The Perfect Gift

Ch. 16

Ricky sighs resignedly at the knock on his door, but gets up from his couch to answer it anyway, muttering a quick prayer for it to not be a member of his fanclub.

Damn the manners his parents instilled him with.

He opens the door and— surprise, surprise—it's Stacy, from down the hall in 510.

"Hey, Stacy." Ricky greets in a bored tone.

"Is that other girl here?" she asks in an overly innocent and overly curious manner.

"And by 'other girl', did you mean Nini, my girlfriend?" he deadpans with a flat, unimpressed stare.

She gives him a thoughtful look. "Oh," she says in a small voice. "Is that what you're calling her?"

"Yes. Because that's her name and that's what she is."

With an annoyed pout, Stacy asks, "So where is she, then?"

He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. "Nini's at work," he answers curtly. "How can I help you?"

Stacy bats her eyelashes and thrusts out her chest to reveal her admittedly large assets with an ample amount of cleavage. "Really? At work?" she breathes.

"Oh God," Ricky mutters exasperatedly under his breath as he looks over her shoulder, staring straight ahead at the door to the apartment across from his.

"Because I was wondering if—"

"Can't, I've got a raging case of explosive diarrhea!" Ricky declares in a loud monotone as he slams the door in Stacy's chest.

That has to be a big enough turn-off, right? Surely, no guy is hot enough to offset explosive diarrhea. Not even Ryan Gosling. Probably.

He runs an irritated hand through his hair before he pulls out his phone from his pocket. His thumb drags down the screen, scrolling through his contacts until he stops across Nini's name, tapping her name and then hitting the call icon.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up..." he mutters impatiently as he leans against his door, waiting for her to answer.

"Hey, you. What's up?" she greets cheerfully.

He lets out a sigh of relief and throws his head back with a mild thunk. "When are you coming home?" he whines.

Nini doesn't answer right away and he frowns at the silence. Has their call been dropped? He pulls his phone away to look at it and no, their call has certainly not been dropped. They're clearly still connected because he's staring at a lovely candid picture of her in the middle of brushing her teeth, with foam all over her lips and on one of her cheeks. Her hair is adorably frizzy and her pajamas are all rumpled from a night of sleeping and cuddling. Her eyes are wide with annoyed surprise, clearly not pleased that he had decided to ambush her in the bathroom with his camera phone.

Ricky can't help but snicker at the picture of her, and he almost wants to print it out and keep a copy in his wallet. Or have it framed on his bedside table. Well, he'd have to get a bedside table first for that second option, but you know.

But then he remembers that she's been awfully quiet for quite a while. He frowns again and reattaches his phone to his ear, calling out, "Neens? You still there?"

"Yeah, sorry. I was just talking to Jenny," Nini explains with an apologetic tone. "You're in luck, Richard. She was reminding me that it's New Year's Eve, so we'll be coming home early tonight," she says in an amused voice.

He brightens instantly. "Oh thank God," he sighs happily under his breath.

"Why? Did you need me to come home right now or something?" she asks curiously, with a bit of worry edging into her voice. "Is something wrong?"