After the success of his birthday shows, more bookings around Pennsylvania come. Ricardo adds more notes to his phone calendar, tapping contentedly over the screen as he fills in details as needed. He's in the middle of replying to another email when Alicia hops onto the bed behind him and presses her face to his shoulder, humming happily. He glances over at her, lifting his arm and tucking her close. "Good morning," he says as she kisses him.
"Good morning," she says, ghosting her fingers over his ribs.
His breath hitches as he laughs, grabbing at her hands and pinning them to stop their trajectory. "You're in a good mood today."
"So are you," she says happily, peering closer at the laptop. "Getting bookings?"
"Yeah," he says. "So many bookings. I guess word spread about the show and now more people are interested in me, the school, everything. I'm so glad I hosted that show."
"I'm glad you are too, you did something really impressive there." Alicia smiles at him and nuzzles closer.
"Thanks," he says. "So what's making you so happy?"
"The kids are sleeping sweetly right now," Alicia says. "You're doing really well with both the school and your sobriety, and I'm getting a lot of positive responses to the things I've been posting to social media lately. I think carefully reintroducing myself to that world was just the right thing to do." She hums. "Everything's going really well right now, how could I not be happy?"
He smiles down at her and turns to hug her. "It all is going pretty well, isn't it?" While he holds her, he takes a breath and holds it, waiting for the old fear and paranoia to come back- the worries about how quickly all of the good will disappear, will turn everything in his life dark and unfortunate again.
But then Alicia presses a kiss to his jaw and he relaxes into her touch, his head clearing. The old intrusive thoughts never come and he smiles, easing back to look at her. "I love you," he whispers.
She beams at him, tracing her fingers over his lips. "I love you too."