It isn't long before Ricky is holding the saw in one hand, the tree in the other, and he shouts out her name to let her know he's finished. Her name leaving his mouth jolts her out of her thoughts and she snaps her eyes back to him.
He grins at her and sets the tree gently on the ground as he re-wraps the saw. He picks up the tree after the saw if completely wrapped with the t-shirt. "You wanna hold the tree or the saw?" he jokes, holding up both things, one in either hand.
Nini rolls her eyes good-naturedly at his teasing tone. "I guess I can learn to trust you, so give me the tree," she laughs as she holds out her hands.
He grins and holds it out to her. "Careful," he says as she takes it from his grasp.
"Got it," she murmurs with a small smile.
They make the trek back to his car in comfortable silence. Nini is honestly a little bit shocked that they're getting away with this so easily. While it's not like she had been expecting the police to jump out of some bush to gun them down, she's still surprised that the mission went as smoothly as it did. She's just glad that Ricky had been right when he had pointed out that the park was sure to be empty.
Ricky opens the car to his backseat and unwraps the saw, laying down his rag of a t-shirt for Nini to set the tree on. He throws the saw into his trunk and stops at the driver's door. He lays an arm over the top of the car and peers over the roof to look at her. He taps out a rhythm with a finger and it catches her attention. The blank look on her fair features turn inquisitive and he smiles at her.
A sturdy wind whips by, plays with the ends of her pony tail, makes the tendrils that frame her face dance about. She grows uneasy and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "What?" she calls impatiently, wanting no part of this staring contest he is forcing on her.
"Nothing. Just glad I got to spend the day with you," he admits with a flirty smile.
The words sink in and wide, surprised eyes blink in rapid succession. Her cheeks glow red-hot and she hopes he won't notice. "Shut up," she mutters. "You practically elbowed your way into my life," she snorts unattractively.
He shrugs and breaths in deep, filling his lungs with the crisp air. "You let me stay," he grins pointedly and a playful spark comes to life in his eyes.
The hotness in her cheeks burns even hotter and she's scared that pretty soon, her face will match her red shirt. She sputters at him for a quick moment. "Sh—shut up! You were like this—this puppy that I couldn't get rid of!"
"So you think I'm cute," he accuses her.
Her eyebrows furrow at his statement. "What?" she asks in a harsh tone, confused by the sudden topic change.
"It's a universal fact that puppies are cute and if you're comparing me to one, then you clearly think that I'm cute," he states cockily, as if this was an obvious bit of knowledge that she should have already possessed.
She stares at him, expressionless. "I am this close to walking home," she says flatly, holding up fingers that are already pinched together.
Ricky laughs and slides into his seat. "Okay, okay, I'll shut up the rest of the way home," he promises.
"I don't think you're cute!" she protests pathetically as she follows suit in a grumpy manner.
He shrugs and smirks at her. "I don't think you're cute, either," he shoots back as they start to buckle their seat belts.
The wink he gives her makes her want to strangle herself with her own hair.
*******
Nini's laugh echoes throughout the elevator for a second before the doors open, the melodic sound now spilling out into the hallway.
Ricky groans as he steps out first, with Nini trotting along behind him with the tree clutched to her chest. "I was expecting my cousin to come by! It's the only reason why I opened the door in a towel," he says defensively with a noticeable flinch from the embarrassing memory.
"Wait, wait!" she cries, holding up a dismissive hand. "How many girls were outside your door?" she manages to choke out through her laughter.
His eyes roll up to the ceiling as he tries to remember back to that day. "Like, eight?" he guesses thoughtfully with scrunched up features. "I don't remember..."
"Why were there so many of them?" she questions curiously, still laughing silently to herself.
His eyebrows furrow and he sighs slightly as he recalls more of the memory. "Well, they were all trying to welcome me to the building and I mean... I think they meant well. They all brought food and drinks and stuff."
Nini shakes her head at him. "Oh, man. That is hilarious!" she continues with yet another round of laughter.
He gives her a flat stare. "No sympathy, huh? You're a cruel soul, Nini Salazar-Roberts."
"Oh, poor you," she scoffs with a roll of her eyes. "You're so attractive and all these gorgeous women wanna sleep with you. Boo-hoo." She raises an eyebrow at him. "You hear that? You hear how ridiculous that sounds?"
