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Rose had trouble believing it, the first time she saw them - numerous, pastel-coloured, uneaten candies in Rey’s waste paper basket. Actual, real-life, fancy candy.
In Rey’s trash.
Candy that, at least to the naked eye - Rey’s standard metric - had not gone off.
And Rose knows that candy, she's splurged in the past on that candy - it's meant to be splurged on, for holidays, anniversaries, celebrations, Valentines. That candy is distinctive, world-renowned, branded, famous. Expensive.
Delicious.
Looking at it, buried at the bottom of Rey’s trashbin, Rose’s first thought was to call for a doctor.
Stat.
Rey Johnson did not chuck food. Rey Johnson’s approach to spoiled food was best represented by her infamous sniff test - she treated due dates as mere suggestions and she was more likely to take a tiny taste than not. She did not waste - especially when it came to food. She took waste as a personal offence - as a slight.
Panicking, Rose, knowing her friend would not thank her for dragging her off to see the company physician, compromised - and did the next best thing, called Finn. The closest thing to family that Rey had, and their resident nutritionist, Rose’s husband would know best how to approach their CEO.
He would know how to calm her heckles where Rose herself had failed.
For when she had first tried to ask about the candy in her friend’s trash, Rey had snarled. And that was not a situation Rose was comfortable handling on her own - the last time she’d heard Rey almost snarl, it’d been when a vendor has mistaken her for the company intern.
Rey ‘Sunshine’ Johnson did not snarl.
Rey ‘Sunshine’ Johnson moved through obstacles like a bulldozer. But, like, a 'smiley' bulldozer.
She has a temper, that's well known, and it's not as if it had been all sunshine and roses, their ‘overnight’ success. The ethical candy company the two of them had founded in university as a side hustle had grown beyond their wildest dreams - employing over a hundred employees and expanding worldwide. Success had followed and had come with challenges - there had been sleepless nights and explosive fights and pressure-filled interviews.
But through it all, Rey had smashed through every obstacle, hit every problem with full force or found a way around them - and smiled.
Quietly, fiercely, dangerously. Mostly hopefully.
Before this day, Rose had never seen her snarl - but then, she'd never seen candy in her wastepaper basket, either.
Finn, unfortunately, had little explanation for it, either and as little success in approaching Rey as had his wife. His delicate inquiries as to the nature of the candy in her trash had ended up with him hastily fleeing the CEO's office, much as Rose had.
It wasn't until Poe Dameron, the Head of Marketing, called her office later that day for some follow-up questions that Rose had some inkling of the reason for the mystery nagging at them all.
Rey wanted a special marketing order, Poe told her – a rush job, apparently.
A special delivery, one to be hand-delivered to Ben Solo, apparently. Ben Solo, the new head of the country's largest (most pretentious, fancy, distinctive, world-renowned, branded, famous) confectionery. A family company, the industry standard, a behemoth, Toniray Confectionary is everything that their little company isn’t - boasting as it does a legacy of over a century of class, infighting and drama.
But that couldn't be right - for why would Rey be exchanging presents, no matter how pretentious, with her nemesis?
It had been a case of hate-at-first sight when the two had finally met, he and Rey.
Yet, Poe insisted that Rey had been crystal clear in her instructions. More puzzling yet was the order itself that Rey had placed through him - requesting as she had a dozen of their company's signature chocolate drops, their foil wrappings tied with a ribbon engraved.
Rey had requested a special order, as a sample, Poe told Rose. A homage, apparently, to the ones Rey remembered from her childhood.Though Rose doubted the manufacturer of those candies would have used the same words Rey had chosen.
'Snake'
'Jack-ass'
'Traitor'
'Slimy'
Most confusing of all is the final treat and its message to 'my enemy beloved’ .
More confused than ever, it was only when Rose managed to sneak into Rey's office that night and took a closer look at the trashed candy in that stuffed waste bin that the truth too obvious to be denied became apparent. For there's a tiny, crushed, foil-lined box in delicate cardboard buried at the bottom of the wastebasket in Rey’s cozy, cluttered office.
The delicate box, crusted and yet simply lovely, is lavender.
(Rey hates lavender. Everyone knows that.)
The ribbon which had likely encircled it lays on the floor under Rey's desk, likely dragged there by her shoe, a little puddle of silk in a lavender several shades darker, richer, than that of the box. The two dozen pastel candies that Rose had spotted - tiny, dainty things that make her mouth water thinking of how they'd melt in her mouth - scattered in Rey’s trash, she sees now, are stamped in the same way those her CEO had ordered have been.
Engraved - in words of beauty and love, no matter how unique.
'Wild'
'Tender'
'Art'
'Gentle'
'Wise'
'Calm'
The clue to their origin is buried yet further in the trash. The card to go with them, a pale, perfect gold, inscribed with a forceful yet graceful hand, is inscribed with verve, sentiment, and humour.
'Hoping these might yet sweeten your temper, my vile temptress - Ben'
And on the back, engraved once again in that distinctive script is an address, and another note to tempt Rose’s friend.
'Come yell at me again; for you, I’ll always leave the door open.'
Rose sighs, consults the calendar, reflects on imperfect timing - only Rey would fall in love during their busy season. Sighing, smiling, she pulls out her overly large phone, lavender, and taps a text to her oldest friend.
~ You deserve the world – have fun ~
Watches, as the three bubbles move. Waits, as the bubbles move, stop, restart, stop again.
Grins in amusement at being confirmed ‘correct’ before she taps out a quick following note.
~ Tell Ben to treat you right, or he deals with me ~
Thinks, taps again even as the three little bubbles from the other side continue to fly across the screen over and over again and yet no answering message ever comes.
Hits ‘Send’ again.
~ Just make sure you're in reasonable shape for the Holdo meeting tomorrow ~
Smiles as the bubbles move one final time before a single word appears -
~ okay ~
-and then disappear.
As Rose reminds herself to pick up some candy on her way home to her home and her husband.
She's in the mood for something sweet.