spirited," Leia said.

You giggled. "I guess so."

"It's so refreshing to meet a rich person who isn't so focused on business," Han said. "Could we see some of your work?"

"Of course," you said as the food came over. It wasn't that difficult to pretend like you had different pieces of artwork as you already enjoyed it. You were a designer/artist after all. Mr Ren had hired you for a reason. You showed them some paintings you had worked on. Whenever you had time off work you would always pick up a brush and start painting, even if you didn't have a canvas. It was a lot more profound to actually feel the art in person rather than drawing it on your tablet.

"These are really good," Leia said.

"They are," Mr Ren said, almost as if he was surprised.