"Listen up half-wits, it's my 30th birthday on Saturday and you guys are nowhere near organised enough to throw me a surprise party, so I organised it for you, it's gonna be here in the loft, there will be copious amounts of alcohol and women in sexy costumes, yes that's right COSTUME PARTY SON! Of course I don't expect you to make an effort Nicholas, I mean what you wore for Halloween…are you kidding me man? Winston; I actually like the policeman outfit, the ladies will love it!"
"Schmidt, I'm with Dai…" Winston begins.
"DO NOT INTERRUPT WHEN I'M TALKING ABOUT MY PARTY WINSTON! Now Jessica, I can tell you're going to be my problem child and rock up wearing some ridiculous outfit that makes you look like an old fashioned ballerina, well I'm not having it, you are an attractive woman and you must let the dirty slut out of the slut house, is that clear?"
"Well I guess Schmidt but…"
"WHAT DID I JUST SAY ABOUT INTERRUPTING ME? NO MORE! OK so I've pretty much got everything covered, I just have one favour to ask…I'm sure you can manage it between the three of you right? Balloons! And proper balloons this time Nicholas, not just a ridiculous hot air balloon, now can you manage that? I wanna hear a 'YES SCHMIDT!'"
"Err…yes Schmidt?" Jess looked up at him questioningly.
"Yes Jessica, I'm going to be thirty in two days, which pretty much signals the end of life so please just humour me?"
"YES SCHMIDT!" Jess shouted enthusiastically.
"Yes Schmidt, we can get balloons" Winston adds
Nick is silent.
Schmidt tuts and shakes his head before shouting ;"NICHOLAS?!"
"Yeah Schmidt?
"Have you been listening to a word I said?"
The truth is Nick had zoned out after Schmidt had mentioned 'letting the dirty slut out of the slut house' which had made him think about Jess in that purple dress she wore to the wedding, Jesus she looked beautiful then, and he wishes he'd have told her but he was still hung up on Caroline, so instead he used her to pretend to be his girlfriend to try and make Caroline jealous. Thinking back now to Jess running her hands through his hair, his arm around her shoulders…oh crap I've done it again, what was Schmidt talking about?
"NICHOLAS?! Put your brain in gear son, balloons…just nod?" Schmidt
Nick nods his head begrudgingly.
"Excellent! Well, I'm heading to work, you know because some of us have actual jobs, and by some of us; I mean me. Later losers."
"Well now that's over I'm going to bed, I have to stick to my adj…" Winston begins
"Yes we know Winston, your 'adjusted sleep schedule'" Jess interrupts sarcastically
And suddenly, they're alone and it's weird again, it's been weird ever since Nick kissed her the night of the trench coat, that was almost a month ago now, a month of dropped fishsticks, of lingering glances and of fishtank breaking. A month of awkward silences, just like this one.
"So…this party should be fun right?" Jess warily tries to begin conversation
"Are you serious Jess? This is a party for Schmidt, which means all of his douchebag friends will be here, don't you remember his 29th…he tried to kiss you for god's sake!"
"Well that's not gonna happen this time, he's still pretty torn up about Cece right? Oh god Cece! She's going to want to come to the party! What do I tell her?" Jess asks, panicked.
Nick snaps angrily; "I don't know Jess! She's your best friend, you work it out!"
"Geez Miller, what is with you today?"
"I'm just sick of this" Nick sighs dejectedly.
"Of what?"
"This" Nick gestures at the space between them. "Like what is going on here Jess?"
Jess looks into those dark brown eyes of his and he's staring back into her sparkling blue sapphires, Jess opens her mouth to say something when her phone starts to ring, they keep eye contact for a moment before Jess looks away and leans over to the coffee table to retrieve her mobile and just like that the moment is gone; smashed into a thousand tiny smithereens, much like Schmidt's fishtank.
"It's my boss, I gotta take this"
"Sure Jess, whatever" Nick stands up and slopes off to his room.
Jess continues to stare after him as he skulks away, she's so sick of this too, she just wishes she knew what was going on inside that grumpy head of his, hell she wishes she knew what was going on in her own head. It takes a few seconds for Jess to realise she still hasn't answered the phone, too lost in thoughts of Nick Miller, she shakes herself, takes a deep breath and answers;
"Hello?"
"Jess, thank goodness! We need you to come in! I know you don't normally work today but Cath is off sick and we need someone to cover her class" Her boss says hurriedly.
"Sure, sure, I'll be there soon." Jess replies, anything to get her out of the loft and as far away as possible from those lips she can't stop thinking about and anything to distract her from thoughts that even she doesn't understand yet.
The next two days went by quickly in a blur of food, balloons and Schmidt's endless 'dress rehearsals' as he tried to decide what to wear, eventually settling for a cowboy get-up; genuine leather chaps, boots complete with spurs and authentic Stetson hat. Nick; as expected had taken the laid-back approach and made use of what he already owned, throwing on a flannel shirt and some old ripped jeans, he studied himself in the mirror;
"Yep, I'm a lumberjack" Close enough Nick thought to himself before sighing heavily; he really wasn't looking forward to spending the night surrounded by Schmidt's douchebag friends, being ditched by Winston at the first sight of Daisy and awkwardly avoiding any fleeting moment that might happen between him and Jess. Oh Jessica, how I wish things between us were simple, I wish I could walk round this loft tonight with you on my arm, telling everyone that you are mine and no one else's, watching their faces as they try to fathom how useless, lazy Nick Miller got himself such a beautiful girlfriend. And therein lies the problem; he knows deep down that he will never be good enough for Jess, he's a law-school dropout stuck in a dead-end job, his life is going nowhere fast, and she deserves better than that. But how do they get back to how things were before that one kiss changed everything? He doesn't have long to make sense of his thoughts before he hears a knocking at the door followed by Schmidt's terrible attempt at a Southern accent;
"Howdy pardners, welcome to the party!"
