Home
I want to be where your heart is home
- "Home", She & Him
It was just a quick moment. Just a run in over breakfast. She was bustling around making two travel mugs to take to work: one green tea and one coffee with light vanilla cream. She took two to work, saying that she needed the coffee to perk her up and the tea to bring down her buzz. She did it every weekday.
Nick was up that morning, scraping together a breakfast to have before he headed over to the bar to do liquor stock.
It was a coincidence, really, that Schmidt and Winston had already gone for the day. A coincidence that it was just Nick and Jess in the kitchen, minding their own business, thinking about what they had left to do before they left the house.
It wasn't a sexy moment. It was simple: Jess slid the lever down on the toaster. Nick had put two pieces of bread in the toaster but had forgotten to switch it to toast.
Jess did it for him.
Nick had been wandering around, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth, busily pouring himself a glass of apple juice.
"Oops, toast is done!" She told him, grabbing the toast from the toaster for him, arranging them on a plate.
And that was it. It was just Jess, being kind.
I could be sweet and I could be sweeter. I want to be where your heart is home. It's a comfort to me.
Nick felt inordinately moved by her sweetness. Nick was rough and Jess was soft. He liked that about her. He appreciated that in both a roommate and a friend.
She sat down at the breakfast bar, slicing strawberries into a plastic container to take as a snack. Nick spit his toothpaste into the sink and sat down next to her, spreading peanut butter onto his toast.
They were silent.
The silence was comfortable. So comfortable.
Why don't we just sit and stare and do nothing? Nothing at all for a while.
She filled him with such an absurd mix of ease and agitation. Jess could illicit passion from Nick; an overwhelming desire to take care of her with the same tenderness that she took care of everyone else.
He contemplated that, unnerved and strangely warm, while she packed up her bag and put her knife in the sink. She buttoned up her bright red pea coat, humming Lady in Red to herself. And then she smiled a full-on grin, waving goodbye: "Have a good day, Nick! See you later?"
Warmth spread throughout Nick's body.
It doesn't get better than home, now does it?
Fin.