Chapter 2

Jess was as red as a tomato as she slid back into the booth. "Oh, my god, you guys," she whispered. "I had no idea I said Nick's name while we were—"

"Don't say it," Winston interrupted.

"Ugh!" Jess whisper-shouted, her coloring slowly returning to her normal pale shade. "I'm terrible!"

"Well, it's over now," Cece consoled her. "You can concentrate on what's important. Like telling Nick how you feel about him."

"Hopefully in a less ridiculous manner than the one in which you ended it with Sam," Schmidt added, shuddering. "Because that was painful to watch. And I've seen pregnant strippers." He paused for effect. "Pregnant. Strippers. Giving birth."

"Enough, Schmidt," Cece scowled. "There's no reason to make her feel bad about it. It's done."

"Feel worse about what?" Nick asked, plopping down next to Jess after handing out the drinks they hadn't bothered to order - beers for Schmidt and Winston, a martini for Cece, and a glass of pink wine for Jess.

"Jess just ended things with Sam," Winston informed him. Everyone looked to Nick to gauge his reaction.

Nick turned to Jess. "You did? What happened? I though you liked the whole casual thing you guys had going on."

Jess gulped her wine and coughed embarrassedly as her cheeks turned the color of her drink. "Um...I guess it just wasn't working for me anymore?"

"Did something happen?" he pushed, his brown eyes full of concern. Suddenly, his face turned angry as he grabbed her hand that rested on the table. "Did he hurt you? Or upset you? Was he seeing someone else?" It was worth noting that he never showed this much concern for the well-being of his other roommates post-breakup - much to Schmidt's chagrin.

"No!" Jess burst out. "I just want more, okay? I tried the casual thing and it didn't work for me. I need the emotional connection."

Schmidt, Cece, and Winston watched the exchange, their eyes traveling back and forth as Jess removed her hand from Nick's grasp to take another gulp of her drink.

"Oh," he answered, turning back to his beer. His expression was contemplative as he spent the next few minutes making conversation with the others. He finally drained his glass of water - he was still working, after all - and stood up. "Well, I need to finish up behind the bar," he sighed, stretching before grabbing the empties. "I should be off in another half-hour, though, if you guys want to wait for me."

"Sure, bro!" Schmidt replied, doing some kind of ridiculous hand motion that only he could decipher. "We'll be here!"

"Stop calling people 'bro,'" Winston ordered him, as Nick walked back to the bar to finish his shift.

Cece smiled encouragingly at Jess. "That was pretty good, Jess! You kept your cool for the most part - I'm proud of you!"

"Yeah, I've definitely seen you do a lot worse," Schmidt offered in a similar tone of voice, as Cece scowled again at his choice of words.

Winston glanced up from his phone. "Shelby wants to hang out tonight, but I feel like things will go better if we do a group thing before I try to make my move," he said thoughtfully. "Anyone up for pizza and beer at the loft? Maybe a movie?"

"That sounds nice!" Jess answered brightly. "I love when we have family night at home!" She turned to her best friend. "What about you, Cece?"

"I'm in," Cece answered, flipping her hair over her shoulder and pretending not to look at Schmidt. "Robbie has a thing with his friends tonight."

Schmidt pretended not to be thrilled as he scrolled through his texts. "Well, I do have a date scheduled with a tall, beautiful, young blonde—," he glanced up to check Cece's reaction, but she had a carefully disinterested expression plastered across her features - "but I suppose I could cancel. Family nights are important, after all. Plus, if Winston needs our help to get laid, then we should all be there for him!"

Everyone rolled their eyes, but Jess could briefly see a relieved look pass across Cece's face. She wondered how much longer it would take Cece to break up with poor, unsuspecting Robbie - if she hadn't secretly done so already - and give in to Schmidt's "charms." She loved them both, but geez - it was frustrating to watch. Maybe this was how everyone else felt watching herself and Nick. No wonder they were so quick to help!

Soon enough, Nick was back at their booth. "What's the plan?" he asked no one in particular. "I've had enough of this bar today, personally."

"Helping Winston get laid!" Schmidt chirped happily. as they all stood up and headed towards the exit.

"Jar," they all said in unison, before Winston explained the plan while Cece smacked Schmidt with her purse.

As they walked back to the loft, Jess found herself next to Nick, their arms touching slightly. "So you're okay?" he asked her, concerned again. "We're not breaking out 'Dirty Dancing' tonight, are we?"

