I'm not exactly sure when Annie's birthday is within the show, except I heard somewhere it was in December. So for the purpose of this fic it's Dec 28th. I also wanted to acknowledge Crittab, for influencing this holiday in the fic (I wanted one holiday where Jeff and Annie had a fight and the latest chapter in Crittab's 'Moments' fic inspired what happens here.)
"Troy, can you stop eating those." Shirley hissed as she ran over and practically dragged him away from the shrimp platter. "We're not eating anything until the birthday girl arrives."
"I had an early lunch and I'm starving. Besides, Pierce is eating the hummus spread."
"Pierce!" Shirley ran over and slapped the hummus covered pita chip out of his hand.
"OW! Easy there woman. You almost took my hand off. Where are they anyway? They were supposed to be here by now."
The five of them had been in Jeff and Annie's apartment for the past two hours, waiting for Jeff and Annie to show up. Jeff had planned a surprise party for Annie's birthday and enlisted the group to help. The plan was for him to pick her up from work and tell her he was taking her out to dinner. Once they left he would take her home first with the pretence that he was giving her a gift before they went out, where they would all jump up and yell 'surprise' once they walked in.
Abed checked his watch as he absentmindedly played with the spare keys Jeff had given him that morning. "Jeff said he'd have her back by eight."
"Well it's after nine now. They're already an hour late." Britta said as she shifted her feet nervously. "I'm going to the bathroom."
"That's the second time you've gone in half an hour." Shirley said suspiciously.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you the bathroom monitor now?"
"I just want to make sure you're not doing OTHER activities that would make someone continually run to the bathroom."
"You know what Shirley. What I do in there is not yours or anyone else's business." With that Britta marched into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
"Can we PLEASE order the pizza now!" Troy wined.
"We'll order it once Jeff and Ann-ie arrive. Though I could have made homemade pizza that tastes better than any place that'll deliver."
"THEN MAKE SOME PIZZA! NOW! RIGHT NOW!" Troy cried.
"He gets upset when he's hungry." Abed said as Troy paced back and forth. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a candy bar. "Here you go." Troy grabbed it and quickly tore off the wrapper as he practically inhaled it.
"How come he gets candy! I'm starving to!" Pierce yelled. "Where are they already!"
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Jeff groaned as he ran his hands through his hair for what had to be the twentieth time. At this point his carefully worked on bed head style was pretty much gone. He hated fighting with Annie, especially since it was happening on her birthday. But he was NOT going to give in on this.
Just a short hour ago he had been so happy. He had arrived at Annie's office with a bouquet of flowers, ready to take her out for her fake dinner/real surprise party. After hugging him she excitedly showed him the $40 Bed Bath & Beyond gift card her co-workers had given her for her birthday. This of course led to her bringing up how they needed new curtains for the living room. And after uncomfortably beating around the bush, she again brought up how she wanted to get the red curtains with embroidered purple flowers they had seen a couple of weeks ago when they went to buy a new bed spread.
Jeff had hated those curtains the moment he had seen them. They had to be the ugliest curtains he had ever seen, and he generally didn't have an opinion when it came to curtains. But unfortunately he had also seen Annie's face light up once her eyes spotted them. As soon as that happened he knew he was in trouble.
For the past two weeks she had continually tried to win him over. It had gone from him trying to compromise with her and suggest a different curtain, from them arguing over it, to tonight when it finally escalated into a full blown fight. At this point it wasn't even about the stupid curtains (though he still hated them). It was about him wanting to win this one and not give in.
"So you're saying I have stupid taste. Is that it Jeff?"
"I never said that Annie. I said you're taste doesn't go with how the living room is set up. And stop putting words in my mouth. You know I hate that!"
"Oh right! Because all I do is manipulate you! I'm just a shrew of a woman who just HAS to have my way! "
"Well, I wouldn't call it that, but since you brought it up."
She gasped at him as she put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me!"
"Come on Annie! You've been obsessed about those damn curtains since you've saw them. I tried to meet you half way. I tried to agree to something similar. But no, it's always 'I love those curtains. I so want them'. Well I'm telling you right now that there is NO way those curtains are ever going in our living room!"
