Disclaimer: I tried to buy 'em with magic beans. But first I had to buy magic beans, and no one would take my navel lint in trade...
"Are they dancing?"
He looks over at the other side of the roof; nods. The music is quieter, more socially conscious, than he would have expected from Schmidt and Elizabeth, but he and Jess have retreated to the wall anyway, sitting on the concrete together and letting their feet dangle over the street below. It's not really very comfortable except for the fact that she's tucked up against his side in a nice relationshippy way that makes him not notice the fact that his ass is freezing. Mostly not notice, anyway.
"Do they know they're dancing badly?" Jess continues.
"I think they're revelling in it, in fact."
Winston is asleep on one of the picnic chairs, Jess having the courtesy to move the food out of the way before Winston got eggs smeared on his cheek. Nick can't figure out if Winston's crashing is due to coming down from a sugar high or the fact that it's quarter after three in the morning.
It's quarter after three in the morning.
The night has entered that odd nether region between days, when it's so late that you might as well push on into dawn. It's the time that makes Nick feel lonelier than any other time.
Jess rests her head against his shoulder.
Lonelier than any other time, normally.
Nick looks over at Schmidt and Elizabeth, mostly as an excuse to sniff Jess's hair, and partially just to get lost in thoughts that don't lead to other thoughts. He's not sure what he thinks of Elizabeth. He's been on that rollercoaster with Schmidt once before, so he knows enough to know that she can be good for him and bad for him all at once. And the whole thing smells horribly of a rebound from CeCe anyway...
To hell with it, he thinks. He has no right to pre-suppose the ending of things, especially when they are someone else's things. He spent the afternoon reeling from Bob's pre-supposition of his and Jess's ending, and it's all just crap anyway, so he's not going to be that guy for someone else.
If all you do is worry about the end, you never end up getting started.
"I would have liked the breakfast."
"Well, maybe not the first time. I didn't do so hot..."
"Either time, Nick. Either time."
"This is not how I wanted this day to go."
"It started well."
"And it ended?" He asks. Jess smiles and looks around. Schmidt and Elizabeth aren't dancing anymore, so Jess quickly looks away before they have to dwell on what Schmidt and Elizabeth are doing. Down on the street, two homeless guys are arguing over a spot. Winston snores and almost knocks the plates off the table.
"Ended just fine," she says, finally.
He kisses her. Not a "prelude to sex" kiss, or a "something deep inside him is pushing up and out and he can't define it" kiss, or a "roses and romance under the stars" kiss, or even a "Timmy's a jackass, I'ma takin' control now" kiss.
Maybe it's a "I'm happy you exist" kiss.
Maybe he doesn't need to define it, just now.
There's no follow up after they break apart, just a calm leaning against each other, where he can feel the warmth of her breath on his chin. Her breath is sour with mimosa and late night and it's a little less than perfect in a way that is itself perfect. He likes when she isn't perfect.
"I think I got a job teaching."
"That's awesome."
"Well... it's like Dangerous Minds the Elementary Years, but..." she says, shrugging.
"I work in a bar and write bad zombie novels," he says, shrugging himself. What he really means is that it's okay not to have it all perfect, right now, that the only people their age who seem to have it all figured out are suburban droids and Schmidt-circa 2011, and neither of those seem all that great and Bob is an idiot for thinking that he knows them just because he made some mistakes and …
… and that's all too long and incoherent, so he doesn't say it. But she smiles at him like she understands anyway.
"My Dad is asleep," she says.
"Not tonight, Jess."
"Why?"
"Because he's wrong about us, but I still want him to like me. And doing … that … with him just outside … seems..." he flails to finish the sentence.
"Nick... my Dad's opinion … it doesn't matter. You know that, right?"
"I know," he says, looking down to the street, where tall homeless dude seems to have won the fight with extra layers homeless dude. "But I'd still like him to like me."
"Why?"
"Because it's easier if I'm … you know … around. For awhile."
She pulls back to look at him. In the dark, her pupils are wide open, so that her giant blue eyes are now giant black eyes. It really is going to be like dating a cartoon character.
She was wearing his shirt earlier. How did he not realize that until now?
How does he get it to happen again soon? Why can't CeCe already be married so that Bob can already be headed home so he can already be getting her back to his bedroom?
She sees whatever it is she wants to see in his face, leans in and kisses the stubble to the side of his mouth.
Okay, so this part is fine too.
"It's late," she says. "Late enough to be … early?"
He looks around. Schmidt and Elizabeth have left, and apparently they've dragged Winston with them. He's heard none of it.
"It's four am."
"We should probably …" she nods towards the door.
"Yeah," he agrees. But he doesn't move and neither does she, and after a minute of staring at each other she goes back to resting her head on his shoulder. Neither of them will move, not until the sun is up, even if it's going to make tomorrow hurt. Neither of them will move until the day forces them to move because right now is right now, and he doesn't really believe in magic, but he knows that right now may very well be magic, and he's not willing to risk losing it.
He wraps his arm around her, pulls her tighter against him. It would be more comfortable on the chairs, but he'll stay right here for now. And later, the sun will come up and they'll go back downstairs and things will happen and so will a wedding and maybe some of it will be interesting and some of it will be messy and some of it will be good and some of it will be great and some of it will be too hard and some of it will be surprisingly easy. He doesn't know what those things will be or when they'll come, but he doesn't need to know. Because she's not moving either, and that's enough to know for now.