He feigns a look of distressed pain at her, clutching his hands to his chest in woeful despair. "But none of them want me for my personality," he sighs with faux-heartbreak. His bottom lip juts out and his chin wobbles pathetically at her.
Nini lets loose an incredulous snort as they slow to a stop outside his apartment door. "Just go get your extra Christmas decorations," she deadpans, still completely unsympathetic.
Ricky nods as he unlocks his door. "Okay, I'll be right back," he promises as he leaves the door open and rushes inside. "You wanna come in?" he shouts as he disappears around the corner.
Nini leans against the wall outside Ricky's door as she waits patiently. "I'll just wait outside!" she calls back, sticking her head around the door frame. She rolls her eyes slightly as she hears a muffled shout of "Suit yourself!"
The door leading to the stairs open abruptly and she cranes her neck, looking to see who it is out of curiosity.
If it's someone from Ricky's posse, she'll just do a quick dive into his apartment for safety.
She breathes a sigh of relief when it simply turns out to be another resident living on the same floor, a good-looking guy in his mid-twenties that Nini had spoken to on a handful of occasions. He lives in 507, right across from Ricky. She's ready to exchange a friendly 'hello' if need be, when he strolls to a stop right in front of her.
"Nina?"
"Oh, um, hi, Ethan," she shoots back lightly, suddenly feeling rather awkward due to the tree she has clutched to her chest. She plasters a pleasant enough smile on her lips and shifts the tree nervously in her arms.
He gives her a bemused expression. He points at the plant in her grasp. "Is... that your Christmas tree?" he asks, his voice holding mixed tones of laughter and confusion.
She winces. "Yeah," she answers with a sheepish laugh. And then she rolls her eyes half-heartedly. "This idiot over here," she pauses to jerk a thumb over her shoulder at Ricky's apartment, "insisted on it. You know, for tomorrow."
Ethan blinks at her. "Oh, you mean Ricky?" he asks after something seems to sink in. To her surprise, he sounds a bit disappointed.
Nini's eyebrows furrow and she doesn't know what to make of his sudden mood change. "Is... something wrong, Ethan?" she asks tentatively.
He gives a small sigh. "So, the rumors are true? You and Ricky are dating?"
Her eyes widen. "Um, what?" is her incredibly intelligent reply.
The gossip had spread outside of Ricky's group of crazed fangirls? Okay, things had gone on too far, then.
She hurriedly shakes her head. "No, no! We're really not—"
"It's too bad," he interrupts, giving her a wistful look. "I kind of had a crush on you," he admits with a small, embarrassed laugh.
Her eyes widen even further at his sudden confession. The fact that there was another human being on this earth that had a crush on her besides Big Red takes a minute for her to process.
"Um, what?"
It was so intelligent the first time around, it bared a repeat, obviously.
He winces guiltily at himself. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't be saying stuff like that when you're standing outside your boyfriend's apartment."
Ricky finally makes his grand entrance, holding a cardboard box of Christmas decoration. He shakes it around and stares delightedly at the ornaments and tinsel inside. "Okay, okay! Found—"
"You had a crush on me?" she wheezes in absolute confusion, looking almost horrified.
Ricky raises an eyebrow and looks up from the box. His eyes dart from Nini's wide-eyed surprise to Ethan's wistful expression aimed at the young woman. "So... what's going on here?" he asks coolly.
Nini jumps at the sound of his voice. Once she collects herself, she looks up at him in relief. "Nothing. But could you please tell Ethan—"
"Tell him what?" he cuts in impatiently, glaring in mild annoyance at the other male.
Ethan raises an eyebrow at that. "No need to be snippy, Richard," he says tightly.
Nini frowns at the suddenly tense atmosphere. "Um, guys?" She glances between the two men and subconsciously clutches her pathetic, little tree closer to her chest, like some sort of security blanket. "Is... everything okay?" she asks tentatively.
"Everything's great," they say in clipped tones. Their eyes harden due to speaking in unison and Ricky's eyes narrow just slightly at this Ethan guy who apparently has a crush on Nini.
