Her Teacher

Happy Ever After?

Ben pulled his phone out of his pocket. Sabrina picked up instantly,

'Ben darling what can I do for you?' She purred.

'I need you to talk to Rey for me.'

'Why on earth would you need me to talk to her? Can't you explain the arrangements to her yourself?'

'It's complicated, look if you don't do it the deal is off.'

'Okay! Okay! I'm heading to your place now. I needed to see you anyway, we still have some unfinished business.'

Rey lay in bed unable to sleep. She hugged her pillow. What the hell had went wrong? He had said he loved her, she had felt like he had been made for her, practically her opposite in every way but he made her strong and she made him weak, in a good way. Is that what she was doing now? Making him weak? She hugged the pillow tighter.

There was a loud knock at the door which made her jump, and then she heard Ben's voice calling her, pleading with her to listen. Without thinking she let her instincts take over and she bolted to the door. Ben was standing there looking like hell, with the leggy blonde. She went to slam the door, but he managed to wedge his foot in front of it,

'Rey please give us ten minutes, please. This is Sabrina.'

'Sabrina, your ex Sabrina?'

'Yes.'

'Pleased to meet you.' Sabrina drawled while she looked Rey up and down with a raised eyebrow.  

'You have ten minutes.' Rey muttered. Feeling like a huge mess in front of the polished princess.

They entered the house and Rey sat on the sofa,

'Okay, tell me why the hell I should listen to you two?'

Sabrina smiled at her,

'Ben tells me that you may have misconstrued our meeting the other day. You see, I called Ben out of the blue, with a job proposition. We've had a slight problem recently in that the head of our history and education department had had to suddenly leave.....'

'Hux?' Rey enquired.

And Sabrina coloured at the sound of his name,

'I see Ben has informed you of my former fiancé.'

'Former?'

'Yes unfortunately, we are no longer together. Just weren't compatible in the end!'

Ben who had been unusually quiet and watching Rey intently snorted,

'Weren't compatible? If that's what you call it when your fiancé leaves you for another man.....'

Rey's eyes widened.

'Really Ben!' Exclaimed Sabrina. 'I don't think that information is necessary!'

Ben shrugged, 'I do.'

'As much as I cannot stand that man right now, I would be inclined to agree with him.' Rey said.

Ben winced.

'Anywho,' Sabrina continued cheerfully, 'Armitage chose to leave the university after his affair went public, which leaves us without a head of department and fortunately for everyone, Ben is the only person capable enough to take over the role and he has accepted my offer which is wonderful because I was promised a big bonus if I managed to land him, I mean it's excellent for the department.'

Ben knelt down in front of Rey and took her hand,

'You see? This is all there is to this story. A business arrangement. That's all. I should have just told you about the meeting. I should have just explained.'

He kissed her hand and looked at her hopefully.

Rey's heart sang but her head was still working it's way through the new information,

'Okay let me process this, I'm thrilled that you aren't cheating on me, still mad that you lied to me, I hope you are looking forward to grovelling about that later, and concerned that this new job takes you miles away from me?'

Ben smiled,

'That's the part that we had to negotiate on.'

Sabrina came forward,

'Ben agreed to come on the following conditions, that funding was made available for a research assistant and that that research assistant would have access to funds to study for a PhD along side their work, Oh and that you get to start in September following successful completion of your degree course, of course. I have the paperwork here if you want to sign? I really should be getting back.'

'Rey, this is what you wanted, no more hiding, we can be together and work together and live together and hopefully we won't kill each other.'

Rey smiled,

'I can't believe it. You are full of surprises. I say yes to everything where do I sign?'

Once the paperwork was sorted and Sabrina had left, Ben and Rey sat together,

'You know it would have been nice if you had just explained all this to me from the start.'

'Old habits die hard Rey, but I promise from now on no secrets.'

'Okay, I don't know how thrilled I am that we are going to be working with Sabrina though.'

'Oh don't worry about that, she isn't going to be working at the university much longer. She got what she always wanted a rich husband with more money than sense happy to marry her and keep her as a trophy wife.'

'Ha ha, sounds like an amazing deal, wonder where I get myself one of them?'

Ben shot her a dirty look, then softened,

'Well I'm not exactly rich but if you are in the market for a husband?'

Rey's mouth fell open,

'Are you serious?'

'Yes,'

Ben got down on one knee,

'I've had this a few months now, I was just waiting until the time was right and I think that time is now, because I don't want anything else to take you away from me. I love you Rey, I only ever want to be with you. Will you marry me?'

Ben produced a small red box, inside was a beautiful rose hold ring with an intertwined pattern of clear and black diamonds.

'Yes! Yes I will!' She jumped at him knocking him off balance.

'Oof, Rey don't break my rib.'  He complained catching her in his arms, they lay in a heap in the floor.

'Stop being a baby, you will have to toughen up if you want to handle my forever.'

'I wouldn't have it any other way.' And he kissed her and at last Rey felt everything in her life was perfectly balanced.

The End.