faking it | rini

thirty-five

Nini and Ricky were sitting on the latter's couch, phones in hand, a thoughtful expression on their faces as they tried to think of the appropriate words.

"I still have so much love for Nini?" Ricky proposed, biting his lower lip as he frowned at his screen.

Nini shook her head, "You already said 'Nini will always have a special place in my heart'. It's too repetitive."

"Maybe I should change it, though. Sounds kinda passive aggressive. Makes it look like you're the one who dumped me. We don't want the rini warriors to turn against you."

"I guess you should change it then."

The show had dropped on Netflix a respectable amount of time ago and so today was the Official Breakup Day, as Ricky and her had jokingly dubbed it a few weeks back. Today was the last day Ricky and her would be a sort of couple. Today Nini was losing Ricky forever.

Not losing, per say. Ricky would still be there, hanging by her side as a friend. They would talk and see each other and hangout at a very friendly distance, no reaching hands, no sneaky stares. Not losing, but it sure felt like it.

Nini found herself grieving a relationship that never existed.

"I think I'm gonna go straight with a 'this is so hard to say...' to start it." Nini was playing with her bottom lip, trying to think of the best choice of words.

"Bold move."

Ricky and Nini had been tasked with the perfect confection of their breakup announcements. Although PR had tried to convince them that professionals writing it would be better, they had categorically refused, claiming they knew themselves and their relationship more than middle-aged people in suits. They wanted the breakup to feel organic and Ricky and Nini had affirmed only them and their minds could put together a text that sounded honest. They were the only ones who had lived the relationship, after all.

Nini raised her eyes to his, softly nudging his foot to get his attention. "Should we say that we're sitting together right now writing this? To show that we still get along and work well together?"

Ricky nodded, smiling. "Good idea. We're posting it at the same time anyway, it's less suspicious if we tell them from the start."

"Maybe just you should write it, though. So our texts don't get repetitive."

"Okay."

PR had still left them a checkmark of points they were obliged to bring up in their texts, finding a way to structure and forcefully involve themselves in this breakup. It was things they were going to mention anyway, but they guessed publicists wanted an illusion of control.

The list had four major points:
• Things hadn't been working out for a while.
• We still love each other.
• This will not disturb the continuity of the show, we will be perfectly fine working alongside each other.
• We thank you all for the love and support you showed us, and hope that you will continue to do so.

It was basically pre-constructed sentences forcefed to them, but Nini and Ricky had been taking special care to avoid them, thinking of their own words.

"I think I'm done." Nini said first, sounding almost shocked. They had been sitting there for so long, stretching the time it would take to finish it as much as they could.

"Yeah, me too." He almost looked in pain just from saying it. "Wow. This doesn't feel real."

Nini shook her head, silently agreeing. "What do you have?"

"Me and Nini are sitting together right now trying to think of ways to tell you all this. As much as it might hurt you to hear, believe that it is much more painful for us to be telling you this, so please be indulgent. Things between us had not been great for a while and as much as we tried working on it, it became clear that the best solution was letting each other go, even if it hurt us to do so. I still have so much love for Nini and I will always have the utmost respect for her. Although we have no idea where things are gonna go, we are very hopeful that we will remain friends after all of this. We are confident that this will not affect our show Clique Seven. We love you all and we appreciate every single piece of love you have ever sent our way. We hope you can continue to support us separately. Thank you xx," Ricky took a breath, seeming distraught by the words he had just read out loud. He looked up at her, emotional, before brushing it all away and smiling enthusiastically at her. It didn't quite reach his eyes. "What about you?"