by Rainey Daye
* * * *
Thursday morning found Jess and Alex in the kitchen, getting the turkey in the oven and preparing for the feast to come. Maggie and her dad spent most of the day sitting on the couch and flipping through college games so as to stay out of the way. Lois insisted on helping, so the guys had asked her if she could whip together a pie for desert. Lois was currently working on both a pumpkin and an apple pie while Alex and Jess bustled around the kitchen, a portable TV on the counter so they could also enjoy the many football games.
Lois brought her husband and daughter two hot apple ciders and joined them on the couch, commenting on the happy chaos in the kitchen and how she was positive dinner was going to turn out fabulous. Maggie took a deep breath and savored the delicious aroma wafting gently into the living room and laughed as her stomach growled in response. Yet when she went to try to raid the kitchen for snacks, the guys shooed her out, telling her to save her appetite for dinner. It didn’t help matters that she saw Jess popping a piece of stuffing in his mouth, but when she pointed that out with a pout, he simply grinned and said it was the chef’s prerogative to do some taste testing before laying out his culinary masterpiece for public consumption.
The house line also rang several times during the day, always a member of Jess’s or Alex’s family calling to wish them happy Thanksgiving and chatting for a few minutes with Maggie before she would take the handset into the kitchen to give to the recipient of the phone call. On one of her trips, she did manage to snag a bag of chips, and she and her dad hid them in the couch cushions and snacked on them surreptitiously as they watched a game before they each went upstairs to dress for dinner, which Jess announced would be in about an hour.
At 4:00 p.m., Alex appeared in the archway and asked Maggie if she would help him set the dining room table. She waved off her mom’s offer to help and eagerly rose to pull out Aunt Ida’s white linen tablecloth and napkins from the huge buffet. She then pulled out the china from the hutch and the silver from the drawer, and set five place settings.
Afterwards, she entered the kitchen to see Jess bent over the oven, basting the turkey, and ran her hand over his butt appreciatively. “Behave,” he reprimanded her, and then he dropped a quick kiss on her smiling lips.
Alex pulled her away and handed over five wineglasses to be placed on the table, telling her to come back in for more supplies. She made numerous trips after that, putting out water glasses of clear-cut crystal, condiments, a plate of rolls wrapped in a napkin to hold in their warmth, and the numerous side dishes, passing Alex as he lent a hand. Finally, she stood back while the men pulled the turkey from the oven and transferred it to a serving platter. Maggie unnecessarily held open the swinging kitchen door and then scooted around in front of them, making sure the center of the table was clear for the coup de grace in the form of a golden-brown, twenty-two-pound turkey.
Maggie then went into the living room to let her folks know that dinner was ready, and her dad turned off the game before he stood up from the couch and guided his wife into the transformed dining room.
Maggie seated her parents on one side of the table while she poured them both wine, followed by ice water in their glasses. She had just set the pitcher down on the buffet when Jess and Alex entered the room, having made a mad dash upstairs after placing the turkey on the table to change out of their jeans and into slacks and crewneck sweaters. Jess took the seat next to Maggie, placing her to the right of Alex, who was given the chair at the head of the table since it was his house. Lois was to his left, and Alex smiled at her as he took his seat.
“This is our first Thanksgiving here, so we don’t have any traditions in place,” Alex informed her parents. “Would you care to make a suggestion?”
Lois beamed at him and offered to say grace. Everyone dutifully bowed their heads, and Lois waxed poetic, giving thanks for family and friends, and friends who become family. They all murmured “amen,” and then Alex presented the carving knife to Bill and asked if he would do the honors.
Bill started to decline, but he saw the hopeful look on Alex’s face, letting him think that this young man was afraid that he would do a hatchet job on the turkey, so Bill stood up and carefully began to carve, fully aware of Alex and Jess’s intense scrutiny, again letting him think they were filing his actions away for any future endeavors.
Bill asked for each of their plates in turn and placed a generous slab of succulent meat on each of them. He then seated himself and everyone began to pass around the side dishes. Sweet corn, brown sugar and marshmallow-covered sweet potatoes, creamed peas, broccoli spears, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and rolls, along with the appropriate condiments, were soon piled on everyone’s plates.
Once everyone was served, the five of them sat there admiring their laden plates before they picked up their forks and dug in en masse. The following few minutes were filled with sighs and moans of appreciation for the delicious feast, and once the edge of their hunger was sated, conversation began to flow easily around the table. Everyone had seconds and even thirds, and the wine glasses were refilled. As the feasting finally began to slow, Lois stood up and said she was going to slip the pies in the oven and admonished everyone to make sure that they saved room for a piece.
Jess went in to help her and returned a few minutes later with five small plates and a container of whipped cream for the pumpkin pie. Lois and Jess finally returned to the table, each carrying a pie. Jess laid his on the table and disappeared into the kitchen, only to return with a container of vanilla-bean ice cream and a scooper. Everyone had a slice of both pies, and Jess deposited a generous scoop of ice cream next to each slice of apple and an equally generous glob of whipped cream on each slice of pumpkin.
