The Compromise

Jess walked through the garage door with an armful of grocery bags expecting to see Sidney and maybe have him help her with everything, but he was no where to be seen. She sighed, struggled placing the bags on the kitchen island and turned to retrieve some more bags when she heard laughter and shouting coming from the game room. Curious, she walked over to the entryway from the kitchen to see Sid, Tanger, Marc, and surprising her the most, James. They were all huddled on two of the couches playing some sort of video game and were completely unaware of Jess' presence.

"Having fun?" Jess finally spoke and four sets of eyes shifted in the direction of the voice.

"Hey babe! I didn't hear the bell, I'm sorry." Sid quickly rose from his spot, it wasn't his turn with the controller, and walked over to Jess. She couldn't help but smile as he approached her. "What?"

"When was the last time you showered? Or shaved? And how did I not notice the scruff before?" She asked as she ran a cold hand along the minuscule amount of facial hair he was sporting.

"I showered this morning, thank you." He held her hand against his cheek and turned to press an easy kiss to the inside of her palm. "Need help with the feast?"

It was Tuesday, two days before thanksgiving and Jess and Sid invited her entire family up to their house for the meal. It was just a bonus that the three teammates were around and were potentially invited for the meal as well.

"At least help me with the rest of the groceries. I may have gone a little overboard and I picked up a second turkey," she explained as he followed her through the kitchen to the garage where her little Toyota sat next to his parked SUV.

"Your mom is gonna be so pissed that you did that," he laughed.

"Why do you say that? I don't know how much food we are going to need and now that we've invited Larry, Curly, and Mo in the other room I needed to make sure there was enough food to go around!" Jess was quick to explain and got frustrated thinking it was wrong of her to buy another turkey when her parents insisted on bringing one tomorrow when they come up to spend the night.

"Wait, if they are the three stooges then which one am I?" Sid asked seriously.

"You're Shemp," Jess patted Sid's cheek an turned back to her trunk and the rest of the grocery bags. She didn't get far, though, as Sid snaked an arm around the front of her waist, spinning her around and pressing a kiss to her lips.

"Hi," he whispered when he finally broke free of their kiss and pressed his forehead against hers.

"Hi," she echoed.

"Thanks for going to the store for everything. I don't think I would have thought to get this much for one meal. I've never prepared American thanksgiving before."

"I like grocery shopping so it didn't bother me. Now I have all night and all day tomorrow to work. You had the house cleaned though right?"

"Yes I did. And the spare rooms are all ready for our guests." He smiled wanly at her.

"Thank you. Now let's get this inside so you can get back to your game." Sid reached for the box that the turkey sat in as Jess grabbed the last of the bags, closing the trunk an locking her doors in the process.

"You make me laugh." Sid chuckled as he walked ahead of her making carrying a turkey look easy.

"Why do you say that?" She wondered.

"You lock your doors to your car that is parked inside a secure garage attached to an alarmed house."

"I do it out of habit I guess. Never can be too cautious."

Sid nearly dropped the box when he erupted into a fit of laughter.

"What? Are you laughing at me?" Jess asked when he wouldn't stop. "Stop it!" She pleaded with a faint hint of a pout evident.

"I'm sorry baby," he said between giggles. He set the box down and turned to her, pulling her close to him, "You're just so cute."

She feigned anger, attempted to escape his embrace, but gave in when his hold grew tighter. He planted his lips against her cheek giving her a wet, sloppy kiss. "I love you," he said when he finally smacked his lips away from her.

"Love you too," she mumbled and threw her arms around his neck or a hug. "Now go back to your game."

"Too late, Lazy won. Oh! What are you making us Jess?" Marc asked as he and the other two guys walked into the kitchen.

"I'm not making anything exceptional tonight. This is everything for Thursday. You guys coming?" All three nodded their heads.

"Vero is excited. She wanted to know if she could do anything," Marc asked as he sat at the island staring at all the ingredients for dinner.

"We've got everything under control, you guys just need show up." Sid moved to open the fridge and placed the turkey at the bottom shelf.

"Well, Jess does at least," James teased. Everyone laughed except for sidney who just stared James down.

"Hey, I may not be a whiz in the kitchen, but I can at least help with putting the groceries away." To prove his point, Sid continued unloading the bags scattered about the kitchen.

Jess rolled her eyes at him and turned to the other three. She still found it strange at how smoothly things were going between Sid and James. All drama aside, they realized they had a lot in common besides hockey and seemed to have forgotten their squabble nearly six weeks ago. She thought it funny how quickly men could get over their problems, yet women could still hold grudges.

She got caught lost in thought by all four of the guys, she was so focused on recounting how easy it ended up being to help James want to stay in pittsburgh.

"Babe, you okay?" Sid asked as he stopped unloading a bag and watched her.

"Oh yeah I'm fine. Just thinking," Jess remained vague then turned back to the island to help Sid unload everything. "Are you guys sticking around? I can make a pizza or something."

"I'd love to stay, but Vero is at home so I must be going," Marc said.

"Oh, I don't know. If you're making it I might be better off leaving," James joked. He pretended to be in pain. Jess definitely wasn't used to his being so comfortable to kid around with her.

