Second Chances (Ricky + Nini)

chapter 21 - out of the old, i gotta find my own

[a/n : wow! 2.7 K thank you guys! Been having some connection issues and busy with work. So this took a while.]

It was finally October, and Nini was excited because Ricky was finally coming to visit her. Well, he was helping out with the mentoring, but she would be seeing him at least three weekends this month. She had finally gotten out of her slump at work and was fully focused on the YAC project now. 

She had told him she was meeting him at her place, but she decided to surprise him at the airport instead. She waited outside the arrivals gate and found herself scanning the crowds for that curly mop of hair. Ricky's plane would have arrived 15 minutes ago, so he would be out soon. But she didn't want to miss him so she kept an eye on the stream of people flowing out of the gates.

After another 10 minutes she still hadn't spotted him, she checked her phone compulsively for any texts from him but found none. Nini was worried that he might have already left the airport and was about to call him when she heard his voice in her ear.

"Looking for someone?" Ricky asked playfully. She turned around to see his cute little smirk, and immediately pulled him in for a hug. She breathed him in and felt herself relax when she caught a whiff of that classic Ricky smell. He kissed the top of her head and she looked up to give him a kiss on the lips.

"I was looking for my boyfriend. But I think I found someone better." She said ruffling his hair.

"Hey.. Your boyfriend is pretty great." Ricky said. "He's also kind of hot."

Nini laughed and pulled him along by the hand.

"So how'd you find me? It was meant to be a surprise." Nini asked.

"Well. I know you and you're full of surprises." Ricky explained as they got into a cab. "So I figured you might do something like this."

"Oh my gosh, are you saying that I'm becoming predictable?!"

"I'm saying that I know you that well, babe." Ricky said. "Guess I surprised you instead, huh?"

"I guess so." She pouted but Ricky kissed it off her face, making her blush.

____________

Ricky was nervous for his first mentoring session, despite all of the pep talks from his girlfriend, he still felt like he wasn't really qualified to be anyone's mentor. He had made plans to meet with Ethan, the kid he was mentoring, today at Central Park. He even took Bob with him for moral support. The Labrador was not a puppy anymore, but Ricky found it adorable that Bob would check in with him every few steps and look up to make sure that Ricky was catching up with his walking speed. 

When he arrived, Ethan was already taking some photos of people at the park. Ricky opened up the picture of the kid that the people at YAC had given him for reference to make sure he was approaching the right person. He looked at Bob, who looked up at him too and walked towards the boy. He was wearing a black beanie with red flames on it, a yellow jacket, and red high-tops. Everything about him screamed adventure and spontaneity, which is the exact opposite of Ricky. 

"Hey. Are you Ethan?" Ricky asked. The boy took his eyes off the viewfinder and looked at Ricky.  He was probably 16 or 17 at most, but Ricky could tell by the way he was taking photos, that he was serious about his art and knew what he was doing. 

"Yeah. You must be Ricky." Ethan said offering his hand. Ricky shook it and nodded. 

"And this is Bob." Ricky said introducing the dog. "I hope you don't mind if he tags along."

"Not at all. He's adorable."

"So.. originally, I thought we would maybe talk first. Get to know each other a bit and talk about what you wanna do for the project." Ricky said. "But since it looks like you've already started taking photos, maybe we could hang out and people watch. I'll take some photos too."