I know, I know, I need to finish my other stories, but I can't get these savory little stories out of my head! :-)
"Hey Jess, have you seen my set of Allen wrenches?" Nick had a hand on either side of the door frame, leaning into her room.
It was late in the afternoon, and Jess had been sorting through her clothes since lunch. She walked out of her closet with several dresses thrown over her left arm, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Um, who?"
"My Allen wrenches. You know, the ones you used when you insisted on buying me a shelf for the pants in my closet?" He folded his arms across his chest as he stepped into her room.
She thought for a moment. "Wait, you mean those cute little metal things shaped like L's?"
Nick rolled his eyes. "Yes, Jess. And they aren't cute, they are TOOLS."
She pointed to her desk before turning around to continue organizing her closet. "Right there."
Nick lunged forward to grab them. "Tha...Wait, what is this?!" She popped her head back out of the closet as he pointed to a large white sticker across the center of the set.
She smiled. "Oh, it was too hard to read the little numbers, so I made a label."
Nick held it closer to his face to get a better look. "You put a label on them?"
Jess walked over and flipped the set over. "Well yeah, see how the sizes are just little raised up numbers? No one can actually READ that Nick." She shrugged. "So I labeled them myself."
He flipped the set back over, and saw her neat handwriting across the white label, with tiny little arrows pointing to each slot. He raised his eyebrows. "Huh, that actually makes sense."
She smiled. "Well, of course it does." She rolled her eyes and returned to her closet once again.
Nick shrugged his shoulders and went back to his room. He was gone for only a minute when he huffed back into her room, more irritated this time. Jess had finished hanging her dresses and was dumping a box of hats and gloves onto the bed.
"Jessica," She jumped at his loud voice. "Did you take my tape measure too?!"
She threw her hands in the air exasperated. "God Nick, I don't know. It's probably on my desk." She gestured towards her desk while muttering under her breath, "so much for cleaning my closet today."
"What was that?" Nick called as he rummaged around.
She sighed loudly. "Nothing, Nick."
He was rustling papers and slamming things around on her desk when she walked over to the table with her sewing machine, snatched the tape measure, and held it out in front of his face in frustration.
"Here. I'm already cleaning my closet, I don't feel like reorganizing my desk too!"
"You TOLD me to look for it on here," he gestured across the desk. "And look, it wasn't even OVER HERE! I thought you said you didn't know where it was?" He growled angrily, taking it from her hand.
She put her hands on her hips. "Well maybe I just remembered. Do you want it back or not?"
Nick closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them up again, Jess was staring straight at him with a scowl on her face. "Look Jess, if you need something done, just ask me or...at least put the tools back!"
She blew her bangs out of her face and rolled her eyes. "FINE! Geez, Miller."
"What was it even doing with your sewing machine anyway?"
She shrugged. "I may have accidentally cut through my fabric one."
Nick sighed loudly and shook his head. "Fine, just...ugh." He stomped out of the room, slamming his bedroom door behind him.
Jess marched over to her own door and slammed it shut in response.
Jess spun on her heels, yanked her hair off her face to fix her ponytail, and walked back over to her bed, aggressively sorting the pile of items on her bed. She gradually calmed herself down and went back to organizing her closet. Losing track of time, she looked at her clock a little while later and saw that it had been over two hours since Nick had come into her room. It was getting late for dinner, so she decided to finish up and see what the guys were doing. She grabbed the last of the boxes to return to the shelf and realized it was too high for her to reach. Defeated, she put the box back on the bed and made her way across the hall to Nick's room.
"Hey Jess." Winston was coming from his room and startled her as she crossed the hallway.
"Oh, hey." She jumped back, and craned her neck to take a look in Nick's room, the door standing open.
Winston followed her gaze. "He left like an hour ago. Something about the hardware store? Said he'd be back later."
Jess frowned. "Oh."
"Need help?"
Jess smiled and pointed to her room. "Actually, I need help getting a box up on the top shelf in my closet."
Winston shrugged his shoulders and walked through her doorway, Jess at his heels. "Sure." He pointed to the box on the bed. "This one?"
Jess nodded and walked to her closet, pointing to an empty spot on the shelf. "Thanks. Right up there."
Winston placed the box on the shelf and turned around. "So what were you and Nick fighting about earlier?"
Jess let out a laugh. "Oh, you heard that?" Winston just raised his eyebrows, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Jess waved her hand dismissively. "Something about me borrowing his tools and not returning them. You know Nick about his tools." She rolled her eyes.
Winston's eyes grew large. "Wait, he lets you TOUCH his tools?" Jess gave him a strange look. "You know he doesn't allow ANYONE to touch them, right? Once I borrowed a hammer and he threatened to use it to break all the lamps in my room." His voice got low as he leaned towards her nervously glancing around. "And you know I don't DO the dark."
Jess frowned and shrugged her shoulders. "He didn't seem to mind when I asked."
Winston shook his head and let out a laugh, muttering under his breath as he turned toward the door. "Man he wasn't kidding about this love thing." Jess was taken aback hearing Winston use the term love, and a surprised gasp escaped her lips. Winston turned around, not realizing he said anything at all out of the ordinary. "What?"
Jess just stared at him wide eyed. "Um, nothing." Winston turned once again toward the door. "Wait, Winston? You know you said LOVE, right?"
