wave after wave 🌊 [rini au]

spring ; 06

After dinner, Nini was walking along the beachfront outside her house, dressed in a white tank top and her favourite blue cotton drawstring shorts. It was almost 9pm, an hour later than the time that she and Ricky agreed to meet on the harbour. Despite being late for their meeting, she took her time in making her way to the docks, a normal fifteen minute walk became that of thirty minutes; she recalled what she did at the party the previous night. She had wanted to kiss Ricky on so many occasions, but he'd respected her and kept his distance. Her disappointment and anger were long gone, replaced with guilt and longing. He truly cared about her and he cared about his job too. Why wasn't she able to see that earlier?

Nini was relieved when she saw his curly-haired silhouette at the end of the dock, at least he kept his promise that he'd wait till she showed up. He was strumming his guitar lightly, singing along to Taylor Swift's Cruel Summer quietly. She stood at the end of the dock, admiring his voice until the song ended.

"Hey Nins, I'm so glad you made it," Ricky's gaze was fixed on Nini as she took a seat next to him, letting her legs dangle off the dock. "I'm really sorry," Nini blurted, "about the past week and yesterday." Ricky's lips parted, shocked because he didn't expect her to apologise first. "I'm sorry too," he owed her this apology, "for the way I treated you at my work."

Her hand hovered over his, before intertwining their fingers; her small hand resting in his. "I'm sorry for being a nuisance at your work."

He shook his head, it wasn't her fault. It was his. "Nina, you know I mentioned when we first met, I moved over from Oahu a month ago. The reason why I moved here is the same reason as to why I acted the way I did. Being a lifeguard was my childhood dream, my dad was my role model, he was a lifeguard too. I used to train to become a junior lifeguard during my summers. One summer, I was rostered as a junior lifer and went on duty with my supervisor. It was a boring summer day, the water was rather calm so I was fooling around with a girl while on duty. I wasn't paying attention on duty and there was a call for help. She told me to stay with her; she said don't worry, the other senior lifeguards would do the rescue. I was blinded by infatuation and I listened to her. I failed to do my job."

"Anyway, they saved him in the end. It was a really easy rescue but of course, I got scolded after that, got removed from lifeguarding that summer. But I only realised the value of a lifeguard that was paying attention on duty when I was surfing with my dad when we were visiting family on the mainland and there was this guy that got smashed by a huge wave, his board broke, he was caught in the rip currents. And, the lifeguard was talking to a girl, he wasn't paying attention to the water. My dad and I ended up rescuing him to shore, calling the ambulance and explaining his conditions to the paramedics." Ricky's jaw tightened, and Nini rubbed her thumb on the back of his hand, in effort to comfort him.

"I realised that lifeguarding was more than just a fantasy of looking cool, and getting hit up by girls on the beach," Nini slapped his chest when she heard that. "It's really about saving lives, educating the public about the dangers of the water and making a difference."

"I began training again and eventually got certified in my last semester of high school. I finished high school and went off to begin my lifeguard career. But because of my slip up that summer, they wouldn't hire me. I mean, the waves in Oahu are huge, the risk was just too high. I understood that, so I shelved the lifeguard career — until Dad convinced me to move here, a new environment, new people, less biases. It was a chance for a fresh start and I had to take it, I loved lifeguarding too much to let it go forever. But I promised myself that I would never let anything get in the way of my focus on the job. So, I'm sorry that I was harsh, I never expected to see you during duty, at least not that soon." Ricky placed his hand on her lower back, a sign of affection for her. "You deserve better, Nina, I don't blame you if you hate me after all of this."

All this time Nini was staring out into the water, but upon his last sentence, she turned over to look him in the eyes, squeezing his hand slightly. "I don't hate you, Ricky."

"I was just disappointed because I thought you just blew me off and didn't think we had something special anymore."

"Nins, you are my something special. I just can't afford getting distracted on the job ok? There's just too much at stake."

The burden had been lifted off both their shoulders and the gap between them that had grown in the past two weeks never felt even smaller. She reached over to the side to wrap her arms around his waist and he rested his head on top of her. It was a really short moment, because the alarm on Ricky's phone went off again, causing the pair to separate from each other. He simply turned the alarm off and looked back at the girl next to him.

"Come on, let's go, you need to get some sleep for tomorrow's shift," Nini gathered her belongings, taking cue from the alarm that time was up. "Hey, no, it's ok, I wanna stay for a while more with you." She smiled and kissed his cheek. For the first time in a week, they talked, caught up and jammed to songs with Ricky's guitar. It felt as if the past week didn't happen. Kisses scattered their conversation as they made up for lost time; and they even progressed to subtle touches like stroking each other's cheeks, holding hands and leaning against each other.

"Ricky, it's getting late, you really should get some sleep for tomorrow," Nini stood up abruptly, after checking the time, worrying that he might be really tired on shift the next day. He followed her cue and stood up, enveloping her in a tight hug. "Thank you, Nina, this really meant a lot to me."

He slung his arm around her shoulders as they walked to his car in silence.

It was a two minute ride back to Nini's house. Ricky leaned over the centre console to give her one last hug. "I'll see you around soon?" Nini nodded, promising to text him when she was in bed. She slid out of his car reluctantly after their sweet goodbye kiss, giving one last wave before disappearing behind the front door.

After the seven minute drive back home, Ricky checked his phone to see that he received a text from her.

Nina

Thank you for being honest with me. Meet up on your next day off?

Ricky

Thank you for hearing me out! The next time I'm off is Thursday, that ok with you?

Nina

Yep, see you on thursday

———
so the painful tension is finally gone... fluff to come!
what do you think of ricky's back story?