A Little Time to Get to You

tech rehearsal (part 2)

"I'm not liking this being a regular thing." I mumble as Ricky leads me through the old theater for the third day in a row, finding our normal rehearsal room while the rest of our cast rehearsed on the stage.

Miss Jen had insisted for the third day in a row of our tech week that the supporting roles needed to be at their strongest "because you can stick the leads in anywhere but if the backbone isn't strong, the show will suffer."

So back to the dark storage room in the theater we went, the third day in a row, my excitement about performing on the big professional stage dwindling every day.

"Are you sick of me darling?" Ricky asks, smiling as he leads us through the familiar door and flips on all of the lights.

I scoff and roll my eyes. "Of course not" I giggle, taking his hand in mine. "I just wish I got to be on stage as I practice." I admit and Ricky nods, leading me over to the piano bench. "Well on stage is where you belong." He says cheekily, pressing a kiss to my temple. "But until then, you're stuck with me and I'm a bit selfish in loving that." He says proudly. I grin and squeeze his hand, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek when we're sat down on the bench together. "Plus I do feel like Miss Jen thinks we're too good to be true. Like at any moment we're going to lose all chemistry or something and leave her with nothing to work with... she would not be able to handle that with just a couple weeks before opening night." He says and I raise my eyebrows. "True, I mean we're just barely holding on as it is anyway. You refused to watch Camp Rock with me last night and-" Ricky cuts me off, leaning down and squinting. "That would be the fourth time this week that you've requested that movie Nina, now shut up please." He teases, but I detect just a little uneasiness in his voice, the topic of us separating in any form bothering him more than he would ever admit.

"Uh huh but you said we could watch it and then you tricked me and put on some Marvel movie." I mumble, looping my arms around his neck. His eyes light back up and he raises an eyebrow. "Fine, how about we do a movie night? We watch all of the favorites and I promise we'll watch Camp Rock this time." He suggests and I sigh, pressing my lips to his.

"Deal." I mutter.

I feel his smile form against my own mouth, and I can't stop mine from doing the same thing either.

***

Ricky and I rehearse a few songs and run lines with one another for about fifteen minutes before he turns to me, curiosity present in his eyes.

"Do your moms still do that quarterly work thing? Where like every few months they go out with Dana's firm for the weekend and stay at a hotel downtown and stuff?" Ricky asks, turning to me on the piano bench. I nod slowly and tilt my head. "Yeah I'm pretty sure it's the weekend before the week of opening night." I tell him and Ricky nods, biting his lip. "Do you want company that weekend?" He asks and I shake my head, grinning. "Where is this coming from?" I ask and he laughs, shrugging. "A proper movie marathon night requires no distractions from outside sources." He informs me and I raise my eyebrows. "Outside sources?" I ask and he nods and chuckles. "Yes I swear every time we're watching something one of your moms comes in the room. Or if we've decided to pause the movie to talk, my dad comes home. I just think it'd be fun to have like a fully uninterrupted night." He says, a smile on his face as his eyes light up at the thought.

I swallow hard as I process Ricky's thought, clearly and unavoidably reading a bit further into his words.

Maybe it was innocent, maybe he truly wanted hours of uninterrupted conversation and movie binging, but after the conversation he and I had just two days before (in this same spot I might add) a part of me was assuming he had other plans as well.

"Well yeah so my moms will be gone for the weekend in a few weeks. So I'd love it too if we got to spend that time together." I tell him a bit nervously and he grins, leaning in to press a kiss to my cheek.

"I can't wait."

Ricky's demeanor turns innocent and child-like, a bright smile on his face while he turns back to read over his lines. It didn't seem like he was implying anything particularly deep would be happening when we were alone together. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it might, and I'm pretty sure that I'm entirely okay with that.

In fact, it made me excited. It felt right.

Turning to Ricky, I lean into him and press my lips to his jaw. I bring one of my hands up to cup the back of his head as my lips trail up to his ear and I feel him lean into me. "What are you doing?" He mumbles breathily. I stroke the back of his head with my thumb as I detach my lips from his skin. One of his hands finds my thigh and he squeezes it a few times. "Just kissing my boyfriend" I shrug, smiling. He turns to me, his eyes finding mine and he bites down on his lip.

In the silence of our stare, I knew that we both knew it deep down. A weekend alone together wasn't going to be innocent.