Alex groaned as he looked at his two deserts. “I’m never gonna be able to get up from this table,” he announced good-naturedly.
“Neither is anyone else,” Jess pointed out with a grin.
Everyone managed to clean their desert plates, yet afterwards they sat listlessly, unable to muster the energy to rise from the table. They contented themselves with sipping their wine and even managed to nibble on a few pieces of turkey that they picked off the bird. Eventually, Bill pushed himself away from the table and, with a herculean effort, rose to his feet.
“That was an excellent meal,” he said. “My compliments to the chefs.”
Lois rose, too, and offered to help with the cleanup. “Nonsense, Mom,” Maggie chided her. “You’re a guest. Go in the living room and keep Daddy company.”
Against her protests, she was shooed from the dining room, and the three roommates stared at each other over the table.
“It was a great meal,” Maggie said softly as she sat back in her chair, too stuffed to move.
“We should get a dog,” Alex blurted.
Jess and Maggie looked at him incredulously. “A dog?”
“Yeah, something to give the leftovers to,” Alex said, and the others laughed.
Finally, Maggie pushed herself away from the table and went into the kitchen to dig out containers to put the leftovers in. Within an hour, the dining room was cleaned up, the leftovers were in the fridge, and Maggie was utilizing the dishwasher to help her get through the massive amount of dirty dishes. They then went upstairs, changed into roomy, comfortable sweats, and joined her parents in the living room.
* * * *
Maggie and Lois were gone by 5:00 a.m. to hit some of the Black Friday sales and duke it out with the holiday crowd. Maggie managed to get a lot of her Christmas shopping done, but when she got home in the early afternoon, she announced that if she never attended another Black Friday sale, it would be too soon. She hauled her bags of purchases upstairs and fell lengthwise across her bed to take a much-needed nap.
By 5:00 p.m., the five of them were in Jesse’s car again, headed for the city. Jess parked in an underground garage, and they joined the mass migration headed toward the square where the giant Christmas tree was set up. Bill sprang for hot
chocolate from a street vendor, and they sipped their drinks while maneuvering for a good spot to view the proceedings. Jess and Alex stood shoulder to shoulder, and Maggie sighed and leaned back against them while she watched her parents excitedly taking in the big city sights. She was surprisingly happy to share this experience with her parents, but she was also anxious to be free of their presence for awhile and mentally berated herself for feeling that way. She had no idea when she would next see her folks, so she decided that she should enjoy their company while she could.
She had had a brief moment of panic when she couldn’t find her camera earlier, but then Alex had located it for her, saving the day. Thankfully her parents had brought their own camera with them on Wednesday, so were able to snap pictures to their hearts’ content during their tour. She handed Jess her hot chocolate now and proceeded to snap photos of the celebration, catching her folks and lovers in both candid shots and staged poses. She mentally kicked herself for not thinking to take pictures of Thanksgiving dinner, but she chalked it up to ignorance and decided to let it be a learning experience and reminded herself to always have her camera at hand in the future.
The light display was spectacular, and Maggie managed to get pictures of the tree and her family posing by it once the crowd started to dissipate. They then joined the swarm of pedestrian foot traffic and walked over to the bistro that Jess had made reservations at. Afterwards, they walked off their meal, window shopping and taking in the decorations scattered throughout the city. Both Maggie and Lois fell asleep on the car ride home.
* * * *
Saturday was spent with Maggie and her folks sitting quietly at home, catching up on news and bemoaning the fact that Maggie wasn’t coming home over winter break. Jess and Alex considerately left the three of them alone and instead took off in their separate cars to spend some time with their families since they hadn’t seen them on Thanksgiving. Their mothers thought it was awfully sweet of them to host Maggie’s parents, while their dads just eyed them speculatively. After all, they had met Maggie a couple of times and recognized her as the sensual woman that she was. Their dads naturally assumed that their son was angling to get her into bed. Both Jess and Alex were playing a complicated game with complicated rules. It was a bit hard keeping all the balls in the air as they attempted to juggle their private lives, their social lives, their personal lives, their love lives, and their family lives.
The two men met up at a campus bar around four, and Alex groaned into his beer that he was going to have to start referring to crib notes in order to not slip up with anyone.
“I hear you,” Jess commiserated. “Danny is convinced that I’m doing Maggie and that it’s only a matter of time before you get so jealous that you kick the both of us out of the house.”
“What did you tell him?” Alex wanted to know.
“Number one, that is was none of his business. And number two, I asked him if he thought I was so stupid as to share a house with someone I’m sleeping with.”
“Well, you are,” Alex pointed out with a grin.
“Yeah, but it got him off my back after he thought about it and pointed out that shacking up with someone is the first step toward commitment, and he said that I’m too immature for that.”
Alex snorted. “Your brother doesn’t know you very well, does he?”
“Nope.” Jess grinned. “And that’s the way I prefer it.”
They drank their beers in silence for awhile before Jess asked the question that had been weighing on his mind since the previous night. “You did remember to delete the photos we took at Troy’s motel before you ‘found’ her camera, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I printed them out after I downloaded them to disk and put everything in the bottom desk drawer, in Aunt Ida’s lockbox.”
