"I'm telling you, Ceec, these guys are the worst!" Jess sat down on her couch besides Cece, passing her a glass of wine and taking a sip from her own. "They're a bunch of flirts! They could care less about learning!"
Cece laughed. Jess was the best. Pure and beautiful in every single way. But she had really been lacking in the male department ever since her break up. In fact, she had been avoiding the male department all together.
"Maybe you should use one of these guys to get back out there a little. They're obviously keen. I mean, what guy hasn't dreamed of getting it on with his pretty, bubbly English teacher?"
"No way, Cece. I could never ever date a student. That's like –" Jess pretend gagged in the most dramatic way possible. "Plus, they're all a bunch of jerks."
"You're not teaching teenagers anymore, Jess. These guys are men. And they just want a good time. Surely there was at least one that's semi-tolerable? A free meal? Maybe a little bit of after-hours extra credit?" Cece gave Jess a nudge, to which Jess blushed.
"I mean there was one guy who was kind of cute. Kind of mysterious. Kind of nice?" She blushed a little as Cece watched on amused, pulling Jess' laptop onto her lap.
"Name?"
"Umm, I think he said Nick." She was playing dumb and Cece could see it all over her face.
"Oh, you mean this guy? The top of the list in your 'recent searches'?"
"Okay, so maybe I Facebook stalked him. I just wanted to suss him out a little."
"Oooooh Jess, he's cute. In like a scruffy, caveman kind of way?"
"Okay, that'll do." Jess closed the laptop and changed the subject to Cece's new boyfriend.
"Nicholas, I am so so sorry for your loss."
Nick slumped down on the couch, beer in one hand, picking up the remote in the other.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Schmidt."
"I read your emails! Your teacher died!"
Nick laughed.
"Don't read my emails, man."
"Remember when you came crying to me about that little red number on top of the mail app on your phone? When you said it was stressing you out and you needed me to fix it?"
"No, Schmidt, I remember when YOU said it was stressing YOU out. I don't even know how to use this thing." He threw his phone on the couch next to him.
"Ooohlala, who's Jessica Day?" