Jess hit the lift button ten times impatiently, hoping for the doors to open. Nothing. She darted for the stairs. Ding. She turned on her heels as the doors widened to let her in. A delivery man was going down with a trolley full of boxes. Jess squeezed past him and gave the ground button a bashing. The lift moved slowly to street level and the doors opened. Jess let the man out first.
"Oh, come on! Please, go faster!" Jess heard Nick's voice from the foyer. "I gotta tell my best friend I'm in love with her!"
"Take a shower first," the delivery man said. "I've never seen anyone sweat so much…"
"You take a shower, you smell terrible!"
The trolley rolled away and Jess chuckled at grumpy old Nick. He was stunned to see her.
"Hey, Miller," Jess said.
"Hey…"
…
Jess lay in Nick's bed, her cheek rested on his shoulder.
"Well, that was really fun," Jess laughed. Nick was quiet, tracing the outline of Jess's right hand with his middle finger. He cleared his throat.
"You know, I meant what I said, before… at the elevator."
Jess turned over on her left side, her head propped up by her fist. She smirked. "Oh yeah? What you said, or what you screamed?"
"I admit, it was aggressive."
"It was nice, Nick! I really admire your honesty," she pulled herself up, fluffed a pillow and leant back against the wall. "Telling an old delivery man he smells terrible must have been really hard for you…" She threw her head back laughing.
"Come on! Cut the sarcasm, I'm trying to be serious," Nick said, his mouth turned down.
"I know you are, I'm sorry, please go ahead…" Jess pursed her lips, trying to stop herself from laughing again.
"You're my best friend, Jess… I care about ya," Nick sat up and he looked Jess in the eyes. "I love ya."
Jess leant in to rest her forehead against his. She whispered.
"Guess what?"
"Hm?"
"It was me your book reading."
"Schmidt did tell me later that you were in town… I knew that lady's hair was too shiny and flowing not to be yours! I knew I'm not crazy!" Nick's face lit up before he realised what had really happened. "But, you left."
"I did… but I was still outside the store when you called me." She hid behind her hands with embarrassment.
"You were? I'm so sorry. That stuff about the characters being based on real people who'd never get together... you heard that?"
"I heard it. 'Fundamentally different', hey?"
"Arghhh! I didn't mean that, Jess… I don't mean it. I only said it 'cause I thought you didn't feel this way… about me. The same way." He scratched behind his ear and sighed.
"I was so worried you wouldn't feel this way! It's still so soon after Reagan. I wrote out flash cards to read to you, I was gonna surprise you… and then you said that stuff…"
"I'm an idiot, I blew it. I'm so sorry, Jess." Nick's chin dropped with self-disappointment.
"No, don't talk yourself down! I hate when you do that!" Jess patted Nick on the leg. "Snap out of it! It doesn't matter! But for the record, the chance that we'd never get together is the reason why I decided I'd move out."
"Really?"
"I was too upset to stay living in a loft with my ex-boyfriend and sleeping across the hall from him when I loved him, Nick!" He sparked back up and lifted his head to look at Jess again. "I couldn't bear it!"
"You've felt like this for a while?" He asked.
"I've felt like this for more than a while," Jess's voice started to wobble. "It's been killing m-m-me…" Jess's eyes started to go glassy and a few little tears rolled down her face. She quickly wiped them away with her thumb. "I'm in love with you, Nick Miller."
Nick brought his hands up to hold Jess's face, and they shared a soft and adoring kiss. They slinked back down under the covers. Jess ran her hand over the duvet, feeling an unfortunate amount of dirt and grime. In the heat of post-elevator passion, she hadn't noticed it earlier.
"When did you wash your bedding last?" She swung her feet out of the bed and grabbed one of Nick's scruffy t-shirts off the floor. She threw it over her head.
"Nooo, Jess… No! Please, don't start this!"
"Nick! When?" Jess hated when Nick didn't look after himself properly.
"I don't know! It's been a while…" Nick rubbed his eyes and face, Jess sighed.
"Go and put all this in the machine," she started to strip the bed. Nick grabbed a pair of boxers from the floor before Jess pulled a fitted sheet out from under him.
"We kiss like that and then you want me to do this? Come on, Day!"
"I'm a kiss 'n strip kinda gal, Miller. Do as you're told."
