"Nick! Nicholas!" Schmidt boomed as he rattled Nick's bedroom door.
"What the..." Nick grumbled as he jerked his head up, opening his eyes to a mass of dark curls encompassing him.
"Nick, come on man, there are movers here." Schmidt whined impatiently.
"Alright, alright. Give me a minute to at least get decent Schmidt!" Nick hollered back.
Startled by the loud boisterous voices, Jess raised her head up from Nick's chest, squinting her eyes as she searched out his face. "Ermmm... What's going on Nick?"
"The delivery guys are here. I'm gonna have to get up." He said as he stretched his arms above his head and let out an audible yawn.
"What time is it?" Jess breathed.
"How am I supposed to know, I don't have a clock."
Jess pushed up off his chest and propped herself next to him. "What do you mean you don't have a clock? How do you get up for work?"
"I have an internal clock Jess!"
Jess gave him a skeptical look, "I know you don't believe in watches or clocks, but that's just ludicrous!"
"I never said I don't believe in them Jess. But I'll tell you what's ludicrous, relying on a damn watch that runs on batteries. Who sets the time if the batteries die?"
"You do, you dummy!"
"That's just crazy Jess, why would I set the watch? And tell me this, why should I rely on some stupid alarm clock? What if the power goes out?" He swatted a hand into the air irritably, "Nah, I'm better off relying on my own circadian rhythms. Besides, if I don't wake up, there's always someone home in the early evening making some god awful racket."
As maddening and stupid an argument as it was, she couldn't argue his last point. He worked nights and he had never missed a shift unless he was sick.
"Come on Nick!" Schmidt complained.
"Jesus Christ Schmidt! Just tell them to leave the fucking mattress in the hallway! I'll come out and get it in a God Damn Minute!"
"They need a signature." Schmidt uttered.
"So sign for it!" Nick bellowed.
"Why is he home? Doesn't he work until 5?" Jess asked, immediately realizing they had slept the entire day and that Reagan could arrive home any minute.
She quickly rose out of his bed, "What do I do Nick? You got to get me out of here before Schmidt, or even worse, Reagan catches us!"
"Ok, ok! Calm down. Just stand in the closet and I'll go out into the hallway with Schmidt. You leave when we're out the door. Ok?"
"Yeah ok, sounds like a plan!" Jess whispered back as she moved behind his closet door.
Nick pulled his jeans on and slipped a hoodie over his head before opening his bedroom door, only to find a somber, but impatient Schmidt standing there. "What took you so long?"
"Urgh..." Nick breathed as he shoved past Schmidt. "Come on Man, help me bring in the mattress and box spring."
Reagan moved past the two men who were entering the front door carrying the box spring.
"Hey Guys" she greeted as she swiftly proceeded towards their shared bedroom.
Nick nearly dropped the oddly shaped object as he realized that Jess may not of had enough time to escape his room.
"Jesus Nick, watch what you're doing!" Schmidt griped as the heavy object wobbled out of his grip.
Nick scowled at Schmidt as he bent down to re-balance his end of the box spring.
"Ouff!" Reagan exhaled as she ran straight into Jess, (who had just taken a chance to flee the room).
"Oops, pardon me!" Jess excused herself as she tried to get around Reagan.
"Wait! Why are you coming out of our room?" Reagan asked pointing towards her and Nick's doorway.
"Umm... I was looking for Nick, but I realized he's in the hallway. Oh hey Nick, there you are." signalling his presence over Reagan's shoulder when she saw him appear.
"Look Reagan, there he is!" Jess motioned towards him.
"Yeah I know, I just saw him." Reagan scoffed stating the obvious.
He was standing behind Reagan with the box spring, which was now resting on the floor and blocking her own bedroom door.
"Would you two mind moving, so that Schmidt and I can bring this in. We still need to get the mattress from out in the main hallway."
Both women ushered themselves away from the bedroom; Jess went towards the washroom and Reagan moved to the living room, allowing Schmidt and Nick to finish their task at hand.
"Alright we're done!" Nick announced as he came back out into the living room, fiercely rubbing his hands together.
"Finally!" Reagan exclaimed as she sprang up from the couch. "I can't wait to try out our new bed Nicky." she declared as she skipped towards their shared room.
"Hey Nick, what time did you want to go to The Little Pickle?" Jess called out absentmindedly as she made her way out of the bathroom.
Reagan reared her head back and shot a look at Jess then turned to Nick, "WHAT!?"
"What?" Jess echoed.
"Wait, so does that mean he doesn't actually have to go to work tonight and that he lied to me?" Reagan questioned using air quotes.
Schmidt gave Nick a questionable, but sympathetic look and quickly darted back to his own bedroom. He didn't want to get in the crosshairs of the two women.
Nick could feel the sweat start to drip down his lower back.
"Ummm... did I say The Little Pickle, I meant The Griffin." Jess was squirming now trying to find away out.
"Nick did you lie to me?" Reagan demanded as she whirled around towards him.
Wiping his brow, Nick quickly gave up. "Yeah Reagan I lied. Thanks a lot Jess!"
"I think you two should discuss this as adults over drinks, WITHOUT ME!" Jess hollered at the two of them clearly exasperated from being put in such an awkward position.
