More Than You Might Think [Ringo Starr]

Chapter 9

When I finally got to the park I realized that it was around the time Ringo normally wakes up, so I had a good 20 minutes to set up before he got here. I laid down the blankets and ran back to my car to get the basket with all the food inside of it. I had gone to the markets earlier to get all the necessary ingredients for a picnic and back to my place to prepare it all. I finished laying out the food and making everything look pretty when I saw Ringo approaching me in the distance. 

"What's all this?" Ringo's face lit up like a Christmas tree. 

"A picnic. Look, I made those little sandwiches you like. Are you hungry?"

"Yes, I'm starvin'! When did ya 'ave time ta do all this?"Ringo said while sitting down next to me.

"I woke up early and the weather was  surprisingly nice today so I thought why not have a picnic." 

"Gosh y/n, this is amazing!" I handed him a sandwich and poured him a glass of juice.

"Eat up."

. . .

Almost all the food was gone and we were both lying on our backs, experiencing severe food coma. 

"Tha' orange juice was really good, did ya make it yerself?"

"Yep."  We laid in silence for a moment, before I was finally able to speak up. "Rings, I'm sorry about last night. I was acting like a fool."

"Ya don' 'ave to apologize. I'm not gonna be mad at ya if ya don' feel the same about me–"

"No, Richie. The thing is I do feel the same about you. I've felt this way about you for a really, really long time. I just never thought that you would reciprocate the feelings and when you told me you loved me, I was so shocked I didn't know what to do. But I do now," I turned towards him and pulled him in for a kiss, "I'm in love with you, Richie." I flopped back down on my back and looked up at the sky, anxious about how he would react.

"Well, tha's a relief!" He laughed and turned to pull me into another kiss. I sat up and grabbed his hand, stroking his ringed fingers.

"The first time I realized that I may have wanted to be more than your friend was when you joined that band and started wearing rings all the time. I thought you looked so cool, you were really pulling off the rockstar look." I confessed.

"Oh so ya 'ave a thing fer me rings, eh?" He questioned in a cocky manner. 

"I guess you can say that." 

"Y'know I feel like I'm in a movie righ' now." He sat up to face me.

"Yeah? Why is that?" I asked.

"Well, I'm sitting 'ere with ya lookin' so beautiful next to me in that dress, the sunlight hittin' ya so perfectly, telling me tha' ya love me, and smilin' tha' lovely smile of yers. It feels too good to be true. I'm still not sure if this is really 'appening." At this point I was blushing so hard my cheeks were burning up. 

"Don't start getting all cheesy on me."

"No I mean it. Give me yer camera so I can 'ave a picture of ya ta prove ta meself I wasn't dreaming when I wake up tomorrow." He took the picture and set down the camera. "I knew I fancied ya since we were 10." He blurted out.

"What?"

"That's about when I started gettin' interested in girls. Yer me first crush."

"You were mine too." I admitted.

"What? I though' ya said ya started fancying me when I joined the band. We were what, 17?" I nodded. "Ya mean ya didn't fancy anyone till ya were 17?"

"No, not really. I didn't pay much attention to boys at the time."

"Well they paid a lorra attention ta ya. All my friends always talked about how pretty ya are, and they were always tryin' to get yer attention."

"I didn't notice."

"Not even Rory? He was always very popular with the birds."

"Not my type."

"But George is, isn't he?"

"Oh come on Rings, we're not done with this? Didn't realize you're the jealous type." I laughed and shook my head at him.

"Not jealous, just curious."

"Well he's cute, but thinking someone is cute is not the same as fancying them! The only reason I picked him is because, after you, he's my closest friend. I obviously wasn't going to out myself and pick you. Also, I figured he'd be the least annoying about it," He nodded in agreement, "But if I was right about him being the least annoying I don't even want to know what would have happened if I picked John or Paul." I rolled my eyes at the thought of it.

"They never woulda let ya live it down." I nodded at that.

"Speaking of the boys, do we tell them? I'm scared they'll ambush us with annoying comments for next month and a half."

"Yer probably righ' 'bout tha'" He agreed.

"Maybe we should settle into this new reality ourselves a bit more before we tell them." I suggested.

"Sounds good ta me. Should we go fer a walk? The garden over there looks nice, plus we can walk off all the food we just ate." He got up and offered me his hand.

–––––

He looks so precious in that picture.