Winston turned around and seeing the confused look on her face, his eyes began to nervously dart back and forth. "Well, you know. I mean. It's just a word. Right?" His arms crossed back and forth frantically in front of his chest. "Ha, good 'ol Winston, always saying things that don't mean a damn thing." He stopped short, made a fast turn on his heels and darted out the door. He was down the hallway locked in his room before Jess could even get out into the hallway.
Had Nick really told Winston he was in love with her? Jess shook her head. There was no way that Nick and Winston would talk about that kind of stuff to each other, would they? Winston was probably just making an assumption based on how much time they were spending together. Yeah, that's probably what he meant.
With Winston still locked his room and the rest of the loft empty, she decided to make something quick to eat and wait for Nick to get home. She laid on the couch catching up on her DVR'd tv until around nine and decided to just take a shower and head to bed. She grabbed her phone off the coffee table and sent Nick a quick text. She was a little disappointed that he hadn't at least called, but remembering her conversation with Winston, she figured he was probably still pouting about his tools. Even though she thought he was being a little ridiculous, she did make a mental note to not assume that she was free to barge in and borrow his stuff whenever she felt like it. Sometimes being in a relationship with Nick was so unexpectedly complicated. Even normal roommate stuff suddenly seemed off limits now, because it suddenly turned into breaking arbitrary relationship rules. She wouldn't have thought twice about borrowing something like his laptop when they were just roommates, but now that they were a couple, it was awkward and made her feel like a crazy stalker girlfriend by using something so personal. It honestly gave her a headache sometimes trying to figure it all out.
She shook her head, picked up her empty ice cream bowl and teacup, and walked them over to the sink. She heard the front door open, but by the time she made it out into the hallway, she only saw Nick for a split second before he disappeared through is bedroom door and shut it behind him. She sighed and made her way to her room where she grabbed her robe and headed for the shower.
After her shower, Jess wrapped her wet hair in a towel and wiped the fog off the mirror in front of her. She hated fighting with Nick, but he hadn't even given her the chance to apologize, because he had disappeared all day. She finished brushing her teeth, put her glasses on and made her way back to her room. At this point she just wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep, so she quickly changed into her pajamas and climbed under the covers. Just as she was ready to take her glasses off and go to sleep, she saw a box on the top of her desk with a big purple bow. She smiled and sat up, making her way to her desk. She reached for the envelope on the top of the box and opened it.
As much as I love sharing things with you, I thought you might like your own better. Nick
She shook her head and started to unwrap the box. When she opened the cardboard flaps, she giggled and pulled out a rectangular canvas tool bag. Inside, Nick had put together a toolkit just for her. Not only was it filled with every tool she could imagine, he had taken hot pink duct tape and carefully wrapped it around the handle on each one. Her eyes softened as she smiled. She grabbed the toolbox and ran across the hall. Nick's door was open and he was laying on his bed with his back towards her, staring off into space. She gently put the toolkit on the floor in front of the nightstand and slipped into bed behind him, wrapping her left arm around his waist and laying her cheek on his.
She grabbed his hand as she whispered. "I love it."
He smiled and rolled over onto his back. "I thought you might." He started to play with her hair, still wet from her shower. "I AM sorry though, Jess. You can borrow my things whenever you want, I really don't mind."
She leaned over and kissed him. "I should have put them back, I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Do you really like it?"
She let out a little squeal. "I LOVE it, Nick. It's so perfect!"
"I looked all over today for something girly, but all the decorated girl tools were way too whimpy. You need REAL tools," he winked at her.
She smiled and let out a small laugh. "Did you really wrap ALL those tools in duct tape yourself?"
He smiled proudly. "Yes I did." He laughed and pursed his lips together. "I thought the fluorescent pink tape was a nice touch."
She slapped his chest, still laughing. "That was a pretty ingenious idea, Miller."
He nodded and gave her a wink, as he pulled her head towards his for another kiss. "Thank you. Came up with it all by myself."
She made a surprised expression. "Oh, really." She laid her head on his shoulder and hugged his chest. "It's really amazing, Nick. Thank you." She turned onto her stomach and rested her chin on his chest, looking up at him. "You know, you have to teach me how to use them all though."
He kissed her forehead. "Deal." He wrapped his arms around her. "So are you ready for bed?"
She rolled her eyes. "Soooo ready."
He gently took his right hand and pushed her shoulder. "Well go turn out the light woman, and come to bed."
She laughed as she sat up. She quickly ran to the door to hit the light switch and took a running leap back into bed as he held the covers up for her. She snuggled next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. In a deep voice she said, "man go sleep". She felt his chest rise with his laughter and she hugged her arm across his waist. They both closed their eyes and started to drift off to sleep when Jess opened her eyes again and whispered softly, "Nick?"
His eyes remained closed as he grumbled a barely audible, "Yeah?"
She nervously started making circles on his arm with her fingers, her head remaining comfortably in the crook of his neck. "You're so sweet, and...this is the best relationship I've ever had..." She felt him softly catch his breath as she paused. "I just. I needed to tell you that."
Nick smiled and squeezed his arms around her tightly. His left hand swept softly over her shoulder, pulling her away from her face and down her back. "Me too, Jess."
She relaxed into his chest. "Goodnight, Nick."
"Goodnight."
I know, there's no TOOL innuendos. I needed this to set up for a later chapter. Just trust me. ;-)