"Well I'm staying. Katherine has the baby back home with her parents. They won't be flying in until Sunday," Kris piped in, "Besides, who can mess up pizza?"

"She can," James interjected quickly making Sid laugh. He remained relatively quiet as he focused on putting away the groceries.

"Hey! I'm an excellent cook! It never killed you did it?" Jess directed her question towards James.

"I'm just picking on ya, Jess. You are very good at cooking." James sat down at the island next to Kris as Sid walked Marc to the door.

"Do you want some help?" Kris asked. Jess studied the two guys sitting in front of her and inwardly laughed. They were like oversized teenage boys just waiting to be fed.

"No, I bought a couple packages of pre-made pizza dough. It won't take long. James I know what you like on your pizza, but Kris what about you?"

"I'm easy to please. Whatever you choose will be fine by me." The two guys remained seated as they watched Jess prepare the meal.

"I just want pepperoni!" They could hear Sid about as he came jogging back into the kitchen.

"I'm not making four individual pizzas here people. Can we not compromise and decide on toppings for two?" Jess asked.

None of the guys said a word making Jess decide on how she wanted the pizzas. She moved about the kitchen as the three looked on as though they had gotten in trouble. She dismissed them and they quickly left her to her own devices. She was just placing the second pizza in the oven to bake when she heard a soft spoken "hey" to her right.

"Seriously, are you okay?" Sid asked, a look of concern permeating off his face.

"I'm sorry, yeah I will be. Just getting used to you and James getting along so well," Jess shrugged her shoulders and gave Sid a sad smile.

"This is what we needed though. Don't you think?" He leaned against the counter across from her and waited for a response.

"I'm really just nervous about Thursday. My boyfriend and my ex-boyfriend celebrating a holiday with my family."

"I knew that's what was bothering you," Sid said as he moved to stand in front of Jess. "And you have nothing to worry about. It's not just him that will be here."

"Yeah I know. I wish I can remember him around the kids. I don't know how they are going to act, you know? Especially Sophie being the oldest one and all," Jess explained.

"I don't have to come to dinner guys," James interrupted. He and Tanger were both leaning in the doorway, clearly eavesdropping on the couple.

"Oh no! You definitely should. Your appetite alone will get rid of most of the food anyways. I'm just having trouble remembering things still."

"Well you won't remember me around the kids because I met them like two times before we moved back here last year."

"Really?" Jess seemed uncertain.

"Yeah, really. And you're nervous? I'm downright terrified that your mom will have my neck!"

"Then why are you coming over?" Tanger asked curious.

"Because I have nothing else going on," James said shrugging his shoulders.

The oven beeped indicating the pizza was ready. Sid, having remained quiet the entire time, moved to take them out to serve up. Jess smiled appreciatively towards him and followed him to the stove with the pizza cutter. They worked side by side ignoring the two bantering back and forth about the NFL game scheduled for Thanksgiving night. Without even saying a word, Sid affectionately threw his arm over Jess's shoulders and pressed his lips to her temple. She in turn wrapped her arms around his waist and reciprocated the embrace, not noticing the two behind them had stopped talking and were watching the pair.

James smiled. He knew they would get to this point where he could be in the room with Sid and Jess and not feel jealous or yearn to be the one next to her. And he saw it more in the last month than he was willing to see in previous months. Their relationship was light years ahead of where he and Jess were before. He loved her that much he knew. But he wasn't willing to give up everything for her. He may have said it because he knew that is what she would want to hear. But they were young, and they still are, and he wanted to enjoy life. And he can now see how their relationship was like water and oil, they didn't mix well. Jess was an old soul, yearning to settle down and be a family. She had her fun, he got to experience it with her, but she got over it and found someone that could stay at home with her as she liked. Sidney was a much better match for her than anyone else, including himself.

“James!” Jess shouted and erupted into giggles making the other guys laugh too. James felt his face heat from being caught staring.

“What? Oh sorry,” he said sheepishly as he focused on Jess and the plate of pizza she was handing him.

“You are sort of off in your own little world there, you alright?” Sid asked as he sat down with James and Kris. Jess served herself and took the last stool at the end of the island.

“Yeah, I was just thinking.”

“Oh that could be dangerous!” Kris joked in between large bites of food.

“Ha, yeah I know.”

“What were you thinking about?” Jess asked giving James an encouraging smile.

“Just how perfect you two are together.” James shrugged his shoulders and dug into his pizza. The other three remained quiet and in looking at Sid and Jess James could see how contemplative they were being.

“I really appreciate how you two have been with me these last few weeks and all this time spent together allowed for all the awkwardness to melt away. And now just seeing how you two seamlessly worked together made me truly understand that there are ways to make your life fit perfectly together.”

When no one spoke James started to feel embarrassed for pouring his thoughts out to them. “I’m just happy for you two.”

Sid spoke first, “Thanks man. That was really awesome for you to say.”

“I value you both as friends and I want to keep it that way. No hard feelings.”

“Same goes for us Jimmy,” Jess finally said.

Notes