"Oh right, I forgot, you get to make all the rules!"
"That is so far from the truth!"
"Oh come on Jeff! What about when I wanted that really great coffee table at that flea market and you wouldn't even consider it."
"That thing was hideous! It was gnarled and looked like it was infected with termites."
"It had character! It was better than that terrible granite top one you insisted we get. What if we have kids and one of them hits their head on it?"
"Right, because if we have kids that jagged splinter wood atrocity would have been PERFECT! And what about the bathroom? You picked out the soap dish, the hand towels, the bathmat, the toothbrush holder, the cover for the tissues." Jeff said with rapid fire as he listed each idem off on his fingers.
"You said you were happy with how the bathroom turned out!"
"BECAUSE YOU ALREADY HAD IT ALL PLANNED OUT! YOU DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR MY OPINION! YOU JUST CAME HOME WITH EVERYTHING AND STARTED DECORATING!"
"Can you lower your voice, please." Annie said through clenched teeth, glancing out of her office to make sure no one was around. "I don't want my co-workers to know every detail about my life."
Jeff took a deep breath as he tried to calm down. "Annie. When it comes to how our apartment is set up you've gotten your way a lot more then I have. DON'T even try to deny it." He said as she started to protest. "And most times I bite my tongue because I want you to be happy. But I'm telling you, I hate those curtains. And if they're in our living room I'm going to do everything I can to never come home so I never see them."
"Fine! We won't get the curtains. There, are you happy?"
While a small part of Jeff was genuinely happy that he had won, he still felt bad that he had disappointed Annie. Especially that he did it to her on her birthday. "Not if you're going to be upset about it. Is there a reason those curtains are so important to you?"
He waited as she fidgeted where she stood, amusing him with her kidlike impersonation (especially since the days of him thinking of her as a kid were LONG gone). "No, ok Jeff. I might have more of a case if they reminded me of my childhood or something like that. But the honest truth is I just happen to really like them. If I was living on my own or with Troy and Abed I would have bought them right away."
Jeff sighed deeply as he leaned against her desk. "All right look. How about we come up with a compromise."
Her face lit up as soon as she heard those words. "YOU MEAN-!"
"No Annie, we're not getting those curtains." He waited as she frowned in annoyance. "But, you know that giant decorative vase you saw last month at the mall."
"The purple one covered in flowers?"
"Yea, that one." He said in annoyance. "Well, since you're not getting the curtains…"
"But, we already have a vase. The one your mom gave us after we moved in."
"Yea well…if it happened to meet an unfortunate accident we'd have to get a new one."
Annie walked over to him, still suspicious over his proposal. "I thought you said you didn't like the purple vase?"
"You're right, I don't like that vase. But I HATE those curtains. And I remember how much you liked that vase. If I have to choose between the two I'm picking the vase."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes Annie. You can get the vase. You can get two of them if you really want. Just as long as we don't get those curtains."
She smiled as she took hold of Jeff's hands. "Ok. What curtains do you want then? Because we still need to get new ones."
"I'm a guy. I usually don't think about curtains."
"Well we're just going to have to go look until we find some we both like."
"Haven't I been punished enough?" He playfully said as he kissed her. He quickly pulled away as he glanced at the clock on the wall. "Shit, we've got to go."
Annie's eyes widened as she looked at the clock. "Oh no, we missed our dinner reservation."
"Yea, that was a lie."
"What do you mean?"
"There were other plans. The group and I planned a surprise birthday party for you. Everyone's already there and I was suppose to pretend to bring you home when we all would yell 'surprise'."
"Oh, Jeff. That's so swee-." She brought her hand to her mouth as her jaw dropped in shock. "Wait, so everyone's been waiting there while we've been fighting."
"Fraid so."
"Jeff!" She grabbed his hand as she hurriedly dragged him out of her office. "We have to get there. Everyone's been waiting all this time."
"Ok, ok. Remember to look surprised."