Jess laughed. "I'm fine, I promise. It was an interesting experiment, but...ultimately, I guess I'm just a relationship girl, you know? Hearts and flowers and chocolate, that sort of thing."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Guess I should tell the next guy you bring home to break out the roses and Godiva, huh?"

She tried to tell him that he was the next guy - and the last guy - she planned on bringing home, but the words didn't come. She shrugged awkwardly. "Guess so."

At the loft, Nick jumped in the shower to wash the bar off of him, while Winston checked in with Shelby and Schmidt started going through their DVD collection before picking out several for the group to decide on. The girls retired to Jess' room to hang out until Shelby arrived so they could all agree on pizza toppings and movie choices.

"So," Jess began, eyes narrowed at her friend sprawled across her bed. "Are you even still dating Robbie? Or is your relationship with him just a ruse to make Schmidt jealous?"

"Jess!" Cece hissed, jumping up to pull the slightly ajar door closed. "Keep your voice down!'

"Aha!" Jess cried. "So you're not dating him. And you love Schmidt. You lo-o-o-ove him!"

"Mature, Jess," Cece replied, annoyed, throwing her long body back down on the bed. Jess joined her on the other side, curling a blanket around herself.

"Well? What's the story?" she pressed.

Cece sighed. "He's one of my roomates' brothers. I asked him to come to Schmidt's party with me so I wouldn't have to go alone like a loser in case he was there with someone."

"But he wasn't there with someone - he even tried to get you back. Why keep up the false pretense?"

"Robbie was already there with me, and I was still upset with him," she shrugged. "And he dumped me, after spying on my texts and telling me he doesn't trust me. I wasn't ready to let him off the hook. Do you blame me?"

Jess squinted. "A little bit, yeah."

Cece huffed. "Well, it made me feel less miserable, okay? He hurt me a lot. It made sense at the time."

"So tell him the truth now," Jess suggested. "Or if that's too embarrassing, say you broke up with Robbie. Whatever. Stop perpetuating a lie and be with the man you love!"

Cece glared. "I'm not going to be the first one to break."

"That's ridiculous," Jess scoffed. "He already tried to get you back at the party! And I guarantee if you tell him about Robbie, he'll do it again. Stop being so stubborn."

"He didn't trust me then, and he doesn't trust me now," Cece insisted.

"Well, to be fair, you are lying about a fake boyfriend now," Jess pointed out.

Cece sighed. "Let's just change the subject, okay? What were you and Nick talking about on the way home?"

"It was so awkward," Jess answered unhappily. "He wanted to know if I was really okay, and I said I was, I just decided I was a relationship girl. Hearts and flowers and chocolates." She sighed. "I was hoping he'd take the bait, you know? But he just said, 'Guess I should tell the next guy you bring home to break out the roses and Godiva, then.'"

"Maybe he was talking about himself," Cece suggested. She tilted her head to the side and frowned. "He knows what kind of flowers and chocolate you like?"

"Oh, I told him once, after Paul got me carnations and a Ferrero Rocher sampler before one of our dates. It was a sweet gesture, but I told Nick I don't like fluffy flowers or nuts in my candy...and then for my birthday he got me white roses and raspberry-and-marshmallow dark chocolate truffles from Godiva."

"You told him you liked those things specifically?" Cece asked.

"No," Jess shook her head, "he just seemed to know."

Cece gave her a pointed look. "Did he pass the information on to Russell?"

"No," she answered thoughfully, remembering. "I guess not. Russell only ever bought me those fancy calla lilies and expensive Swiss chocolates from somewhere I can't remember the name of." She scrunched her nose. "I didn't like them, though. I think they were milk chocolate, and some of them had nuts. And you know I don't like calla lilies - they remind me too much of a—"

"Vagina, I know. You mention it every time you see one. Sadie even keeps them at her office now. But if he didn't tell Russell, I can't see him telling anyone else," Cece decided. "Russell was his hero. I really think he meant himself. Like maybe now that you're both single, he's ready to make a move."

Jess looked hopeful. "You really think so?"

Cece nodded. "But I still think you should tell him how you feel, or you could be waiting awhile. Just play it cool and it'll be fine."

When the girls entered the living room, they discovered that Shelby had arrived with two bottles of wine - a white and a rose - for the three of them to share, and Winston and Schmidt were arguing over pizza toppings with Nick refereeing.

"Boys!" Jess yelled in her best former-teacher voice. "That's enough. There are six of us - obviously we're getting more than one pizza—"

"That's what I've been trying to tell them!" Nick interrupted, Turtle Face out in full force.