“Good. Maggie doesn’t have the key to that.”
“And Maggie has never expressed a desire to snoop.”
“Which makes her the perfect girlfriend.”
Alex looked mournful. “Is she really?” he asked softly.
Jess speared Alex with an incredulous look. “Are you kidding? Name me one thing that isn’t perfect about her.”
Alex sighed. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Then tell me,” Jess urged.
“It’s just that I don’t think we have her heart.”
“We’ve talked about this before,” Jess began.
“I know. And I’m aware that this is all relatively new to her. And she’s been a real trooper, willing to try things with us. But let’s face it, Jess. She’s a small-town girl with small-town values. And values don’t change. Do you really think she’s going to stay with us for the long haul?”
“I sure as hell hope so,” Jess said. “I mean,” he continued, cutting off Alex before he could argue, “we both sat down and discussed what would make our relationship complete. And we both decided what we were missing was an open-minded female. And we found that in Maggie.”
“We had to open her mind to a relationship with us,” Alex pointed out.
“And we had a lot of fun doing it,” Jess replied with a grin before he grew somber under Alex’s quelling gaze. “Okay, I grant you, Maggie has been determined to get out of her small-town rut, and we offered her an adventure.”
“And when she perceives that the adventure has come to an end?” Alex asked morosely.
“We have to convince her that it will never end,” Jess said optimistically.
“The only way I see that happening is if she falls in love with us and can’t picture living without either one of us.”
“As you’ve pointed out before. And we are working on winning her heart. She does love us, you know. And before you remind me that it’s a friendship love, let me point out that that type of love is a great foundation for the deeper love we want from her.”
“I’m just concerned that the more conservative aspect of Maggie will kick in before that happens. Hell, Troy’s bound to make his move sooner or later. If we haven’t secured Maggie’s heart by then, he might just succeed in kick-starting her conservatism and we’ll lose her.”
“Not if we let her know what a creep he’s being by stalking her.”
“And then she’s libel to get mad at us for not telling her everything the moment we began to suspect.”
“We were protecting her!” Jess protested.
Alex lifted a dark brow sardonically. “And since when does Maggie want us to protect her? So far, she’s been the one protecting us. She’s the one who told everyone in her hometown that we were straight with serious girlfriends so the stigma of being thought of as gay wouldn’t follow us around while we were visiting her.”
“Well, just the fact that she wants to protect us should tell you something. Besides, she was also protecting her mom with that. You know, because of her Aunt Tanya,” Jess said, referring to Lois’s lesbian sister who had been run out of town on a rail years earlier and had never returned.
“Yeah, I suppose. Damn, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m so insecure right now.”
“It’s probably because we haven’t been able to touch or kiss Maggie since her parents arrived. Your hormones are out of whack. Guess now you know what Maggie goes through when she has PMS,” Jess finished with a grin.
Alex threw a pretzel at him but grinned back, relieved that there was a logical reason for his angst.
Chapter 15
Saturday night had been spent packing up Lois’s Christmas purchases after their dinner of turkey noodle soup. Maggie promised to take the packages to the post office on Monday to ship back home, thus saving her parents an exorbitant luggage fee at the airport. Both her parents took Jess and Alex aside while Maggie was in the bathroom and expressed their heartfelt thanks for offering their little girl a roof over her head and being such good friends to her. Her dad elicited a further promise that they would continue to watch over her, to which they exchanged a look and said that they would always do whatever it took to keep her happy and safe.
> “You know, if you two weren’t gay, I’d have a hard time choosing which one of you I’d prefer as my son-in-law,” Bill revealed. “You are perfect husband material for Maggie, split into two.”
Alex and Jess shifted uncomfortably, and Bill laughed good-naturedly, mistaking the reason for their unease.
“We’re just glad she’s in such good hands.” Lois beamed at them, causing them to both flush.
Thankfully, Maggie entered the room at that moment, and her roommates excused themselves so that Maggie could spend more quality time with her parents before they flew home on the morrow.
* * * *
The good-byes at the airport were just as uncomfortable for the guys, who were encouraged to call, e-mail, or write anytime and to think about coming to visit her parents again—“With or without Maggie. You’re such good boys”—and Lois kissed and pinched both their cheeks.
They stood beside Maggie as she pressed herself to the wall of glass at the gate, watching the plane taxi and not moving until it was nothing more than a mote in the overcast sky.
“You can always go home for Christmas,” Alex gently offered.
“Are you kidding? And miss our first Christmas together? No. I’m just sad because I don’t know when I’ll see them next. Do you think we can make this a holiday tradition and invite them to stay every Thanksgiving?” she asked wistfully.
“If that’s what you want, then sure,” Alex replied. “Your parents are great and very easy houseguests. We won’t mind at all.” And Jess echoed his acceptance.
They draped their arms around her, hugging her close. “So does this mean you see many more Thanksgivings together with us in your future?” Alex had to know.
Maggie looked at her introspective lover and perceived the vulnerability beneath his intense surface. Reaching up, she gently stroked his cheek. “Frankly, sweetie, I can’t picture myself anywhere else except with the two of you.”
