𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 [𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙖𝙪]

12

"wait, stop!" nina yelled as she ran through the lobby of the production building. "hold the elevator!"

the doors started to close and she ran faster towards it.

"wait!"

a hand flung from inside of the elevator and placed it between the doors, making them open up again.

"oh my god, thank you," nina breathlessly said as she entered the elevator and fixed her bag that fell from her shoulder to her inner elbow. she looked up to see the same man who held the door open for her the last time she was running late, "richard!"

"hey," he smiled a warm greeting.

"funny how it's always you in the elevator," she joked.

"yea," he chuckled, "guess i'm always in the right place at the right time.

his smile faded and he looked away from nina and down onto the ground.

"i was supposed to be here like half an hour ago to talk to luna and grayson about our next steps, but last night my fiancé-"

still hurts.

"-texted me and asked to talk?" she questioned his actions.

ricky lifted his head and looked towards her. the day before was when they announced they were working together, and images, along with the interview of them, surfaced.

"what did- um- what did he say?" he stuttered.

"i don't even know? just like to be careful or something, and to always call him and keep him updated," she shook her head to clear her thoughts. "then we stayed on call for like 2 hours or so, so i ended up going to bed late."

"oh."

"yeah, and when i tried calling this morning, he just didn't answer, it's weird."

"um, what did your moms say about that?" he nervously asked, "like him watching over you 24/7, and about... the interview."

"i don't think my moms know," she replied calmly. "i mean, they know about him watching over me i guess, they were pretty persistent about him doing that before i left, but about the interview? they don't watch that stuff, they're too busy doing their own thing to supervise everything i do."

"oh."

"yea."

"so they don't know about..." he hinted towards the record label.

"they know we signed with someone, they just don't know who, but they figure it out sometime along the way."

"right."

the elevator doors opened and nina stepped out, ricky following closely behind. they walked over to their designated conference room, rather quickly, since the young woman was already running late.

"hi, i'm so sorry i'm-" she paused as she saw who was standing in the room in front of her, "ej!"

she ran up to him and gave him a tight hug as he laughed and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up off the ground.

"what are you doing here?" she asked as he set her down back onto the ground, a wide smile still visible on her face.

"what? i can't visit my fiancée at work?" he sassed jokingly. "i missed you neens."

she gave him another tight hug and said, "i missed you too."

she let go of the hug and looked behind her, only to see ricky standing there awkwardly as the couple had their moment.