Thanksgiving

"I gave her a key to our place too," Jess mentioned to us as she opened the door to our neighbors apartment. "She sometimes has a problem with her shower."

Everyone stepped into the apartment except for me as she closed the door in my face. "Not you," she muttered surprising me as well as the rest.

"What are you doing, you promised me you'd be nice to him," she complained as I set down the case of beers in my right hand.

"I was nice to him. I've been very nice to Paul," I defended myself. "The whole car ride over I was nice to him. You know what he told me about? He likes Air Bud 2. He loves dogs. I know where he gets his copies made. He likes to whistle. He wanted to open the door with me, so when my hand went up, so did his," I finished a little peeved. I could tell by her face that had been developing during my defense that she was about to get whiny.

"Oh I get it, he's not cool enough for you," Jess complained as expected. "Cause no one can be cool enough for cool Nick Miller. I'm Nick Miller. I'm so cool I make the cool face. Why don't you like him?"

I stood back in total disbelief as the only words I thought I could muster were what the hell were you just doing? Of course, I came back with a much more mature question. "Who cares. Do you like him?"

"Of course I like him," she replied insistently.

"Fine. Does it matter what I think? Does it?" That was a pretty decent point. Why did she even care? He wasn't my date. "Cause I don't have to have sex with him."

"I do," she said a little too quickly for my liking. "I want to. I want to have sex with him big time! You heard me, big time!"

I glared at her like she was crazy. Her screams were probably load enough that the neighbors could hear, never mind Paul and the others.

I couldn't stand here much longer as she listed off countless sex positions, many I believed to have been made up right on the spot. As her pretty little face spat out 'the bear attack', I grabbed her shoulder with my right hand looking at her as serious and intense as I could with my messy hair cut and roughly shaved beard, I shouted, "shut up!"

Her eyes got wider than I ever thought they could, but her rambling didn't waver. I couldn't focus on her eyes as her flamboyant movements caught me off guard. When her arm shot out at 'give me that hat', I moved in close and kissed her softly on the lips.

I could feel her body tense up beside mine, but she was still trying to talk through my persistent interference. I couldn't figure out whether I was more annoyed or turned on which scared me so much!

Finally, I pulled back, releasing her shoulder.

"I don't care what you think!" She finished.

I was dumbstruck to say the least, but my face never showed it. Even though my blatant act of intimacy was pretty clear of what I thought, Jess still held her ground, her green eyes glaring up at me and her lips thin with aggravation.

"Then why did you ask me?" I shot back. She had no retort, no comeback. I was somewhat pleased with myself.

She looked down, still irritated, before raising her gaze back up to my sulky face.

"Why do you have to make that turtle face all the time?" She yelled back trying to sound as angry as she was before, but failing.

I tried not to laugh, but I couldn't help it. She hit me in the shoulder with her hand over and over again. "Why are you laughing Nick?"

I grabbed her wrist quickly in between hits and held it down at my side as I curled my fingers around hers.

"Why are you-" She tried yelling again, but it just wasn't the same. We both knew she had lost her intimidation long before her attack on my shoulder. "Why are you doing that?" She said in almost a whisper as she stepped in closer looking down at our hands.

"Does it matter why I'm doing that?" I asked cunningly.

"It might." Jess answered back as she stepped up in front of me, taking the beer in my left hand and placing it on the floor. Her free hand found mine and her eyes never lost focus. I thought about her hugging the frozen turkey earlier and her stupid jam shirt she had on previously, but none of those quirks caused me to change my mind on why I cared, why I hated Paul and why I hated anyone who tried to be where I was at right now with Jess.

In my time of thinking, she closed the distance between us again, releasing my hands from hers and moving them to my shoulders. My floppy hands at my side found their way to her waist as our lips brushed by each others' multiple times before making contact. It was different then before; her lips moving with mine instead of producing words. I smelled the mixture of shampoo and smoke in her hair which I guessed was similar to mine. Why did we put a turkey in the washing machine? This thought caused me to laugh as we stepped back, both grinning wildly.

"We put a turkey in the washing machine," I repeated to her as I chuckled once more.

"We did do that, didn't we," she said with an odd inflection in her voice. "We also kissed," she whispered as we leaned into each other again.

There was more movement this time. Her right foot moved in between mine as her left went to step beside my right. As it did we heard a soft clack as my bottle fell over spilling the remaining beer in it. We both broke apart with a weary look on our faces right as Winston opened the door. Our eyes unlocked from each others as we stepped back quickly.

"Why did you hit my arm?" I improvised. "You made me drop my beer Jess!"

She caught on quickly and for once she used her normal voice. "I was very mad at you for being so rude to uh..."

"Paul?" I asked saving her butt.

"Yes, I can't believe you did that still," she said winking as Winston went to retrieve some paper towels.

I kept a straight face as I walked into the apartment giving a wave to everyone. "Sorry guys, dropped my beer," I announced shrugging my shoulders and going over to the center island by Schmidt and Cece.

Jess walked in after me as Paul went over to talk to her and Winston cleaned up our mess outside.

"I've done give me that hat, only for it was like, you know, take my hat." Schmidt said from behind me as I shook my head in incredulity. "Hey Cece, can you pass me one of those lagers?"

Cece handed Schmidt one of the beers I had brought in before and started banging on the bottoms and the sides. I shrugged him off and grabbed myself a new one. Before I could take a sip, Schmidt dropped the drink in mid air and watched as it fell to the ground and shattered.

"What are you doing Schmidt?" Cece yelled jumping back. I looked at him like he was crazy, but all he did was grin back at us.

"Just curious Nick, just curious. You did say you dropped your beer, right?"

That one was fun to write. Let me know if you are confused about the ending where Schmidt dropped the beer. I'm not sure if it's clear enough to pick up the point Schmidt was making.