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Taylor Swift Blank Space vibes.
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Nini was nervously getting ready. She and Ricky were just going to have a little catch-up moment, just the two of them. Just the two of us.
It's not like she needed to properly dress up or anything; it was just a coffee shop. She was wearing jeans with an old t-shirt and a cardigan since this place was sometimes strangely cold. As Nini looked at herself in the mirror, she can't help but notice her shaking hands. This shouldn't be that big of a deal; I've already seen him alone before. There is nothing different about today.
She had to remind herself that this wasn't a date, despite her friends' words running through her head at a million miles an hour. They told her to ask him out, and she simply asked if he was busy; he said no, agreed to meet her, and that brings them here. She took a deep breath before going downstairs and to her car.
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This is fine; I'm fine; everything is fine. Ricky was currently pacing around his room, slightly freaking out. This isn't a date; it isn't anything formal. Just two friends talking.
He knew his feelings for Nini; that wasn't what worried him. His biggest fear at the moment was still the possibility of messing something up. He knew that chances of that happening were very likely; he didn't want to do something to make the inevitable outcome worse, even though he knows he already has.
He stands in front of the bathroom mirror, messing with his hair as a way to stall, not actually fix anything. There's nothing else to do; let's go.
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Nini sits at a table in a back corner and watches the door for him. She was about fifteen minutes early, which gave her a little time to think this through. Nini goes ahead and orders two coffees, decaf for herself; she was already anxious enough, and the last thing she needed was caffeine. Five minutes later, the bell to the cafe rings, and in comes the curly-haired man she's waiting for.
Ricky stands at the entrance and looks at all the tables, seeing if she's here before him. Nini waves him over, and he makes his way across the busy shop. "Hey," he says, pulling out the chair across from her, "I'm not late, am I?" He glances down at his phone to look at the time.
"No, I just... got here a little early," she says, nervously fiddling with her rings. Her British accent wasn't making an appearance yet, but she felt it would. She motions for him to take the other coffee cup, and he gladly does so. "Do you want something to eat?"
"No, I'm good. You?"
"Fine."
It's incredibly awkward at first, neither of them knowing what to do. "What did you want to talk about?" Ricky finally asked.
"Oh, um-" Suddenly, a rowdy group of people comes into the coffee shop, screaming over each other and interrupting Nini.
"Want to go somewhere a little quieter?"
"Yes please." The pair quickly hop out of their seats and go to the parking lot.
"Where to?"
"Follow me." They get into their respective cars and make their way somewhere else.
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When Nini's car pulls into a certain parking lot, Ricky instantly smiles. "This is still the same," he says when they're out.
Her smile mirrors his. "Yeah, I used to bring the twins here all the time." It was a large park with a playground, volleyball nets, and a simple trail through the woods for walking. There were also multiple large bench swings scattered around because this place had beautiful sunsets. "Wanna take a walk?"
"Gladly." They've barely started walking before Ricky asks, "What were you gonna say before?"
"Oh, uh, I just wanted to know... how you've been feeling after... everything."
This question doesn't come as a surprise, but he wasn't expecting that now. "Well, I'd like to say fine, but I'm still scared of... messing things up."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know. I guess I just don't want to give them any reason to... not like me." Well, not yet at least.
"Ricky, these past few weeks have been great. No, this change and transition won't be easy, but I think we're all handling it positively," she reassures. He nods at her as they continue to walk in silence with the building tension.
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"Ricky, no, get that thing away from me."
"C'mon, he won't bite."
"You don't know that." As they were walking, Ricky saw a little spider on the side of a tree and decided to pick it up with a stick.
"Nini, it's fine."
"It is not, and if you keep coming towards me, I'll kill it and you." He ignores her and continues to walk forward. "Richard Bowen," she says sternly, "I don't like bugs."
"I know," he says with an innocent smile. Nini's never been a fan of bugs. Ricky's known this since elementary school, and he would tease her about it every so often. It's not like he was mean about it; more of surprising (scaring) her by holding them close to her face or just her in general.
