I thought Fortunate Souls was Donne (ha!), and then this popped up. Bookgirl318, it's not what you suggested, but who knows - the muse may get there yet.
How did this happen?
Ben still wasn't sure how he'd gone from paging through a book to walking through the mall with an amazingly attractive woman on his arm - a woman who, for some reason, couldn't speak, and yet had agreed to get ice cream with him. It wasn't at all how his life worked - but he certainly wasn't going to protest.
She - Rey, according to the name tag she was no longer wearing - had curly brown hair and a wide smile, and was tall enough that Ben didn't feel as if he were going to break her if he moved the wrong way. She glanced up at him as they neared the Häagen-Dazs shop, eyes sparkling, and Ben wondered with a touch of dizziness if entering the Disney store had somehow enchanted him after all.
Don't be ridiculous. If Disney really could cast spells they'd be selling them right next to the mouse ears.
"Do you know what you want?" he asked, smiling helplessly.
Rey slipped her arm out of his and wrote quickly on her pad. Mint chip cone please
It sounded kind of measly, and words fell out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Sure you don't want a sundae?"
A half-second too late a thousand cautions cascaded through his head - women and food were a fraught subject, had he just implied she was weight-obsessed, what if she was insulted -
But before Ben could panic, that lovely, nose-crinkling grin reappeared, as if he'd offered her a gift. Hot fudge!
He couldn't keep back his own smile. "Okay."
A few minutes later they were sitting down at one of the minuscule tables the store boasted; Ben's knees were sticking out as usual, but he didn't mind so much. Rey was digging her spoon into her sundae with the air of someone to whom ice cream was serious business, and Ben started on his own (caramel, with banana peanut butter chip, so what if it was weird, it was delicious) and wished vaguely that the store napkins were more than faint sighs in paper form.
Yes, it was awkward, but - for once Ben didn't feel like he was out of place.
Rey ate maybe a third of her ice cream before he so much as finished his whipped cream, then wrote another note, pushing the notebook across the table to him. You're wondering why I can't talk, yeah?
Ben tilted his head, acceding. "It did cross my mind, yes."
Rey huffed, smiling wider, and he took it for a laugh. I have laryngitis. Usually I never shut up, trust me.
"That sounds...inconvenient," he offered. "I know a little ASL, if that would be easier."
Her eyes went wide, and she shook her head. That's nice of you! But I don't know any, LOL.
"Oh." Ben was blushing, he knew he was, but before he could panic Rey wrote again.
Look, I know this is all super weird, but you bought me ice cream, and that means we have to at least try to be friends.
When he looked up, she was blushing too, and something in his chest went all light and happy. On impulse, Ben fished his own pen from his pocket and wrote.
That makes sense. It must be in the rules somewhere.
Rey blinked. Why are you writing too?
He shrugged. It only seems fair.
She beamed at him and dove back into her sundae.
They chatted via paper as they ate; Ben learned Rey worked two jobs and was attending grad school, while he told her he was a curator at the big history museum. A very junior one, he wrote. I have hopes of achieving seniority shortly before I become an exhibit.
I respect that, Rey returned. I tell everybody I want to work on the next Enceladus mission, but at the rate I'm going it would be faster to walk.
Ben could sympathize. After all, the reason he was still so junior at his age was because he'd wasted a decade working for a sociopath...but that was far too fraught a topic for this fragile, hopeful moment.
It was absurd, really. All he'd been doing that afternoon was looking for a birthday present for Lando's granddaughter, on Leia's orders; being confronted by a small child determined to solve an imaginary problem was so outside his experience as to be surreal.
And that very strangeness had let him step outside his own shyness for a moment, to actually act like a fairy-tale prince. Which had won him - this.
Don't fuck it up, he told himself. What it had won him was sharing ice cream with an interesting, pretty young woman. Yes, it seemed like she might want more than that, but - It's up to her. Don't come on too strong.
Which was a problem, since his father had told him more than once that he only had two modes, on or no. On could come across as creepy, or worse, very easily.
Maybe writing instead of talking was a good thing, forcing him to think his words through before letting them out. And this gentle flirting, letter by letter, was so unexpectedly sweet.
What's the banana peanut butter chip like? That's kind of unusual, Rey wrote.
You can be honest. It's weird, made her laugh, and Ben scooped up a spoonful, holding it out.
Rather than taking the utensil, Rey leaned forward to eat the ice cream directly off the spoon, and Ben felt his cheeks heating at the gesture. Her own face went pink, but she winked at him as she let go and sat back. A moment later she swallowed the bite and picked up her pen.
Strangely compelling. Do you ever get it with hot fudge?
Ben managed to kick his brain back into gear. No, it overwhelms the flavor.
Don't overthink it, he warned himself, don't -
Rey regarded him thoughtfully, then scraped out a spoonful from the bottom of her bowl and held it out to him, a clear challenge.
...Never mind.
Ben bent towards her and closed his mouth over the spoon. The more vivid flavors burst onto his tongue, rich and bright, but it was the way Rey's eyes lit and the deepening flush on her cheeks that held his attention.
Rey pulled the spoon back. Ben swallowed the sample, but before he could muster words Rey herself was leaning forward across the table again. Her hand curved around his cheek and her mouth landed on his, and Ben's brain whited out.
Chocolate, mint, her. It was just a quick kiss, hardly more than a brush of lips, but it was if gravity had shut off and he was flying. Ben wanted to reach over the table and pull her up against him, to press kisses to her eyelids and nose and especially her mouth, to forget the world around them and just sink into the taste of Rey.
Instead he forced his eyes open - when had they closed? - and found her staring back at him, looking as stunned as Ben felt.
And then that smile spread over her face, the one that had caught him before he'd even read her name tag. She reached for the notebook. I was right, she wrote.
Dazed, thrilled, baffled, Ben picked up his pen in fingers that were shaking just slightly. About what?
Her smile deepened. Let's go somewhere quieter, and I'll tell you.
Without hesitation, he swiped her bowl and stacked it in his, then reached out a long arm to dump the lot into the nearest trash can. Anywhere you like.
Rey gave a sort of croaking laugh and stood, holding out a hand. Ben took it, and knew one thing with solid, wondering certainty.
He would, indeed, follow her anywhere.