𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 (𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚) || hsmtmts au

14. just an inch

N I N I 'S P O V

i feel my teeth chatter at the cold late autumn air while we walk the busy downtown salt lake city street, towards whatever restaurant ricky picked. ricky immediately notices, probably feeling the goosebumps on my arm as he holds my hand.

"are you cold?" ricky asks me with a sweet smile, his breath warm on the side of my face compared to the chilly night air.

"mm, a little," i shrug.

"you could've just said," he grins, stopping us so he can take off the tan flannel he was wearing over his shirt. i gladly let him come up behind me and help slip my arms through the big sleeves. i giggle as he rests his chin on my shoulder from behind in a hug while he does up just one of the brown buttons in the middle.

the flannel is oversized on ricky, so as you can imagine it's barely even clinging to my small body at all. it's still really cozy--and warm from ricky having worn it all night--though, so i don't mind. ricky pulls the flannel up (it had slid off my shoulders) before grabbing my hand again and leading me down the busy sidewalk.

"oh my god, you did not," i laugh when ricky holds open the front glass door to cheddar's. i've only ever eaten there once, and that was for my sixteenth birthday. it's this amazing fondue place where they melt the cheese or chocolate on a stove (on your table, right in front of you!!) in little secluded booths. on weekends they even have the waiters perform all types of music, so it's all super fancy.

"come on, it's coldddd," he jokes, gesturing for me to go in first. i can't help but smile, biting my bottom lip in excitement as i walk inside the dark, dim-lit restaurant.

"how did you even get a reservation??" i say as ricky follows me inside, turning my head back to look at him as we wait in line for the hostess.

"oh, my dad's friend's friend's cousin works here. they said there was a cancellation, so i went in and got us a spot," he tells me, his hand going up to fix his hair--something he does when he's nervous. but it's just me, so i don't know why he'd be nervous.

"your dad's friend's friend's cousin?" i giggle.

he clears his throat, "yeah, you wouldn't shut up about this place a few months ago because you thought the music stuff was cool and you missed it since your birthday was on a thursday, so..i thought it'd be good first friend date material."

how does he even remember that? well, i mean, he's ricky--he doesn't always look like it, but he's always listening (subconsciously or not, i guess). that doesn't mean he pays attention all the time though, because he's quite literally been the ceo of zoning out lately.

the hostess leads us to our table, which is basically just this dark cubicle in the corner with a warm, dim light hanging above the little stove in the center of the table. it has a single booth seat extending around the three sides of the table (the fourth obviously being open so that we can see the live music and have the waitress bring us our food). ricky takes a seat on one side, looking at me to sit at the other. i give him a confused face, thinking it's weird how he wants to sit on opposite sides instead of together in the middle.

R I C K Y 'S P O V

"why are you all the way over there?" nini asks me, sitting down and scooting over to the middle booth side.

i mean, yeah, usually when we go out to eat we sit in the same booth, but don't people sit across from each other on dates?