Ethan's gaze slips down to the box in Ricky's arms. "Christmas decorations?" he muses out loud. And then he glances back at the tree in Nini's hold. It all clicks in his head. "Oh, to decorate Nina's tree, huh?" he concludes.
"No, to decorate your mother's flying pterodactyl," Ricky deadpans.
The dark-haired male glares harder at the Ricky. "Funny," he says, sounding utterly unamused.
"Ricky!" Nini hisses, elbowing him in the side. She turns to Ethan and gives him an apologetic smile. "Sorry! He's just kidding. But yeah! We're about to go decorate my Christmas tree. All rather last minute, but oh well," she says with a laugh.
The sound of her angelic laughter does a strange number on the men vying for her attention and they both relax quite noticeably.
Ethan regards her with an overly sweet smile and Ricky's left eye twitches at the sight. "Sounds like fun. I love decorating Christmas trees," he says and the sincerity in his voice makes Ricky want to scoop out the dude's eyes with a melon baller.
She blinks and tilts her head to the side. "Oh, would you like to help us decorate?" she asks politely with an amiable smile.
Ethan immediately lights up at the offer, smirking just a tad. "I'd lo—"
"Nooo!" Ricky cries out frantically, a look of horror marring his usually handsome features. When he's met with two baffled stares, he coughs and focuses on regaining his composure. He shifts the box to his hip and throws his newly freed arm around Nini's shoulders, pulling her in tight. "I mean, Nini, you really want Evan over here to interrupt us?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at her.
"My name's 'Ethan'," he states dryly.
Nini blinks rapidly at Ricky's suggestive tone and expectant look. "Interrupt what?" she whispers back, sounding thoroughly confused.
He rolls his eyes at her naivete. He quickly shuts the door behind them and turns to look at Ethan. "We're not interested in your help. And your Christmas wreath is awful, so clearly, you have bad taste in decorating. We can't have your shame and ugly decorating ruining Nini's tree." And then Ricky starts ushering an absolutely baffled Nini hurriedly down the hall, toward her apartment. "Plus, you're terrible, face-wise," he adds immaturely as they pass him.
"Ricky!" she sputters with wide eyes. She tires to look at an insulted Ethan from over her shoulder. "Oh, he doesn't mean that!" she calls apologetically. "You're really quite—"
"Hideous! She means hideous!" Ricky interjects quickly, the grip around her shoulders tightening. He looks behind them and sees that Ethan is finally gone with a loud slam! of his apartment door, making his ugly wreath rattle in its wake. He releases his grip on Nini, who'd been trying to wiggle free for the majority of their walk.
*******
"What was that?" she demands loudly, fuming at him, now that they're outside her door. She gently places the tree in the box and pulls out her keys. "Why were you so rude to poor Ethan?" she asks as she glares at him while unlocking her door.
"He was about to hit on you!" Ricky cries defensively as Nini opens the door and meets him in her living room.
She blinks plainly at him. "So?"
Ricky sputters and wheezes at her incoherently and he almost drops the box. He quickly sets it down near the corner of her coffee table. He straightens up and eyes her in disbelief. "Were you... would you... did you want him to?" he chokes out.
"Well... I probably would have turned him down," she admits with a thoughtful furrow of her brows.
His eyes widen at that. "Wait, really?" he asks, sounding relieved as a look of joy spreads over his face.
Nini rolls her eyes. "Ethan's nice... but... that's it," she sighs with a wrinkle of her nose. "There's not much else there," she adds with a one-shouldered shrug.
He gives her an amused look with a dirty smirk. "Why, Nina Marie Salazar-Roberts—"
"That's not my middle name," she interrupts expressionlessly in a bored tone.
"—I didn't have you pegged as someone who liked bad boys," he snickers with suggestively waggling brows.
Nini flushes and smacks him in the chest. "It's not like that!" she protests. "It's... I mean," she breaks off with an irritated sigh, trying to gather up her thoughts. "Look, I'm not interested in dating a guy if he's just nice, you know? There's tons of nice guys out there. That's not necessarily a deal-making kind of trait. And let's pretend I did give him a chance just because he was nice. Ethan and I live on the same floor! It could be really awkward if things didn't work out."
"So what you're saying is... there's no chemistry," Ricky summarizes with a playful smirk.
