Saw a post that said “Looking forward to Hallmark’s holiday offering ‘A very COVID Christmas’ when a big city lawyer and a country candle maker accidentally meet when they go to the wrong zoom meeting” and my ducking brain just went “Ben and Rey though....”
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT MY ENTIRE LIFE, let’s GO:
Rey is a very successful divorce lawyer working in Manhattan. Her client, Kaydel Connix, is a popular Upper East Side interior designer. She is engaged to assistant district attorney Rose Tico, but before she can say I Do to her gorgeous fiancée, she needs to divorce her only-on-paper husband… Ben Solo.
They got married on a drunken dare when they were both eighteen - they lived in a small town, what else was there to do on a saturday night? - and never got around to filing for divorce. There’s no bad blood between them at all, but Kaydel hasn’t seen Ben in years, so she asks her good friend Rey to take care of the bureaucracy and facilitate the proceedings.
Besides, it’s not like anybody can get in or out of the city during the lockdown.
Their first zoom meeting is a disaster, because of technical difficulties.. There’s a problem with the connection and they can’t get the video to work, just the audio. They make do. His voice is soothing. She feels… comfortable.
The second meeting is a disaster for completely different reasons. Rey didn’t know who she expected to find on the other side of the screen, but Ben Solo looks nothing like what she assumed a small town candle maker would look like. He is big, buff, his structure more suited to chop wood than make candles. His shoulders alone cover most of the screen, for fuck’s sake.
Her mouth is dry. She barely manages a curt hello. She had appreciated the smooth, rich timber of his voice the first time they talked, but the effect is even more intense when she can see the man it belongs to.
She swallows. She’s a professional, and she pulls herself together and carries on with the meeting. Her eyes only dip to his lips twice.
Ben Solo’s own never really stray from hers. He is polite, attentive, and kind throughout their meetings. But when he smiles…. Well, fuck. Ben’s smile is more of a lopsided smirk. The kind that promises trouble of the most delicious kind.
It doesn’t take more than three meetings to settle everything. Ben is happy to sign anything that needs signing and he is quick to send her all the documents needed. Rey manages to drag it to five meetings. Then six. By the tenth zoom call, she forces herself to face the facts: they hadn’t discussed a single detail of the divorce in a long time. Ben laughs when she points that out. I guess I got too caught up… in you, he says. She melts. He blushes.
Rey wishes she could keep stalling, wishes she could talk to Ben forever, but… Kaydel is her friend, and she’s on a time crunch. It’s with sad eyes and a heavy heart that she says goodbye to Ben, and if she notices the way his own smile falters at the end just before she disconnects… well, she’s sure she’s just imagining it.
It doesn’t sound like a goodbye at all.
A week later, she receives a package. It’s big and heavy and Rey has no idea what it could be until she sees the sender’s name: Little Solo Candle Co. and Ben’s logo.
Inside, there are dozens of candles - all handmade, all wonderful. They smell good enough to eat. Lazy Sunday, Walk on the Beach, Winter Rain... they all have quirky names. Inside the package, there’s a card with a mesage: A little something to remember me by. The yellow one is my particular favorite. I hope you like it. It’s new x
Rey looks for the yellow candle. She sniffs. It smells... cozy, warm. A little bit citrusy, but with a rich note of something she can’t quite put her finger on. She turns the candle to see the name - Rey of Sunshine.
Her smile nearly splits her face in two.
Rey thinks and ponders and wishes some more… is it crazy to want to fly across the country to meet a man she has never seen face to face? Is it crazy to want to kiss his delicious lips and run her hands through his thick, luscious hair? God, she’s been stuck at home too long.
She thinks and ponders and wishes for a couple of days. And then she gets a text from Kaydel.
Kay: I’m officially divorced baaaaabes! All thanks to you! Have I mentioned that I love you? Because I DO
Kay: And if you don’t get your butt on a plane as soon as possible and GO TO HIM I swear I will remarry that man just to spite you
Rey knows a threat when she hears one. As soon as lockdown is lifted, she runs.
To a little town by the coast.
To a little house and a little workshop.
To a man who smells as good as his candles, and who is everything but little.
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