"Well I'd love to finish our conversation Jess, so maybe you and I should get a drink." Nick indicated as he pointed between himself and Jess.
"You know what after last night, the only drink I can handle is room temperature milk." Jess accentuated the "ilk".
"You guys got crazy last night?" Nick knowingly winked at Jess.
"What was that Nick? Why did you just wink at Jess?" Reagan questioned him clearly annoyed.
"I would love to finish our conversation Reagan, but Jess and I started ours first, so I think we should finish ours earlier."
"Listen, don't worry about it, I think we should just forget all about this!" Reagan muttered as she turned to go back into the bedroom.
"I'm feeling a little tired anyways, so why don't you two continue this conversation at the bar, by yourselves!" Jess piped up.
"No Jess, we need to finish our talk!" Nick demanded.
"Nick, you and Reagan need to talk about what happened!" Jess urged.
"Fine! Reagan let's go. Jess you're coming too!"
20 minutes later they all found themselves sitting in a booth at The Little Pickle heedlessly staring at the menus.
"Do you know what I think is really great? That Nick made time for us, With. His. Very. Busy. Work. Schedule." Reagan emphasized as she swayed back and forth in her seat.
"You know what might be fun, if we were all just direct. Just, you know... for laughs." Jess shook her head a little. She was going to need something a little stiffer than a milk to survive this evening.
"Well I think it's really great that we all, you know just... are all acting and living like one big family. One big happy NON-SECRET family!" Nick stated clearly distraught.
"I'm too hung over to deal with this, so I'm just going to say it! Reagan knows that you lied to her about your fake bar shift and Reagan, Nick knows that you kissed me last night. And I may have lied about Nick and I fooling around the other night." Jess bit her lip.
"JESS!" Nick and Reagan both shouted in unison.
"I'm sorry, but now it's all out there! No more secrets, so let's just talk about it!" Jess protested.
"So wait, let me get this straight, you and Nick had sex the other night?" Reagan's voice was full of rage.
"Waitress, can I get a tequila and glass of Jack and coke?" Jess hollered out to the pretty young blond who was standing at the next table.
"Jess, you can't handle that kind of liquor!" Nick muttered under his breath, his voice was full of concern.
"I'm an adult Miller and I will drink what I want!" Jess rasped.
"Fine, but you will regret it tomorrow." He warned.
Reagan slammed her fist down on to the table, "Will someone answer my question?"
"Listen Reagan, Nick and I did not have sexual intercourse, but we did fool around. But in his defense, so did you and I."
Reagan was incensed, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you trying to justify what you and Nick did as ok, just because you and I made it to second base last night?"
"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! I thought you guys only kissed?" Nick's eyes were wide; all his girl on girl fantasies began to swirl in his head as he pictured both Jess and Reagan making out on the loft couch.
"Down boy!" Reagan warned. "It was no big deal, we just made out a little."
"So what you're saying is, that it's ok for you to fool around, because Jess' is a girl? But for some reason it's not ok that I fooled around with Jess, because I'm a guy? Talk about a double standard!"
"Well yeah Nick, you guys use to be in a relationship. So yeah, I would say it's worse!"
Nick was seething and at a complete loss for words.
The waitress came back over and placed the drinks down onto the table. Jess immediately knocked back the small shot glass and chugged down her mixed drink. "Bring me another Tequila and keep the Jacks' coming!" Jess demanded.
Nick shot Jess a look of disapproval and turned his attention to his beer, for some reason there was a pickle in it.
"Listen guys, I'm actually glad this is all out in the open now."
"Really why's that Jess?" Reagan inquired bitterly.
"Well, I've always wanted to have a threesome and I just see this as a perfect opportunity. I mean it's obvious that I find you really attractive Reagan." Reagan grinned smugly.
"And I kinda enjoyed our brief, but illicit affair last night." Nick's ears peeked up when he heard this. Jess could of sworn that he was about to faint right there at the table.
"And besides, we are all pretty familiar with each other, so who better to engage in the act with, than with the two of you." Jess stated matter-of-factly as she motioned her hands awkwardly back and forth at each of them.
"I don't think..." Nick started, but was quickly cut off.
"Yeah why not!" Reagan said abruptly. "He's man enough to handle the both of us, right Nick?" Reagan quipped at him as she shuffled closer to Jess and wrapped her arm up around her shoulder and began caressing her thumb along Jess' jaw.
Reagan was eyeing Nick, searching for any slight indication that he wanted her to stop, but he just sat there and stared back open-mouthed.
"Wait are we going to do this right now?" Jess questioned nervously.
Reagan gently lifted Jess' chin up and gazed into her eyes, "Yeah, we're gonna do this right now!" she whispered breathlessly.
And with that last breath, she lightly grazed her tongue over Jess' lips. Jess instinctively parted her full lips and welcomed Reagan's tongue as it intruded it's way into her mouth, she then gently pushed back with her own, deepening the kiss even further.
"Waitress! Can we get the check please?" Nick squawked as he eagerly waved the waitress over.
Ok, so the next chapter will take some time to write, because I'm still not comfortable with the dialogue between three people in one scene. Feedback for previous chapters will help.