Chapter Text
Ricky smiled as a small silver car pulled into his driveway. He watched as his girlfriend ran her hands through her hair before sliding out of the car. His smile quickly faded when he saw that her eyes were red and her face didn’t hold its usual happiness. He got up from his spot on the front porch and met her with a hug.
“What is it?” He pulled back and looked her in the eyes, trying to read her.
“Um,” Nini took a shaky breath and broke eye contact. “We should go sit down.”
“You’re scaring me, baby.” Ricky didn’t move. “What’s going on?”
Nini bit her lip as her eyes filled with tears. “I got a job offer.”
“That’s great, Nini. That’s good news. Why are you upset about it?”
“The job...” She glanced at him nervously. “Is in New York.”
“Oh.” Ricky tried to hide his disappointment, but he wasn’t doing well.
“I start next week.” Nini looked down at her feet.
“You know nothing will come between us. Not even that.” Ricky kept his voice soft. He reached out to touch her arm.
“Ricky...” she pulled back.
“I’ll fly down there every Friday, right after work and fly home late Sunday night. I know it will be weird at first, but we can make it work. I’ll get a job out there too, you’ll just have to give me a few months to find-“
“Ricky, no.”
“Okay, or I can just move out there with you next week-“
“Stop.” Nini’s voice was harsh, unlike he’s heard before.
“I’m sorry,” Ricky whispered. “I’m overwhelming you.”
“No, it’s not you.” Nini shook her head. “You’re about to start your dream job. You’ve worked so hard to get to where you are. I can’t ask you to give that up.”
Ricky didn’t even hesitate. “I’ll give up anything for you, baby.”
“I can’t ask you to do that. Look, Ricky, I-we need to break up.”
Those five words punched him right in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. This all felt like a bad dream. No way this was real.
“You-you, what?” Ricky stuttered.
Nini backed away from him as he moved closer. She started crying and shook her head. “I can’t do the distance. I can’t give up my dream opportunity, I can’t ask you to give up yours.”
“You can’t do long distance for, what, a few months?” Ricky’s voice was shaky but angry.
“I can’t ask you to give up everything you worked for the last four years in college. Your studio doesn’t even have a location in New York. I already looked it up.”
“I don’t care. I’ll find something else. Nini, please.” His voice cracked.
“I’m sorry, Ricky.” Nini climbed into her car. “I-I-“
“I love you.” Ricky finished the sentence for her.
Nini nodded, a sad, far away look in her eyes. She wiped her tears, then slammed her door shut. Ricky watched in disbelief as the person he loved more than anything in the world disappeared.
•••
••
•
Four Years Later
“Seventy-four!” The man behind the counter yelled.
Ricky held a small slip of paper up in the air and made his way to the counter to grab his to-go bag. “Thank you.”
As he stepped onto the sidewalk, he caught a glimpse of long brown hair walking past him. Was that? No. Couldn’t be. He brushed away the thought until he realized he was walking about ten feet behind the hair he thought he recognized.
“Nini!” He called out. Who was he kidding, of all the places, how would-
“Ricky?”
The two stared at each other, unsure of what to do. The noise around them seemed to fade away as they stepped closer.
“Nini?” He repeated.
“Hi.” She smiled awkwardly, shifting her feet around.
“Hey.” Ricky returned the smile. Nini looked the same as he remembered, just a little more grown up. Her hair was a lot longer and maybe darker.
“What are you doing in New York?” She asked, breaking his stare.
“I’m here for work.”
“Can we go?” A small voice asked. Ricky looked down to see Nini’s hand interlocked with the owner of the voice. A boy, about three years old.
Ricky looked at the boy, then back to Nini a few times.
“Oh,” Nini laughed, waving her hand, “This is Madden. I’m his nanny.”
Ricky subtly let out a deep breath. “Hi, Madden.”
“Hi.” The young boy hid half of his face behind Nini’s leg, clearly a little shy.
“It’s nice to see you.” Ricky locked eyes with Nini.
“You too, Ricky. Sorry, I should go.” She turned around, but Ricky wasn’t ready for their conversation to end.
“Wait, um-“ He swear he saw some relief- maybe hopefulness- in her eyes as he stopped her.
