Second Chances (Ricky + Nini)

chapter 26 - oh the things i did

Nini had a pretty chill day, aside from a few meetings in the morning, and a bunch of emails, she didn't have much to do.

As the afternoon rolled around, Nini started to work on Ricky and Ethan's piece that she promised to help them with. She scrolled through the photos they sent her. They were beautiful. Ethan was talented, and Ricky's work was beyond amazing. Obviously, she was biased, but she didn't care.

She decided to send him a text.
Nini : Working on your project right now. These photos are amazing, baby.

Ricky : They're okay I guess ..

She hated when he did this. He was never proud of his own work, he didn't recognize his own talent, and yes, Ricky's humility is one of his best qualities but she wanted him to appreciate himself for once.

She had an idea. A voice in her head told her that he might not like it, he might even get mad at her, but she wanted to prove to him that he was a brilliant photographer.

She emailed one of the photos to her acquaintance from a previous project. He was an editor at Photography Weekly, and she asked if he would like to feature Ricky's photo on their Website. No surprise he said yes, and it would come out next week.

She didn't think much about it and just went about her day as usual.
________

Ricky was excited. He'd received a very interesting phone call. It was from American Photographer Magazine about a job he applied for last month. He didn't think much about it when he applied, he was just looking for any photography job that would take him to New York, that would help him be something. The job they offered was Junior Photographer. Ricky was no Junior, he's had years of experience, but he wasn't that good and it made sense that a company as big as them would have higher expectations. They wanted to do an interview with him soon so they could talk more about the job. Ricky wanted to tell Nini, but he wanted to make sure that he passed all the tests and actually got the job. He hated keeping things from her, but he didn't want her to get her hopes up. So when she called him, he tried his best to not say anything. 

"Hi Neens!" 

"Hey, babe." Nini greeted cheerfully. "How's your week?" 

"Good. Great. Miss you as always." Ricky answered truthfully. 

"You'll be here next week, right?" Nini said batting her eyes in a way that Ricky couldn't resist.

"Of course, baby. It's your big event. I wouldn't miss it for the world." 

"It's your night too, you know. Your work with Ethan's gonna be the talk of the town." 

"It's alright, I guess." Ricky said. "But you've been working on this for months, it's gonna be amazing, and it's going to mean so much to those kids, Nini. I'm so proud of you."

"Thank you. I'm proud of you too." Nini said. "Also, I kind of have a surprise for you." 

"You and the surprises.... What's this one for?" Ricky smiled into the phone receiver. Nini always tried to make him feel special and he was so in love with her. 

"I guess it's just because I love you." Nini smiled. "Please don't be mad at me." 

"What could possibly make me mad?"