For You, I'd Do Anything- Rini One Shots

Loving You Is Easy (pt. 4)

The walk to the restaurant had put Nini at ease.

The conversation was light and casual, with Nini talking about her slow day at work and Ricky listening attentively.

It was oddly comfortable, even familiar-feeling. But now that they're sitting in the cozy little restaurant with the dim lighting and the homey-but not tacky décor, she feels nervous.

Luckily, the waiter comes by and the routine of ordering and waiting helps to ease her nerves. Ricky's friendliness and the easy atmosphere helps too, as they lapse into another comfortable conversation. And before they know it, their orders are placed in front of them, both having ordered different pasta dishes.

After the waiter walks away, Ricky looks up from his plate and says, "So can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure." Nini replies absently, twirling some pasta onto a fork. She's glad to have remembered this important step from her pep talk this morning.

"It may be a bit personal..." he warns as he picks up his own fork.

"Uh huh" she says, still too focused on the food in front of her as she brings the forkful of food into her mouth.

"So how come you never slept with Daniel?"

She can't even savor the taste of the pasta in front of her because she's too busy choking and sputtering from Ricky's question. "What?" she coughs with bulging eyes, immediately reaching for her glass of water.

"Hey, I warned you that it was personal!" He says defensively when he sees her glaring at him from over her water cup. He does send her an apologetic glance right after, though. "Sorry. You don't have to answer, you know. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable..." he adds with a wince.

She gulps down the water greedily and thumps herself on the chest. "No, it's fine..." she croaks, her face red with embarrassment due to his question and her choking fit. She cringes at the sound of her own voice and takes another long drink of water.

"Um. Why do you want to know?" she asks in her normal voice.

Ricky shrugs. "It's none of my business-"

"You're not wrong there" she says with a raised eyebrow.

"-and while I'm glad you didn't, I'm still curious."

She frowns thoughtfully. "You're glad I didn't?"

He nods and says matter-of-factly, "Again, none of my business if you had, but he was an asshole that didn't even seem like he'd be any good in the sack."

"What makes you think that?" she asks, fascinated.

"He was selfish, impatient, and never paid attention to what you were saying." He gives her a hard look. "Now imagine being in bed with a selfish idiot with no patience that can't even pay attention to what you want or what you like." he drawls.

Nini flushes a deep red. "Oh" is the only thing that she can think to say.

"If he was at least a memorable lay, I'd understand. But a shitty personality and a shitty lover? Nobody wins there."

Nini can't help but laugh. "Yeah, okay, you've got a point there." She concedes with a small smile. She wrinkles her nose in thought. "I don't know why I didn't sleep with him. The timing never seemed right, I guess? Plus, we only went on three-and-a-half dates." she says with a helpless shrug of her shoulders.

Ricky raises an eyebrow. "Timing?" he echoes before shaking his head. "Nah, I don't think that was the issue between you two."

She furrows her brow. "What do you mean?"