Ocean State of Mind

Shaking Things Up

Nini woke up confused and I'm her bed all alone. She was positive her and Ricky fell asleep on the couch last night while binge watching friends. She smiled to herself at the thought that Ricky must've moved her to the bed, although she frowned slightly when she didn't wake up next to him.

Sighing, she got out of bed and walked into the kitchen and made herself some coffee. She saw a note from Ricky on the counter saying that he had to leave early this morning because he "had a lesson at the ass crack of dawn" and she chuckled. As the coffee began to brew she decided to take a quick shower and change into her uniform. When she was dressed, she decided to apply some light makeup and that's when she saw them- the multiple hickeys Ricky graciously left on her neck.

She really needed to remind him to leave them in areas only she would be able to see.

A couple minutes later Nini filled her to-go mug up, grabbed her bag that had a change of cloths for later and walked out of her house, feeling the humidity hit her almost immediately.

God, it's brutal out here.

As her luck would have it, her air conditioner was broken, and Ej had been meaning to fix it but then their relationship basically imploded and he never got around to it. And she hasn't had the time to take it to the shop.

Regardless, she was glad it's a short drive to the cafe.

When she walked inside, Gina, Lynne and a few other morning employee's were fanning themselves off with menus even though the fans in the restaurant were on. They just couldn't escape the California heat. "Hey guys!" The brunette said placing her bag under the counter. "Lynne, you really need to get an air conditioner. My hair can't take this heat" Gina groaned. "I know, but I can't. It's a lot of money to keep this entire place cool and I doubt the heat will stay. We'll be fine once this passes." Lynne said as she walked over to flip the sign over. "It better." Gina mumbled, making Nini laugh as they grabbed their notepads.

"Oh Nini! Ricky told me that your mom stopped by! Was he good? He's not always the best at first impressions" Lynne said, walking back behind the counter as customers started trickling in. "Ricky was great, actually. My mom is the one with the problem. She just thinks that I'm setting my life up for failure and that I'm financially unstable." She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Oh I'm sorry dear, well just know that a parent can never stay mad at their child for longer than five minutes." The older brunette said patting Nini's shoulder. Nini smiled slightly and gave a curt nod "Thank you, but it's more like I'm mad at her."

Lynne chuckled. "Hey you might be mad for a while but you'll both come around" she told the younger girl, sending her a sweet smile. Nini smiled softly back at her before spotting a family walking in while fanning themselves as the heat only got worse.

*****

It was only eleven and the cafe was packed full of people wanting to go to the beach and also full of people who were trying to stay cool. Nini was boiling as she walked around serving customers. She gave some people their food before stumbling back over to the counter to wait for someone else to walk in. Suddenly, she felt her heart rate quicken and she felt flushed but she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Neens?" Gina asked, walking over to her. "Yeah?" Nini asked weakly trying to smile. "You okay? You look like you're about to faint." Gina said worried. Nini gave her a small smile. "Completely fine!" She lied. "But thanks for caring." She responded sweetly before a family walked in. The petite brunette began to walk towards them while stumbling. It was only then that Nini felt someone's arm grasping onto her own.

"Nini when did you last have some water? You could get dehydrated." Gina said walking her back over to where they were standing. "Um, well I had some coffee this morning..." She mumbled, feeling extremely lightheaded. "Okay sit down and stay here. I'm going to go help that family but when I come back I'm getting you some water and you're gonna cool down." Her best friend said sternly. "Gi, I'm fi-" She began, getting up to get back to her job. Nini always said you gotta hustle if you wanna make a dollar. "I said sit!" Gina exclaimed, walking away.