The Blind Date || Rini AU

06. Crazy

"Um, hi," Nini said shyly when the teenager left the line and Ricky came strolling forward with his guide dog on his right side and that same goofy grin on his face. He'd grown a little more scruff in the time between their date and now and Nini kind of liked it.

His brow rose quickly in surprise and she knew he'd recognised her voice as easily as she'd recognised his face.

"Well, well, we meet again," Ricky smirked.

His red-head friend rolled his eyes, "Of course you'd know the hot one... You always know the hot ones. It's like you're a magnet for the hot ones. You're killing me Richard," he groaned, but they both knew he was kidding.

Nini was just standing there idiotically, blushing as usual.

"That's my buddy Big Red, he's a pain the ass," Ricky explained.

"Oh, are you two a group?"

"Nah, two solo acts."

—

—

Nini was distracted all evening by the knowledge that Ricky Bowen was in the same room as her again and that throughout their rather one-sided conversation at the signup table, he'd seemed almost flirty with her despite their disaster of a date last month.

Every once in a while, she would catch herself staring at home seated just a row and few chairs away with Big Red. Worse still, sometimes a Mike would catcher her staring. He'd snap his fingers in front of her and tease her, " Enjoy the performance and stop looking at the pretty boys."

"I wasn't!"

Mike laughed, "Yeah, keep telling yourself that hun."

—

—

Mike introduced the next act, "Alright, next up we've got Ricky Bowen!" When Ricky stood up and made his way to the stage, Mike whispered in his ear before walking off, "Good luck bud, you're gonna do great!"

Ricky grinned at his dad as he found the wooden stool and sat down with his acoustic guitar in the middle of the little stage. He looked at home there on stage as he spoke to the crowd, "Hey guys! As most of you may know my dad owns this shop and has for years, I remember when I was a kid and I would come into the shop after school and my dad told me me I could put on whatever record I want and i would always put on Yesterday by The Beatles everyday and I'm pretty sure my dad got sick of it," he laughed. "Anyways, let's do this," he said softly, lowering his head and beginning to play the familiar tune on his guitar. His fingers moved so effortlessly across the strings and Nini was entranced the moment he started singing.

He had a voice that was so smooth and easy to listen to. It was easy to deduce he was a natural tenor, but around the chorus he demonstrated just how easily he could transition into a falsetto to hit the higher notes. His guitar riffs were also incredible p, beyond anything Nini could do and she'd been taking lesson for 10 years.

At the end of Ricky's performance, everyone was cheering and applauding him. He seemed very proud of himself as he walked off stage with his guitar back in its case.

Before she had a chance to find a reason not to, Nini got to her feet and ignored the fact that they felt like jelly. Nini met up with him before he had a chance to head back over to his seat.

"Hi," she smiled up at him.

"Ah, if it isn't the "hot one"! Come to tell me how much I suck?" he chuckled.

"No! I actually came over here to you that you were incredible, really. I loved it,"

"Oh, well thank you," he grinned, looking quite pleased. "That's the first time I've ever performed that song and I really wanted to do it justice," he added, looking a little sheepish now.

"No, I swear it was great. You're great. I... um... I may have been swooning a little bit in my chair," Nini said daringly, but as soon as the words left her lips she began flushing crimson again.

"Well I'm glad to hear that," Ricky chuckled. "Big Red's performing after this girl, do you wanna sit with me?" He asked, offering his arm for Nini to take.

"Oh, um, yeah, I'd love to," she smiled, taking his arm.

"Just don't go swooning over him too or else I might get jealous," Ricky smirked, leaning low so Nini could feel his breath against the top of her ear.

He was going to drive her crazy.