“We should catch up before I leave in a few days. What’s your number?” Ricky held out his phone to her.
“It hasn’t changed.” Nini smiled softly.
“Mine either.” Ricky lightly chuckled. “I’ll call you?”
“Yeah. Yeah, sounds good. Bye, Ricky.” Nini’s gaze lingered a few moments before Madden tugged her hand.
Ricky stood in the middle of the sidewalk, watching her walk away. He hadn’t seen her in four years, and this is how they run into each other? He couldn’t deny that part of him had been hoping he would run into her when his job sent him to New York City for a week, but he didn’t think it would actually happen.
He found an empty bench a few blocks down and tried to enjoy his lunch, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Nini. He grabbed his phone from his back pocket. He needed to tell someone.
“Hello?” Big Red answered.
“Hey, man.” Ricky was glad to hear a familiar voice.
“What’s up, dude? Aren’t you still in New York?”
“Yeah, I’m just getting lunch. You’ll never guess who I ran into.”
“Someone famous?” Big Red asked excitedly. “I hope you got an autograph, and a pic-“
“Nini.”
There was silence on the other line.
“I ran into Nini.” Ricky sighed. “I asked her if she wanted to catch up before I left.”
“No.” Big Red’s voice was stern. “Absolutely not. Do not go down that road.”
“I have to see her. It’s been four years, Red.”
“I know, and you should make it another four. Then eight, then-“
“Infinity plus one?” Ricky joked.
His friend didn’t return the laughter. “This is bad. Bad, bad.”
Ricky could picture Big Red shaking his head, pacing back and forth.
“It’s not like I’ll ever be back in New York again. I just need to see her once.”
“If you see her once you’re going to want to see her again, and again, and before you know it you moved to New York.”
“Okay, calm down. That’s not going to happen.” Ricky reassured his friend.
“Whatever,” Big Red grumbled.
“She’s a nanny. She was walking with a three year old. At first I saw him and... well it freaked me out a little.”
“You thought he was yours?” Red asked.
“Yeah.”
“So that was her big job offer? To be a nanny?”
“I don’t think so. She wouldn’t move to New York for that. There’s more to the story, I just need to find out.”
“No, I shouldn’t have asked. It doesn’t matter. I don’t think you should see her. I’m calling EJ right now so he can talk you out of this.” Big Red protested.
“No one can talk me out of this one.”
After hovering his finger over her phone number for about fifteen minutes, he finally pressed call. He decided to wait a day before calling her in hopes of looking casual. The phone rang four times, then went to voicemail.
“Hey, it’s Ricky. Um, I just wanted to see if you were still up to get dinner or something before I leave on Sunday. Let me know. Okay, see ya.”
Oh well. Nanny’s have weird hours sometimes, right? She would probably call back later. Tomorrow at the latest.
On Saturday afternoon, Ricky called again. He hadn’t heard from Nini in three days. He was leaving tomorrow night to go back to Utah. This was their last chance to see each other. The phone rang four times, then went to voicemail. Again. He left another message.
“Hey, it’s Ricky. I called you a few days ago but I’m not sure if you got the notification, or, yeah, um, I just wanted to see if you’d like to go to lunch or dinner tomorrow before I leave. Call me or text me. Either one. Okay, bye.”
When Sunday afternoon rolled around, Ricky realized his plans with Nini wouldn’t be happening.
“She didn’t call, did she?” Big Red answered the phone on the first ring.
“No.” Ricky sighed. “She didn’t call.”
Two weeks later, Ricky was starting to feel better. He had lived without Nini the past four years of his life, what’s another four? Or, forever. The last two times he saw her ended in disappointment. Sure, seeing her again brought back a lot of memories, but it was just nostalgia. He was getting over it.
On Friday night he went out to dinner with EJ and Big Red followed by pool at the bar. He took a shower and settled into bed with a movie. He fell asleep sometime around eleven thirty, and woke up to his phone ringing at midnight.
He felt around for his phone, barely able to keep his eyes open as he hit the talk button.
“Hello?”
The voice on the other end caused him to forget any ounce of tired he had in his body. He shot up, eyes wide.
“Ricky?”