underneath the lights || hsmtmts

'more than friends'-giving | ricky x gina

this is going to be the perfect night. ricky was counting on it at this point honestly. his dad has never been a great cook, and their thanksgiving turkey probably still sat frozen in the kitchen sink. mike bowen forgetting to turn the oven on before putting the bird in just sounded like another day in the life post-divorce announcement. so yes- he was feeling very fortunate that everyone had agreed to meet up at ashlyn's home after they finished their family dinners. not that he'd want to consider sitting around eating mostly raw green beans and overly chunky mashed potatoes without his mom much of a family dinner, especially with the hot wings they'd subbed out for the raw turkey... but what else does he have at this point? even if they don't eat any real food there, gina's cupcakes were perfect. they even had little turkeys on them.

he's constantly asking himself how she could possibly be so good at literally everything she tried? but then perhaps he didn't mind it so much. not when it was gina porter. she was so effortless in a way that never ceased to amaze. okay maybe her knitting wasn't actually all that perfect, but she'd tried, and her smile? that smile only made him want to smile more if that was even possible in this moment. and that meant a lot considering he was having a breakdown literally right before she'd rung the doorbell.

sure, gina wasn't the reason that he didn't hit nini's name in the favorites section of his contacts after he got off the phone with todd... he'd sort of determined ages ago that he couldn't burden others much with his own emotions... plus doing that with your ex- probably would be crossing more boundaries than he's willing to cross at the moment.

but even if gina hadn't been the reason for his not ringing the person he'd like to go to in distress, she was the perfect answer to the moment. he had been a bit confused when she'd showed up at his doorstep, sure, and he'd tried to send her away... but soon enough she was indeed walking him to ashlyn's house and once he'd gotten those incredibly heavy feelings off his chest he was hardly upset about the distraction she provided nor the confession she'd somehow managed to elicit from him.

why he was telling her any of this, he couldn't say. he hates making things about him, always has and probably to some extent always will... especially when it comes to negative things. he hates having his emotions, the worse ones in particular, out there and laying impacts on other people. and yet gina had drawn the words out with very little effort on her part. he hates change, and she gets that.

they seemed to get each other more than either could anticipate, but evidently she sees the similarities in them much more easily than he does, because he's found himself apologizing to her more than once since they've met. ignoring and pushing through was something he didn't yet know how to do, but clearly she does... or she's a lot better at faking it than he was just yet.

the way their eyes meet as they lean against his kitchen counter, his father long gone to his aunt's, sparks something in a house that has begun to feel so much less empty.

an eight pm party was hardly a late night affair, but that's what they were calling it, and who would he be to spoil the fun of 'being theatre dorks like the good lord intended" as gina had told him. she had also said he should be happy, and with that dumb hat on his head and the sound of her laughter as they head out the front door door, her little black backpack slung over her shoulder and the tray of cupcakes in her hands, he thinks he could be happy.

--

if she wonders how ricky actually feels about her, gina's determined that for tonight, if only for tonight, it doesn't matter. they're going to ashlyn's party together! that was a pretty great jumping off point to everything that had been growing between them. and she can say that even if nothing else happened from here on out. the way he smiled at her with that dopey expression when he put that awful knitted hat on his head was absolutely perfect, and the way his smile reached his eyes was something for very rare occasions.