3 Years

18 - Planning

Nini decided on FaceTiming Kourtney, not knowing what else to do. "Hey, do you have a minute?" she asks when she picks up.

"Yeah, why?"

"I was wondering what the best way was to tell Ricky about Lauren and Jayden." Kourtney starts laughing to herself until she sees Nini's expression.

"Wait, you mean you're actually considering it?"

"Yeah."

"Halle-freakin'-lujah. I never thought I'd see the day."

"You can make fun of me all you want. Just please help."

"Ok, are you telling them all at the same time or on two different occasions?"

"Oh god, two different times. I wouldn't be able to handle all three of them at once."

"And you're doing Ricky first I'm assuming?"

"Yeah, because I feel like the twins would have more questions."

"And when are you doing this?"

"I don't know. Mike said he was busy today, so that's out."

"This gives you time to plan. So how were you going to start it?"

"Oh, um... I don't know. I figured we should first start with getting used to him being back. And no, that's no me procrastinating. I just want to make sure he's sticking around first."

"If you're not telling him soon, what's the point?"

"The point is so I can prepare myself."

"Ok, ok. Um... start with reminiscing a little. Have him in a good mood before you drop the bomb. Ooh, show him the boxes that are in your nightstand."

"Ok, I can do that. But what do I say when it's time?"

"Easy, you say something along the lines of this: oh, by the way, the twins are your children who you didn't know about, and they also know nothing about you."

"Kourtney, no. No way."

"Well, there's no way he'd figure it out on his own. Unless you told him how old they are."

"Wait, that could work."

"It could? I was just rambling suggestions."

"No, no. I think it's fine. I just have to muster up the courage to go through with it."

"I think Ricky's also trying to adjust to being back as well. He assumed we would never want to see him again after not seeing him for over a decade. Hey, what if we all went to the bowling alley like in high school?" Kourtney asks enthusiastically. "That way all of us can adjust to this."

"Yeah, that's a good idea."

"So you're down to try that?"

"Yeah, I am. Let's get everyone else on board."

Kourtney adds everyone else to the call, and they're on surprisingly fast. "Ok, what's the problem?" Gina asks first.

"Why would you assume there's a problem?" Gina gives that look. "Ok, so Kourtney and I were thinking that we could go bowling like back in high school again. What do you guys think?" Everyone thankfully agrees.

"Great. Now, what about the kid situation?" Ashlyn adds.

"I don't know. I feel like they might make things a little awkward," Nini says.

"So what do we do? They're smarter than we think. Who knows how much longer until they get fed up with what's happening," EJ adds.

"Did EJ Caswell just say something intelligent?" Carlos says with fake shock.

"I'll have you know I had a 4.0 GPA, thank you very much."

"Ok, so if we don't bring them, where would they go?"

"The twins are old enough to stay by themselves, but they'll probably wonder what's happening," Nini says.

"Aidan might technically be old enough to be alone, but there's no way in hell I'll let him be alone in our house," Gina says sternly.

"Do you think it'd be weird to have them all in one house and then leave?" Big Red suggests.

"100%," Carlos says.

"Well, what should we do? Bring them?" Seb says as a joke. When people don't answer him, he thinks they're considering it. "You guys don't actually think that'd be a good idea, right? Ricky was clearly not comfortable around them because he thinks he's intruding on them and our lives. And the kids don't know who he is, so seeing us get along so well with a person they've never met before is gonna be weird." The only voice of reason in this group.

"Well, what are we gonna do then? Just leave them with questions and hope they don't read too much into it?" Ashlyn says sarcastically.

"I don't see the problem with that," Nini says.

"If we do that, I hope you know that you're kids are probably going to be the most skeptical," Gina directs at Nini.

Nini knows this. She was the only one who talked with Ricky alone, so she's aware that that in itself looked strange. She doesn't know how to explain everything to them though. She's mostly afraid of how angry they'll be at her.

"I know, Gina. But what else do you want to do?"

"We could bring them, and they have their own lane. Even tell them to bring some friends if they want," Big Red suggests.

"Yeah, that's not a bad idea."

"When are we doing this?" Ashlyn asks.

"Tomorrow?" Carlos suggests. Everyone nods.

"Ok, I'll see you guys there." They hang up, and Nini starts thinking about how this will go. Would he be mad? Will he be thrilled? Would he still want to stick around? Let's just hope everything goes smoothly.

🍪🍪🍪

Boring chapter compared to the last ones, I know😅