Nick takes a deep breath, slaps himself lightly on both cheeks in an attempt to psych himself up; "Alright, let's get this night over with" he mumbles under his breath.
Just as he opens his bedroom door and steps out, he sees Jess doing the same thing, and just like that he's breathless. She looks stunning, her ebony hair falls in wavy tendrils from a bright crimson bow, her lips are a vibrant shade of red, her eyes somehow seem bigger and bluer than ever before, her dress consists of a blue bodice, swooping gently over the gentle curves of her breasts and a mid-length yellow skirt, flowing smoothly over her hips and ending just above her knees. She is Snow White, and without a doubt 'the fairest in the land.' This was it, if there was ever a moment to make up for not telling her all those times she looked beautiful, this was it. Don't mess this up Miller! "Wow Jess, you…you look beautiful!"
A slight blush creeped up Jess's neck and landed on her cheeks, she swallowed her breath "Thank you Nick, you don't look so bad yourself!" She said with a smile.
Nick starting moving slowly closer and closer to her, until he could smell her strawberry-scented fragrance, he took a moment to compose himself before saying all those things he'd always wanted to say to her "No Jess, I mean it. I know I've never told you this properly before and God, I wish I had because you are so beautiful and you deserve to be told every day. And I don't just mean when you've done your hair and make-up and got dressed up, even in the morning when you're wearing your cute little pyjama outfit and you haven't yet brushed your hair, you take my breath away. I've never seen someone who just…shines as much as you do Jessica. Even on your worst days you're one of the best people I've ever known and my life has not been the same since I met ya."
"Nick, I…I don't know what to say…"
"Then don't say anything, I just needed you to know how special you are to me"
A tear sprang to Jess's eye and Nick reached up to her pretty face and wiped it away with his thumb, "Jess, what's wrong? Was it something I said?"
"No Nicholas…it was everything you said." And then before Nick knew it her lips had found his, they crashed together in a wave of passion, Jess finally saying all those things that she couldn't put into words, she didn't know exactly what would happen next, but all she knew that there was nowhere else she would rather be than here, with Nick's arm wrapped tightly around her back and hers draped around his neck, their lips speaking a thousand words together. After only a few seconds, their lips broke apart, as if finally realising where they were and that Schmidt or Winston or another party-goer could catch them at any moment. Both of them breathless they still remained with their arms around one another, foreheads pressed together.
"Nick…" Jess managed to gasp through ragged breaths.
And then her arms were gone from around his neck, moved to the collar of his shirt and then she was walking backwards towards her bedroom, pulling him with her, their bodies never parting, as if the separation would just be too painful. Nick thinks he hears the door close behind him but he's not sure because suddenly her lips crashed down on his once again, the kiss was deeper this time, more passionate, as if the privacy of Jess's bedroom finally allowed them to experience the kiss the way they wanted. Nick's hands were all over Jess's body; her slim, delicate waist round to the small of her back, before reaching up to her long flowing curves, enjoying the soft texture he found there. Jess's hands gripped his shoulders tightly, as if afraid that he would break away at any minute but he wasn't going anywhere. No more distractions, no more breaking fish tanks, just Nick and Jess in this beautiful moment. Suddenly Jess's hands became more frantic; struggling with the buttons on his shirt, needing her hands on his skin, flesh on flesh. Her breathing became laboured and she broke the kiss, needing a second to compose herself, Nick pulled back slightly to look in those beautiful, big, blue eyes of hers as she stared back into his deep brown pools, they each found the answer…they just didn't know what the question was.
They didn't get to enjoy the moment for very long before Nick's phone begins to ring, oh brilliant, another interruption! They just couldn't catch a break, life inevitably always got in the way, he was starting to think this was a sign, that they just weren't meant to be.
Their eyes broke apart as Nick removed his phone from his shirt pocket and checked the caller ID;
"It's my mum."
Jess looked at him worriedly; "What do you think she wants?"
"I dunno, she only ever calls if it's something important…" Nick looked back up at Jess, an unspoken apology in his eyes and he can see that she understands and takes the call, his eyes never leaving hers as he listens to his mother talking.
Jess watched a range of emotions pass over Nick's face at whatever his mother was saying at the over end of the phone, after just a minute Nick said "Ok Mom, I'll be there as soon as I can" before ending the call.
"Nick? What is it, what's wrong?" Jess said concernedly.
"It's my dad, he had a heart attack, he's gone Jess."
Jess didn't waste a second before pulling him into her arms. The hug lasted only a second, as if they both knew that Nick could easily break down in the warmth of her embrace, and that's not what is family needed right now, they needed him to be strong.
Nick pulled away and looked down at his hands as he wrung them together "So erm, I guess I have to go to Chicago for the funeral and to be with my family…"
"I'm coming with you; we're all coming with you"
"Jess, you don't have to do that!"
"But I want to, I want to be there for you Nick, whatever you need"
"Thank you! Well I guess this will have to wait" He gestured between the two of them, the same way he had just a few days ago, and laughed slightly.
Jess placed her hands on either side of his face, reached up and kissed him softly on the mouth before resting her forehead against his "I'll wait as long it takes for this."