She freezes at the comment, takes a moment to let the words sink in. Her head tilts side to side in careful consideration as she realizes Ricky wasn't completely wrong. She and Ethan had never quite clicked, not in the way that she and—she quickly aborts that thought and swallows nervously.
"Yeah, I guess you can say that," she finally agrees, as she refocuses on Ricky. "I've never really walked away from him wanting nor needing to know more about the guy," she confesses. She thinks over her words and winces. "Oh gosh, was that a mean thing to say?" she asks guiltily as she worries her bottom lip.
Ricky chuckles to himself with an enthusiastic shake of his head. "No, not at all," he says lightly with a nonchalant air. "That's a great thing to say," he adds with a happy smirk.
She frowns at his near giddy expression. "Why are you so pleased about this?" Nini asks, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"No reason." He throws up his hands and gives a defensive, innocent shrug.
She rolls her eyes decides not to waste her time trying to pick apart Ricky's most likely bizarre mind. She plucks her little tree out of the box, instead. "Well, in that case... Let's decorate this little sucker," she murmurs resignedly.
Nini sits down, cross-legged, near am empty space in a corner of her living room. She stands the tree up and lets go, watches in deadpan as it topples over without a base attached to the bottom. She raises an eyebrow and looks to Ricky, sitting down next to her with their knees touching. "What now, genius? It doesn't even stand up right."
He brings a closed fist to his chin, lips quirking in thought. "I don't know," he says in a slow and careful tone.
"Do you have a base for it?" At a sheepish shake of his head, Nini frowns. "Then what are we going to do?"
"Lean it awkwardly against the wall?" he suggests with a laugh.
She can't help the little bubble of exasperated laughter that leaves her mouth and she shakes her head at him. "Why not?" she muses with a wry smile. "It's already pretty sad looking, anyway." She looks into the box to examine the different assortment of ornaments. She picks out a rounded one that's purple and green, smaller than her already tiny palm. She stands the tree back up and holds it up with one hand. With the other, she carefully places the ornate ball on the tree.
Ricky picks out another ornament the same size and hangs it on a limp branch, near the bottom. He chuckles and taps at the shiny, scarlet sphere, watches it swing back and forth lightly. "I like it," he murmurs. "It's got character," he says decidedly, tilting his head to the side appreciatively.
A corner of her lips twitches upward and she pulls out some tinsel to wrap around the tree. "I suppose that's one way of putting it."
He hums in agreement and they spend the rest of the time decorating with murmurs of approval, silent giggling, and furtive glances to one another.
"And to top it off," Nini grins as she simultaneously elbows Ricky and places a small angel tree topper on the tip. "Get it, Ricky?" she sniggers to herself as she continues elbowing him in the side.
Ricky face-palms and shakes his head. "That's... I can't even," he mumbles with a roll of his eyes as he cranes his neck to look at her. "That one was painful," he winces.
"I happen to be hilarious, Richard Bowen," she says haughtily as she grabs the tree from him and precariously leans it against her wall. She tentatively pulls her hands away, making tiny stay, stay motions before leaning back and examining their work. "Yay! We're done!" She turns to him with an excited grin, holding up a hand.
He laughs at her, but returns her high five enthusiastically. He studies the tree as well and gives a pleased nod. "It looks good," he compliments.
Nini beams at him, pride shining through.
"Look at how good your tree looks!" Ricky leans back on his arms lazily. "See, we didn't need the help of that window-licker," he snorts with a roll of his eyes.
Her eyebrow raises bemusedly. "Window-licker?" she echoes incredulously. "What on earth is that?"
"You know," Ricky says, gesturing with a hand in a vague, crazed sort of way. "Somebody who licks windows, like..." he trails off, plasters a dopey look on his face and his tongue darts out and he gives the air a little cat lick. "Like that," he states, in a way that's very matter-of-fact.
She stares at him, horrified and confused. "You're not well, are you?" she asks slowly.
He rolls his eyes. "Anyway, he would've been a horrible addition to our tree-decorating extravaganza," he decides conclusively.
Nini laughs and shakes her head exasperatedly. "His Christmas wreath wasn't that bad," she grins, nibbling on the corner of her lip to keep from laughing again.