Jess glared at him. "So let's discuss this like adults. Schmidt, what toppings do you want?"

"Sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and black olives. Half with pepperoni." He cast his gaze towards his ex-girlfriend. "Cece doesn't like pepperoni."

Cece steadfastly ignored him, and Jess pressed onward. "Fine. That sounds good for pizza number one. Winston?"

"Canadian bacon, sausage, extra cheese, and green peppers," he rattled off. "That's what Shelby and I always get, and I like to keep my girl happy." Shelby smiled at him, snuggling up to his side - maybe Family Night was helping him out after all.

"Fine," Jess nodded, and turned to Nick again. "What do you want?"

When his eyes met hers, she immediately regretted not adding 'on your pizza.' Even though he was physically across the room, it felt like he was touching her with his eyes. Which sounded gross, but felt...nice. "I want whatever you want," he answered, mostly likely aware of the double meaning behind his words. Jess hoped no one saw her slight shiver, but geez, what could you expect?

"What about you, Jess?" Cece prodded with a knowing smirk. "What do you want?"

"Um," Jess replied, feeling awkward and wanting to bring the conversation back to pizza. "I guess Nick and I can just eat from both pizzas. So we're all good? Great. Schmidt, go order the pizzas." She dashed to the bathroom to hide and possibly puke.

By the time she felt ready to come back out, the pizza had arrived, the wine had been poured, beers were on the table, and two movies had been decided on - both comedies. Schmidt told Jess the titles, but she tuned him out completely upon discovering the seating arrangements. Winston had taken the end of the couch with Shelby snuggled in his lap, Schmidt was next to them with hardly any space separating himself and Cece - both feigning disinterest in each other - and at the other end of the couch from Winston sat Nick. In front of the small space between himself and Cece sat a glass of pink wine. So she was expected to shimmy into that tiny space, hmm? They should really think about getting a bigger couch. Or a LoveSac. Or anything that would not force her to sit almost on top of Nick and totally embarrass herself.

Silently, Jess squished her way between Nick and Cece, glaring at the latter, because she could easily scoot over an inch or two towards Schmidt if she really wanted to. Cece just smirked and shrugged, which just pushed Jess further into Nick, who for his part was not complaining or even turtle-facing.

As the hours went by, Jess made an effort to pay attention to first one movie and then another.- even the third one that Schmidt had insisted on after Winston and Shelby left for her apartment. However, she could no more tell you the names of the films or summarize the plots than she could recite pi from memory. It's just that the man next to her was so warm and smelled so good and was sitting so close to her that she could focus on nothing else.

As the credits rolled after the third movie, Cece yawned and stretched, accidentally hitting Schmidt in the face. "Well, I'm exhausted," she announced. "And drunk. Jess, can I stay with you tonight?"

"Of course, Cece," she answered, still trying to clear her head of the Nick-fog. "You go ahead and crash - I think I'm still too wound up from, um, the last movie. I'm gonna change and watch TV for a bit, I think." She hurried into her bedroom with Cece hot on her heels.

"Wound up, huh?" Cece slurred, grinning as Jess changed into white pajamas with a yellow duckling pattern. She followed her into the bathroom and watched as Jess went through her nightly routine. "I know another way to say that!" she sang out in a perfect imitation of Jess.

"Cece!" Jess hissed, pausing to listen for any sign the guys were lurking outside the door. "Ugh. I'm just not ready to go to sleep yet, okay?"

The girls nearly ran smack into Schmidt and Nick upon opening the door. "God, Jess," Schmidt whined, "you're hogging the bathroom and I need to moisturize! This man-beauty doesn't happen on its own, you know!" He turned to Cece. "Cecelia, would you like to borrow my moisturizer?"

"Sure, whatever," Cece answered, drunkenly stumbling back into the bathroom before the guys caught her and helped her stand up straight again.

Jess rolled her eyes and scooted past all three of them to the kitchen. The girls had managed to kill both bottles of wine earlier, so Jess settled for some chamomile tea with extra honey. Thankfully, the loft was finally quiet and no one had followed her to the kitchen, so it was safe to assume everyone had finally gone to bed.

Imagine her surprise upon taking her tea to the living room to find Nick on the couch, remote in hand, apparently waiting for her. "What are we watching, Jess?" he asked, his expression indecipherable.

This wasn't even something she could blame on Cece. The universe, it seemed, really wanted her to deal with this Nick-thing tonight.