21. surprise

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"Why did you bring her with you?" Ricky asked his friends angrily as he closed the door to his room. There were only four of them because Richard wanted an explanation of all this. 

"We didn't bring her." EJ shook his head. "She found out that we were going to visit you from your manager, she packed her bags and came to the airport determined to go with us, what were we supposed to do?"

"Anything but take her with you." Ricky told them. 

"Do you even know her?" Ashlyn asked. "She doesn't take no for an answer." 

"And what am I supposed to do now that she's here?" 

"Nothing." Carlos replied. "So what if she is here? You have a girlfriend now and she needs to understand that."

Suddenly someone knocked on the door, it slowly opened and the four of them saw a smiling blonde girl. "What are you doing here? Why did you leave me there alone with your assistant?" 

"We needed to talk." Richard said looking down at the ground. 

"Oh should I go and leave you alone?" she asked. 

"No, we're done." 

"Okay so what are we going to do today?" 

"Well, we were supposed to go to the restaurant to meet Ricky's friends." EJ said. "Are we still going?" 

Ricky hesitated, he didn't know what would happen when Nini and Lily were in the same room, but he finally agreed. "Yeah, of course we're still going."

"So we're going to unpack and then go?" Ashlyn asked the others and they nodded. 

Everyone started to walk out of Ricky's room but a voice stopped them. "Lily can I talk to you?" They all left and closed the door behind them, leaving only the curly haired boy and the blonde in the room. 

"What's going on?" she asked. "Are you happy that I came? I wanted to surprise you." 

"You sure surprised me." he nodded slowly. 

"Great." she smiled and moved closer to him because she wanted to hug him. 

But before she could do that, Ricky stopped her. 

"Why don't you want to hug me?" she asked with a laugh because it seemed ridiculous to her.

"Lily, I'm dating someone." he told her, not knowing what her reaction would be. 

"What?" 

"You heard me, I have a girlfriend." 

"But- but ho-how is that possible?" she asked, not understanding. "I mean, the two of us-" 

"The two of us are nothing, Lily." Richard interrupted her. "Just because our managers want us to date for publicity doesn't mean we're going to do it."

"But I thought we liked each other?" 

"Lily can't you see?" he asked her. "Our managers are pushing us into something that none of us want."

"But I do want it." she told him. "Ricky, we are meant to be together, I know it." she grabbed his hand smiling at him. 

"But I don't." he said letting go of her hand and taking a step back. "You can stay in Salt Lake and you can hang out with us and we can be friends but only if you understand that there is nothing between us and I like someone else." 

The girl thought but then nodded. "Okay." she believed that this would help her get Richard back. 

"And one more thing." he said not looking her in the eyes. "You have to find a hotel because you can't stay here." 

This angered Lily, but she believed it was just some temporary thing that would go away as soon as she got back to California, so she nodded.

...

Ricky and all his friends and even Lily stepped into the restaurant. The boy immediately saw his girlfriend, smiled and started walking towards her. "Hi."

"Hey guys." Nina smiled at everyone.

"So you're the girl that Ricky has been telling me about for years." EJ said and laughed.

"Um I hope so." she laughed too, looking at Ricky. "I'm Nini. My friends are not here yet, but they should be here soon. For now you can sit at that table, it is reserved for you." she said and they all started walking towards it together.

Only Ricky and Lily stayed, and that made the curly-haired boy nervous. He was afraid of what he would say.

"So you work here alone?" she asked.

"Um no, my cousin Red too but he's still at school and a chef." the brunette answered nicely. 

"Wow, there are a lot of people here, can you get all the orders in time? Or do people have to wait half an hour for food here?" she asked teasingly. 

Nina tried not to be mean because she thought she was one of Ricky's best friends and so she took a deep breath. "You don't have to worry about that. I am sure that your food will be on your table on time."

"Oh no I won't order anything here." Lily laughed. "I don't eat in such places."

"What does that supposed to mean?"

"Oh you know..." the blonde smiled. "I'm used to luxury and this... well, it's not."

Nina tried to control herself but then she saw Ricky standing behind Lily as he nodded with a small smile and she knew it was his way of telling her that she could say whatever she wanted. "Oh sorry but if you don't order anything you will have to leave."

"Are you kicking me out?"

"Oh no, I'm just trying to explain to your pretty head that a restaurant is for eating and if you don't want anything, you'll have to leave." she answered her.

"Do you even know who I am?"

"Yup." Nini nodded. "I just don't care."

Lily didn't know what to say to that. "I'll have an expresso." after this sentence she turned and walked towards the table.

"Good job, babe." Ricky winked at her and went to sit down.

When he came to his friends, he noticed that they suddenly fell silent. "What were you talking about?" he asked.

They were silent for a moment and just looked nervously at each other. "Ricky there's something else we need to tell you." Ashlyn said.

"What's going on?"

"Your manager ordered us to tell you something." Carlos said carefully.

"Come on tell me."

"You have to come back with us." EJ told him.

"I don't understand." Ricky said starting to fear what they were trying to tell him. "I'll be back in a month."

"Zack said that when we go back to California in two days, you have to come back with us." Lily informed him with a smile. "Surprise!"
    
     
     
    
     
   
well well well it's getting interesting.

I hope you enjoyed today's chapter.

I love all of you, Sof♡

𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 [rini au]Where stories live. Discover now