The Ultimatum

"You know what, Jess?"

Jess pulled her eyes up from the floor to see the attractive man's green eyes looking at her with appraisal. She raised one eyebrow and frowned, knowing what was coming.

"I can't do this." His voice was flat and he held his mouth in a straight line. "If you want to date me, you're going to have to figure out who's going to stay in the loft. You or him."

Jess looked down at the floor once again. He was so good looking and he really was a nice guy.

The choice was an easy one.

Jess slid her key into the slot on the door. She had to wiggle it a little to get it to push all the way in, probably because of the times Nick had locked himself out and tried to pick the lock to get back in. It was one more thing that needed replacing in the loft. The key turned easily once it was in and Jess tried to be quiet as she opened the door to let herself in. She didn't want any of the guys to hear her and get up to investigate.

After carefully closing the door, Jess leaned her back against the solid structure and closed her eyes. What a night. Now she had to decide what was she going to tell her roommates. Her boys. She knew they would want to know what happened. How could she explain her choice?

"Jess?"

Nick's voice startled her and she quickly opened her eyes and tried to scramble up and away from the door. "Oh. Hi, Nick." Jess gave him a little wave and what she hoped was a smile. "Just heading to bed. Long day."

Nick reached out a hand and grabbed her upper arm, not unlike another late evening in their past. Surprised, Jess calculated the date quickly in her head and realized it was exactly two years ago this week. Two years since Nick first kissed her. It seemed so long ago but yet, like it happened yesterday at the same time. Where had the time gone? Shaking her head as if to push back the memories, Jess let her eyes meet Nick's. Immediately she could tell that his thoughts mirrored her own. He was remembering. He released her arm quickly. "Yeah, Nick? "

"You've been crying." It was not a question.

Jess forced out a small laugh. She really wasn't ready for this right now but knew Nick well enough to know that he wouldn't let this go. And Nick knew her better than anyone in the world. He had been her best friend (not counting Cece, that was different) since long before that fated kiss and still was, though the friendship had changed drastically. "Can this wait until morning?"

Her heart swelled as Nick's face drew down sharply at the edges of his mouth. The turtle face. "Jessica, do you want me to sleep at all? You know I won't if I know that you are upset. Tell me what's wrong."

Jess shrugged her shoulders in response. "Relationships. Blah. Who needs 'em, right?" She turned once again to go to her room.

Nick's eyes widened and he gave Jess a small smile of understanding. "Did Mr. Wonderful turn out to not be so wonderful?"

"Yeah. Something like that."

Jess gave him one last look over her shoulder and headed for her bedroom. She had no plans to tell him at this moment that she chose him over "Mr. Wonderful". She chose grumpy, old man-child Miller over the chance to start over with someone who wanted the same things in life that she wanted, a family with lots of babies. She wasn't going to tell him right now because she didn't understand it herself.

Closing the door to her bedroom, she quickly changed into comfy pajamas, ones that Nick had peeled off her body at one point in time. As she pulled back the duvet on her bed and climbed in she hoped that her dreams tonight would be something different than the ones she'd had for two years now and had haunted her for the past ten months. That she wouldn't dream once again of babies with dark hair and warm brown eyes who made a turtle-face when they frowned.