The majority of her afternoon was spent on the couch, holding a hot water bottle on top of her. She had gone through an entire box set of 'Frasier' and was making up for lack of tea by drinking sweetened coffee, all in her efforts to forget about the third world war taking place in her uterus.

Schmidt was working overtime, vowing that his initiative would land him a night with his new boss. Winston had gone to the gym earlier. He'd made up some lame excuse about how his health was at serious risk now that his heart was so shattered, but Jess knew it was one of his desperate attempts to avoid her while she was at her worst.

Tea-less and lonely, she wondered where Nick was. As much as she was almost always aggravated by her roommate, she missed him whenever he wasn't around. He was always unsympathetic and brushed off any comments Jess would throw at him about empathy. 'Doomsweek' as Schmidt put it, was no exception. However, he had recently found new ways to surprise her. He'd changed a lot. Since her time living there, he hadn't been so depressed, and hadn't been moping over his ex-girlfriend as much as Schmidt and Winston complained about. But best of all, he had turned into a softie. Okay, maybe not a total softie, but he had shown appreciation for Jess whenever she achieved small things. Things most men would find mediocre. Like when she ran that 10k, she was showered with praise every day that week from Nick. He was constantly egging her on. Whenever Jess found herself doubtful of what her prospects in life were, he'd be there. Hell, just last month he'd attempted to 'relax' her through water massage, which even though Jess saw it as a plot to drown her at first, was unusually sweet.

She crinkled her nose up.

"Nicholas Miller? The agoraphobic, turtle-faced, borderline alcoholic? Sweet?

Not only that, but he told her that he believed in her.

Her cheeks went bright pink as she remembered the way his tone calmed and he held eye contact with her. Those beautiful, poop coloured eyes. At that point they were both breathless and the tension could have been cut with a blunt knife. It could have been seconds before she would have felt his lips pressed gently against hers. Before she felt his scratchy stubble scrape across her soft cheeks as they floundered about in their little bubble of infatuation.

'You talkin' to yourself again, you weirdo?'

Jess snapped back to reality. She had been so deep in her little dream world that she hadn't even heard the door open, or see Nick come in with a collection of bags. He had a huge grin spread across his face as he lowered them in front of Jess.

'What is that? I told you Nick, you're not getting a turtle and you're definitely not naming it Jess!'

'No, it's not a turtle.' He smiled and reached his hand into the bag and pulled out two bags of chips, a bar of chocolate that you were supposed to 'share' and a box of tea.

'Wow Nick, really? Grocery shopping? Well good for you but didn't it occur to you that we might need other things? Like, oh I don't know, things we won't get diabetes from?'

'Shut up Jess. Listen don't tell Winston this, but I think I understand how you female folk work.'

'Female folk?' Jess raised an eyebrow.

'Yeah, with periods and all that. Anyway, I checked the calendar and noticed that it's the twenty-third, right? And I remembered that day because the magical man I met on the bench told me to remember it after my water massage. I spent weeks tryna figure out why, and then, yesterday evening, when the game was on, I heard the number nineteen and I remembered. That's the day that Miss. Jessica Day turns into a demon. '

'Gee, thanks Nick. And since when were nineteen and twenty three the same number?'

'No problem.' She caught an inkling of amusement as he poked at her arm, adjusting the now caught-up blankets and tucking them around Jess' feet.

Jess rolled her eyes. As hard as he tried, he couldn't seem to grasp sarcasm when it hit him directly in the face. Despite that, Jess was still confused about the food.

'So you got this for me?'

'For us!'

'Since when did Nick Miller, out of the other two roommates, who specifically went to great lengths to avoid me today, want to spend time with me? Don't tell me you're going through sympathy PMS now too.'

'Nah Jess, I just care about ya is all. Am I not allowed to care about you?'

This was a first. Or maybe kind of a second. As much as Nick argued with her about the month before, claiming he was on a spiritual high, Jess had sensed his argument weak and even noticed he didn't seem too bothered when she brought out the feeling stick to discuss it. Even he had to admit how well they got on when they weren't biting the heads off each other.

'No, it just doesn't seem very.. You. I guess.'

Nick made his little turtle face and Jess felt the corners of her lips turn upward. She was looking directly at him now. He'd already gotten a quarter of the way into the bag of chips and was resting his feet on the coffee table.

'You wanna watch something, besides me?' he smirked, staring at the blank screen in front of them.

She realised that she had been looking at him for just over two minutes without realizing.

'Do I what?'

'You know what, let's just sit here in silence, or I could read you a bedtime story.'

Now he was being weird. A bedtime story, really?

'That would be the worst thing you could ever do Nick.'

When she didn't get a response, she turned back to look at him. He swallowed and looked deeply into Jess' eyes. She saw something peak inside of him as a thin line of sweat formed above his brow.

'Or maybe this is the worst thing I could ever do.'

And then it happened.

It all happened so fast. One minute she was within breathing distance from him, next minute she felt her lips on his, slow, but passionate. She was letting Nick kiss her. She was letting her roommate take her into his arms and onto his lap, his hands caught up in her hair. It was exhilarating, her thoughts were racing. She felt other-worldly. As though she'd been lifted into some kind of paradise and was now having the world's best candy. And then, just like that, it was over.

Still sat curled up in his lap, like a kitten, her blue eyes had turned a stormy shade as she took in another breath, clutching onto his shoulder.

'What just happened?' she asked, dazed.

'I don't know. 'He replied, wrapping his arms around her tighter. 'But I'm glad it did.'