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“Ben.” Rey feels like she’s been struck by lighting, eyes wide, stock still as she stares at a man she used to know in the middle of the grocery aisle. He’s got a barely filled cart and a cane draped towards the handle that he grips.
“Who are you?” He asks.
A pit forms in Rey’s stomach as she realizes there’s a reason all of her messages went unanswered. Suddenly the bitter hurt dissolves.
He’s so different, not wearing the crisp suit that used to be his signature outfit. His hair isn’t so perfectly coiffed. Should they have been on less intimate terms she might not even recognize him.
“I–” Ben’s eyes slide over her, brow furrowed and she realizes that the pink and angry scar that mars his temple may indicate more to her than that article about a near fatal car crash. “I’m Rey.”
“How do you know me?”
She sucks in a breath as the ache in her chest expands, taking up more room that she knew existed in that space. “I– I met you through your old job.”
“You’re a lawyer?”
“No. Just a nobody.” She bites her inner cheek but it’s not enough to keep her tears from falling.
Ben practically winces at the sight and she half expects him to say that the emotion is a weakness. As if he’s completely reverted back to a former version of himself. His jaw clenches and his throat bobs as jos expression softens.
“Look, I’m sorry. I can’t remember anything from before,” he points to his temple, then sort of pounds the heel of his hand against it with a scowl.
“It’s okay. We hadn’t known each other very long.” Just a few weeks of bliss together, in secret since he threw the case. He’d become the shame of his firm and still the villain to the community center.
It’s why she didn’t reach out when she heard about the accident, who would she reach out to that would know they were friendly? Nobody. But she knew that he could have easily won the case with all the money and power at his fingertips.
Within a week of his loss he resigned his position and that magnetic pull that had sparked between them on opposite sides of a legal battle had worked to draw them together.
“How do I know you?”
“You were an attorney, trying to buy out the community center I worked for.”
His eyes widen and he looks bereft, glancing down at the ground. “I’m sorry. I know— I know I wasn’t a good person.”
That hurts the most out of all of this.
“You actually threw the case and quit your job.”
“I threw–?”
“Yes. It might not have been obvious but I’d dug into your career enough to know that you would have been quite capable of winning if you wanted to.”
“Do you know why?”
Rey presses her lips together. “I think– I don’t know. You said you were tired of playing a villain.”
“Did I do it for you?” His brow pinches together and she can see the way his thoughts spin, like when you’ve walked into a room and forgotten why you’re there or when there’s a word on the tip of your tongue but you can’t grasp it. “Were we– friends?”
“We were–together–for a short time. But in secret. After.” Rey finds herself tripping over her words, not sure how to tell him without creating more distress for him. He’s been through enough.
“Why keep it a secret.”
“You didn’t want to risk anything with the courts. With your old job– or mine.”
Ben frowns. “Were we happy?”
“I think so. I was,” Rey admits. “Short as it was. I didn’t know you lost your memory. Makes sense why you didn’t contact me.”
He rubs the back of his neck. “Doctor said that I might not get memories back but— could we meet up some time? Go for coffee? I’m trying to piece together my life and–”
“Of course, Ben. I would love that.”
His lip curves into an almost smile, like it’s one of relief and Rey has to be careful not to get her hopes up. Maybe things can’t be what they were before. Or maybe they can be better. Still there’s a familiar warmth to his gaze as they exchange information and make plans for coffee the next week that makes her heart flutter and fills the cracks of her heartbreak.