"Ricky," she whines.
"Fine, fine." He takes it to one of the trees and carefully slides it off the end of the stick. "Still afraid of bugs I see," he chuckles.
She glares at him. "It wasn't funny when we were younger, and it still isn't."
"It was a little funny," he says, bringing his fingers together. Nini can't help but smile; she's glad he's goofing off a little. It was a nice change compared to all the tension that came with having family dinners. Family dinners. She could get used to thinking of them that way.
"Such a child," she mutters, trying (and failing) to hide her smile. He's too adorable.
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After that, the rest of the walk is fairly light-hearted. They continued to talk and joke around some until the sun began setting. They sat on a bench swing and watched the sun as it set over the lake, giving the sky and water the perfect shade of orange.
The light was reflecting off Nini's face, and Ricky swears this image would remain in his head forever.
"I, uh... there is something I wanted to talk about," Nini says reluctantly.
"Uh, sure. What is it?"
"So, um, you've been around a lot more recently..."
Shit, where's this going? "Mhm."
"And the twins are growing used to you being... present."
"They are?" He was thrilled to hear this.
Nini giggled at his face; he looked like a kid who was just given money for candy. "Yeah, really. But that's not what I want to talk about right now." I can't believe I'm about to do this. Stupid peer pressure.
Ricky's face drops a little. What the fuck did I do? He swallows the frog in his throat and mumbles, "Go on."
"I wanted to address... us."
His interest was piqued. "What about us?"
Nini feels like there's a pile of rocks in her throat as she tries to formulate sentences. "I, um... what are we?"
"What do you mean?"
Nini sighs, wishing he would pick up on this himself, so she didn't have to say it directly. "Like... where do we stand?"
"Well... what do you want us to be?" They're both playing with their promise rings, which doesn't go unnoticed.
"Do you remember what we said when you got us these?" she asks, pointing between their fingers.
He smiles at the memory. "Yeah, of course."
"Well... what if we... how would you feel about us... going back to that?"
Ricky's pretty sure his heart just flew out of his chest. "Wh- What?"
Nini starts panicking a little. "Obviously it wouldn't be jumping right back into place because well, things have very clearly changed, and I've had this question for a while but didn't know how to go about approaching it; plus, we have children to take into consideration now, but I still-"
Nini's abruptly cut off when Ricky's desire to kiss her overtook him. He couldn't help it any longer; the joking, the memories, the way she looked under the orange sunset, the fact that he's been wanting to do this again since they kissed at her house... it was all building up. Nini's shocked but not complaining.
Their eyes close immediately as they enjoy this moment, forgetting everything around them. Nini's arms slowly come around to hold his neck as his hands pull her waist to bring her closer to him. Fireworks yet again. Ricky felt like he was back on cloud nine while Nini's heart did backflips.
Once the air supply starts running low, they pull away and just stare at each other with wide grins while panting. "I'd love to start over with you," Ricky says, leaning his forehead against hers.
"R- Really?"
"Yeah." Nini throws herself into his arms, and they hold on tightly, afraid of losing what they've just gained back. I can't believe this is happening.
Ricky holds her head against his chest as tears of joy spring to his eyes. That joy is suddenly taken over guilt, guilt, and more guilt. The weight that's been sitting on his shoulders since he came back to town feels a hundred times heavier now. He felt guilty for keeping this from her for so long, and it would be selfish of him if it didn't come out now.
He gently puts his hands on her shoulders and pulls out of the hug. "You know I want nothing more than to try again with you; it's all I've dreamed about since I left."
Nini's chest feels tight as she's waiting for what sounds like bad news. "B- But?" she says nervously and with a slight British accent. It's adorable that she still does that.
"But... there's something you should know first." Ricky tried to suppress his sadness, which didn't work, knowing that his chances with her are about to drop tenfold.
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I don't think y'all are ready for this. Are you?
Also, if you haven't seen it, I posted my second ever one-shot story! It's not the second part of the first one, but it is obviously still an addition to the book.