Ricky

At work the next day Ricky again was useless at his attempt to get any work done. He was trying to put together a concept board for the commercial they needed to shoot for the Below Zero account. However, he was spending half his time staring at the unfinished images on the screen rather than doing anything to them. He thought about texting Amy, just to check in and see if she was alright. Then he figured that was a stupid idea, since it wasn't like they were together or anything and he didn't want to upset or confuse her. For some reason he found himself wondering about when she would hear back with the results. He didn't understand how she could be so calm about this whole thing. Seems like he was more anxious about this than she was.

"Who's the girl?" A voice interrupted his thoughts. Ricky looked up and Jake was standing by the door with a smirk on his face.

"What girl?" he asked as he turned his gaze back to his computer screen. He had no desire to engage in any conversation with Jake about 'a girl'.

Jake took a seat on the small couch Ricky had in his office, grabbing the nerf ball on the table they used to help them get through brainstorming sessions. He started tossing it up in the air and catching it. He did this repeatedly.

"The girl that's going to screw this project from finishing by deadline"

Ricky shook his head and tried to put on a blank look "no clue what you're talking about".

"Ohhh god come on man. You've been coming in to work every day, but it's like you might as well not even show up. God knows where your heads been because it hasn't been in here. You haven't done a single thing to that board, when we all know you would have walked in like what - the day after the exec meeting with at least 3 different drafts, had you not been moping around the office like some dweeb. I thought this thing was your baby"

"It is"

"So then I ask again, who's the girl?"

"Why are you assuming it's a girl?"

"What else would cause your focus to steer away from this project? I can't think of any other good reason my friend"

"Why don't you ask Brett, he seems to think I'm moping about the loss of my last relationship" Ricky said, trying to get Jake off his back. By this time, word had gotten around that Ricky and Adrian had broken up. Brett had come into his office a few days ago bugging him about it, not unlike what Jake was doing now trying to tell him what he 'needed was to sneak off into the bar across the street and grab a few beers for lunch'.

"I've seen you after you've fought with Adrian. And this is different. So I'm going to ask again. Do I know her?"

"Okay there Dr. Phil. You are eerily observant, that is some stalker shit right there" Ricky leaned back on his leather chair, but continued to look at the screen rather than Jake who has now taken a very comfortable position of lying down on his office couch. But his brain was working a million miles an hour and to both of their surprise, Ricky began rambling.

"There is no girl Jake. I mean theoretically speaking there MIGHT have been the idea of this girl, but well I don't know. It's a long story"

"Sooooo you've know her for a while?" Jake tossed the nerf ball to Ricky who caught it.

"Ohhh Yeah. And me and this girl? Been there, done that. And it was a colossal mess. It's never going to work between us. So these feelings are completely irrelevant" He tossed the ball back, then continued on his rant. "I mean if you knew this girl, she's…god – she's absolutely impossible. She has this way of just getting really under your skin. It's almost like she has to have an opinion on everything you know? Worse than any diva client you can imagine"

"No one could be worse than the Crafts people"

Ricky chuckled "They were the devil" he agreed. "I was ready to rip up their contract and tell them to go find someone else"

"So she's high maintenance" Jake raised an eyebrow and looked at Ricky continuing his interrogation, then tossing the ball again his way. This time Ricky held on to it and began passing it from hand to another.

"No not in the way you think. She's not shallow or materialistic. She just has to have an opinion on everything"

"Annoying?"

"Weeeelll I wouldn't put it like that per se. She's like your conscience, but worst because you can't actually ignore it when you want to. She's always right there making you choose over right and wrong. And she has this complex, this need to fix all things wrong with the world, even when you don't always want her to. He thought back to the time in high school, where he almost didn't get into college because the advisor had accused him of wanting to sleep with her. Leave it to Amy to stubbornly go marching up to the right people and fixing the whole mess for him, even though he told her repeatedly to leave it alone. He didn't think he ever told her just how grateful he was for that.

"Like yourself?" Jake said with smirk.

Ricky ignored him, but continued to talk.

This girl is smart Jake, she's brilliant - and driven. God is she driven. It's like she gets something in her head and then it's just done. And not like mediocre okay I did it kind of way. In like a - you're inspired to be better because of what she did way". He's mind raced back to all those things she's done, like going to New York as part of some teen mom music program and mentoring other girls, or getting into Hudson and becoming this amazing talented journalist. He wondered about all the other things she could have done with her life, had she not met him that one summer…

"Huh, you lost me after mediocre"

"How many people say they're going to go to college, but then coast through the whole thing – possibly constantly hung over and drunk through it all - and still get a diploma in the end? This girl goes to college and graduates 3rdin her class" This girl becomes a mom at 16 and then goes off to inspire other young moms, he thought, she couldn't even do teen pregnancy like the other girls who gets knocked up in high school.

Jake whistled "I don't even think I finished in the top 95 and I'm pretty sure there was only like 100 people in my program. That's a little intimidating…also I'm definitely the former in that scenario" He winked

"Don't I know it" Ricky said chuckling

"She hot?"

Ricky smiled and this time actually looked at Jake. "Gorgeous. She's the girl next door kinda pretty. The kind of pretty that literally takes your breath away" He stopped fiddling with the ball and tossed it back to Jake.

"Takes your breath away? Wow that's original"

Ricky laughed "I swear man, the first time I saw her I'm pretty sure I actually stopped breathing" And she still had that same effect on him, even now. He thought about the time she first showed up at his door to drop of John.

"Alright, so you're in love with an imaginary person"

"What?"

"Come on. You're saying not only is she crazy smart, and walks around like she's some kind of Mother Theresa, but now she's also supposedly super gorgeous? Either you're making up some girl, in which case I've just wasted the last 15 minutes hearing about your crazy fantasy - so ewww by the way…or you idolize this one person so much you're making her bigger than life"

Ricky couldn't help but laugh. "Oh she's very real alright"

It suddenly dawned on Jake who Ricky was talking about, and it showed in his facial expression. "WAIT, SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH! I know who she is! She's that girl from the bar isn't she? The one who edited the proposal?"

Instead of saying anything, Ricky just tossed his head back on his chair and stared at the ceiling.

"Holy shit she is! What's your problem bro, don't be lame, make your move man!"

"It's not that simple"

"Right because nothing in your life is" Jake retorted sarcastically

"She's John's mother Jake" Ricky finally admitted, sighing in defeat.

"I'm sorry come again?"

"Amy, she's John's mother" Ricky repeated staring into space

There was a moment of silence as a shocked Jake took this new information in and then he howled in laughter as though it was the funniest thing he's heard all day. "AND the plot thickens…dun dun dun! Yo that girl is way too hot to have a kid"

Ricky automatically glared at him "Watch it"

"Chill bro. I'm not after your girl, I'm here telling you to go get em. Also didn't' she like leave you on your wedding day?!"

"First she's not my girl and second don't YOU have work to do?" Ricky was over people accusing him of being unproductive when they were slacking off just as much. At least he wasn't going around to people's office bugging the crap out of them. And he certainly was not going to address Jakes last comment, despite how inaccurate it was.

"You know…you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take" Jake said throwing the nerf ball right at Ricky's head intentionally hitting him on the side of his face, before walking out of his office.

Ricky just shook his head as he threw the ball after him hitting him on the back. It landed on the floor and was kicked to the side by another person walking by. That was the problem with working with such a young group of guys. Going in to work every day felt more like walking into a frat house. But he wouldn't have traded it for anything.