******
Ricky and Nini were currently laying on their backs in front of her Charlie Brown Christmas tree. He was absentmindedly drumming his fingers along his midsection when he looked over to Nini with a mischievous smirk. "What?" Nini asked with a sigh. She could only imagine what ridiculous thing was bound to come from his mouth. "We should steal it," he whispers secretively.
"Steal what?" She knit her eyebrows, which in turn caused him to roll his eyes. "The wreath!" He exclaimed excitedly. She can't help but laugh at his ridiculous suggestion. "You're awful!"
"And then set it on fire," he adds determinedly.
Nini cups the side of her face and props her elbow on a knee, giving him one of her patented looks. "What are you?" she snorts. "Some sort of crazed kleptomaniac? Or are you a pyromaniac?" she murmurs, biting back a grin. "But since it was your idea to steal that guy over there, I'm guessing the former?" she jokes, pointing over at her little tree. "Either way, I draw the line at stealing Ethan's wreath," she finally adds with a pointed look.
He grins. "You always such a stickler for rules, SalRobs?" he murmurs.
"Always," she promises solemnly with a scrunch of her nose.
He shakes his head at her. "So if you don't want to steal the wreath, then what do you want to do?" He reaches over and gently taps on her knee with a finger. "I came up with the tree idea, so it's your turn to pick the next event."
She falters and her eyes dart around her living room, desperately trying to find something to do that's half as interesting as stealing a tree from the nearby park. "Um... uh..." she stutters under pressure.
Ricky raises an eyebrow at her. "Wow. So nothing, huh?"
Slim shoulders droop in shamed disappointment. "How am I supposed to top tree-stealing?" she pouts.
"Didn't realize you were so competitive," he laughs.
"Well, got any more ideas, hotshot?" she huffs, crossing her arms at him.
"No, not really," he sighs honestly.
Nini gives a hum of discontent and shrugs. "It's okay. It couldn't be a nonstop par-tay-all-day, if you know what I mean," she says, her voice making strange, high-pitched noises on the rush of words in the middle of her sentence.
He eyes her oddly. "Right," he drawls slowly, sounding incredulous.
She blinks at him in innocent confusion. "What? Was it something I said?"
Ricky opens his mouth and then quickly closes it, shaking his head. "Never mind," he says with a dry, amused chuckle.
Nini gives him an annoyed look and is about to pester him about his original thought when his phone goes off. When he doesn't immediately reach for it, her annoyed look turns into one of curiosity. "Um. Your ass is ringing," she points out helpfully.
He rolls his eyes and reaches for his back pocket. He looks at the screen and frowns at the caller. "It's not important," he mumbles gruffly, ready to put his phone away.
Nini leans over and swipes it out of his hand, impulsively answering it. "Hello?" she calls sweetly, taking her free hand and smooshing it against Ricky's cheek, pushing his sputtering face in the opposite direction as his arms flail about, trying to snatch his phone back.
Payback
She smirks into the phone. "Ricky can't come to the phone right now," she sighs regretfully. "But I'll be sure to take a message!" she adds in an overly perky tone.
"Oh, uh, who's this?" a deep voice wonders curiously.
"A friendly neighbor!" she grins, weirdly glad to hear that the voice wasn't, in fact, female.
"Nini. Nini, give it back," Ricky hisses against her hand as he twists his body toward her.
She doges his arms and moves to sit on his stomach. The bold choice shocks Ricky enough to stop flailing at her and his eyes widen into saucers. She smirks at him and uses her knees to pin both his arms down to his sides, effectively straddling him.
"Nini?" Her name comes out somewhere between a choke and squeak. He swallows and she's pretty sure she's never seen his face this red before.
It's pretty adorable, actually.
"Anyway, ma'am, how can I help you?" she asks breathlessly into the phone.
"... Okay, I'm not even going to ask what all that noise was..."
Nini winces and decides to ignore the suggestive comment.
"Tell Ricky he better show up at the party tonight or else I'm firing him."
"Party?" Nini's jaw drops and she looks at Ricky in shock. "What party?" she blurts, aiming it at Ricky, but her question still carries into the phone.
This snaps Ricky out of his dazed stupor due to having a gorgeous girl straddling him and he rolls his eyes. He wiggles an arm free and snatches the phone out of her limp hand and holds it up to his ear. "Ricky," he grunts, glaring at Nini exasperatedly.
