#it's been a long time since I wrote fluffy romance shenanigans and I forgot how fun it is!

[ivy-and-ivory]

[person who knows exactly how romcoms end] and then what happened with Robert and Mark?????

(Guessing you meant Robert & Josh :D)

So Robert tells Josh his tale of woe, and the whole time Josh is looking increasingly torn between stunned and horrified. Robert (who’s lowkey oblivious and not always great at reading people) assumes this is because he’s Totally Winning and Josh is realizing Robert was absolutely right to say his week has been worse. He finishes the story and goes like ahha! See, what did I tell you? Now where’s my prize? And Josh just starts. Laughing. But like kind of uncontrollably. The flight attendants are looking over trying to figure out if they’ve been trained for this. Robert is torn between being offended and worrying that this man is having a legitimate mental breakdown.

Eventually Josh calms down enough to apologize and explains to Robert the reason he reacted like that is because his week was. The same. Like aside from minor details, almost beat for beat that same stuff went down. He walks Robert through the details of his breakup with Holly, and by the end both of them are laughing because seriously, how much more ridiculous can this whole situation get?

(Putting the rest under a read more because this got long oops lmao)

They still bicker for a little while over who had it worse (Robert: okay but it was On Our Anniversary for me. Josh: I was literally two seconds from getting on one knee. The ring was in my pocket. At least you weren’t planning to propose until later that night!) Eventually they decide to just buy each other a glass, and right as they’re finishing up - the plane lands.

They’re both surprised - it feels like the flight flew by (pun intended XD). Josh thanks Robert, because he was expecting the flight to be miserable and lonely but commiserating with Robert has actually made him feel a lot better. Robert says something cheeky like glad my suffering could be of some use, and Josh rolls his eyes because he’s already getting used to Robert just being Like This.

They get off the plane, and Josh almost asks Robert if he wants to grab a last drink at the airport bar - but his phone is getting flooded with all the messages from concerned relatives he missed when he was in the air, and he gets distracted. When he looks up, Robert is gone.

Josh goes home and doesn’t think anything of it. Robert was a pleasantly bizarre end to a terribly bizarre week, but they’re in New York now. What are the chances he’ll ever see him again?

As it turns out, very high. Suddenly Josh is running into Robert Everywhere. Their workplaces are collaborating on something and the two of them get assigned to work together. Josh goes for a walk and Robert happens to be at the same park. Both of them are clearly confused and astonished as to why this keeps happening, but every time it happens they talk for a little and maybe grab some coffee. After the work thing, they exchange numbers.

Thus begins the part of the movie where they bond - they go on walks and one night when they stay late at the office they order food and eat together. One of them has a late night emergency (maybe the fire alarm goes off at their apartment or they can’t stay there for whatever reason) and their Only Option is to stay with the other for a night.

They have a long conversation about what went down with their exes - more serious this time. Josh confides his fear that if he couldn’t make it work with Holly, he’ll never be able to make it work with anyone. Robert responds by saying that he knows he isn’t great with people - Elizabeth was the only person who ever seemed to understand and not just tolerate him, until - never mind. What, no it’s nothing, really, just ignore him.

Because I’m not a fan of stories that throw the ex-girlfriend under the bus for the sake of the queer romance, Holly and Elizabeth’s decisions are never framed as evil or cruel. The guys are genuinely understanding of why they ended things, and, at the end of the day they are glad they figured out the relationship wasn’t working before they got married. They’re hurt, yes, and probably a little angry at times, but the movie never villainizes the women for backing out of a relationship that was not going to make them happy, once they realized that’s where things were going. (Also in this story nothing happened between the exes and the Good Hallmark Guys until stuff was officially ended with Robert and Josh. Because this is MY ridiculously self-indulgent romcom and I do what I want.) At some point Holly comes back to NY to collect all her things and officially move out, and she and Josh have a heartfelt conversation about their relationship and the way neither of them were ever really honest with each other about the ways it wasn’t working. Holly apologizes again for hurting Josh, and Josh wishes her the best.

I don’t know how Robert and Josh actually end up getting together yet, but suffice it to say that (after a lot of bonding, getting over the exes, and slow burn pining) they do.

Tldr: they fall in love.

#bad hallmark guys AU #thanks for the ask! #I appreciated the excuse to ramble about these boys some more #I am going to write approximately none of this lmao #but it lives in my brain rent free now #it's been a long time since I wrote fluffy romance shenanigans and I forgot how fun it is! #ivy writes #ivy rambles #Hallmark hire me to make this a movie