Nini can't hear the other side of the conversation so she just nibbles at her bottom lip worriedly.
Nini rolls his eyes and chuckles. "Okay, okay. Fine. Yeah, uh-huh. It's okay if I bring a plus one, right? Alright, alright!" He chuckles again and gives a speedy good-bye before hanging up. He throws his phone to the side and looks up at Nini.
"You have a job?" she hisses in wonder, wide-eyed.
He blinks at her, confused by her fascinated horror. "Why does that seem so surprising?" he frowns.
"I thought you were, like, one of those myths from romantic comedies!" she says. At his flat, annoyed stare, she rolls her eyes and elaborates. "You know! One of those handsome bachelors that's always jobless but skates by in life on his charm and good looks."
He processes her words and squints at her thoughtfully. "Hmm... yeah, okay, I suppose I can take that as a compliment. Or maybe just that last part..."
"Well? What happened?" she asks nervously.
He rolls his eyes again. "That was my boss, Dan Warner."
She blinks in surprise. "From Warner Records?" she asks, clearly impressed. "What do you do for him?" she laughs. "Fetch him his morning coffee?" she teases.
He raises an eyebrow. "I'm one of his top music producers," he informs her dryly.
"Oh..." she trails off awkwardly in a small voice.
"Anyway, it was just Dan being dramatic," he says exasperatedly. "He's having a big Christmas party tonight and I was planning on skipping because last year was kind of lame," he sighs. "That's why I was trying to ignore the phone call," he explains wryly, looking at her pointedly.
She winces. "Sorry," she says sheepishly.
He smirks deviously at her. "Oh, but if I have to suffer through a boring party with my even more boring co-workers, I'm dragging you down with me," he chuckles darkly.
Her eyes widen and she gives a laugh of disbelief. "Oh, no. Nooo, thank you," she says with a firm shake of her head. "I'll just be on my couch, over there, curled up with a good book, if you need me. Which you won't, because you'll be at a record label owner's party." And with a short nod, she moves to get up, but Ricky's big hands clamp down on her hips, holding her in place. Her eyes widen and she sputters at him incoherently, cheeks flaring up.
His smirk grows wicked and he applies a decent amount of pressure in his fingers against her flesh. "Oh no," he mutters hotly under his breath. "You're going," he decides, looking up at her through a heavy-lidded gaze.
She gapes at him, her impression of a fish happens to be dead on, and she gulps nervously as she tries, desperately, to ignore his thumbs on the bare skin above the waistband of her jeans. It takes her a long moment to regain her ability to speak. "C'mon, Ricky. You don't wanna take me. I'm awkward and quiet, I talk in a vague British accent when I get nervous, my hair's a mess, I haven't showered... and I'm pretty positive there's nothing in my closet that I could wear to a swanky party," she rattles off pleadingly.
He raises an eyebrow at her. "None of those were good reasons to stay home."
"Ricky," she mumbles uncomfortably, "I don't want to go."
He sighs patiently. "The party isn't for a couple of hours. It starts at seven-thirty. You have more than enough time to get ready, and it's not nearly as 'swanky' as you'd believe," he says gently.
"Isn't this a work thing?" she tries, eyebrows furrowing.
"Kind of... but I'm allowed to bring a plus one! If you don't go, I'll be forced to make annoying small talk with my boring co-workers."
She hesitates and tilts her head to the side. "What... what are you going to wear, then?" she asks.
Ricky grins up at her. "Probably jeans, a nice shirt, and a blazer," he laughs with a shrug. "Something simple."
"So I don't have to dress fancy?" she asks, sounding a mite perkier.
He chuckles up at her. "No, you don't," he promises. "Does that mean you'll go?"
Nini gives a dramatic sigh, shoulders sagging in relief as she eyes him resignedly. "I better not regret this," she warns.
He bites his lip excitedly for a moment as he stares at her. "It'll be fun, I promise," he murmurs softly, his smirk already reappearing on his face.
She inhales deeply and exhales slowly. "Meet you at seven?" she whispers quietly.
"It's a date."
________________________________
I'm dragging THE moment out for a reason. Sit tight, it's coming 😉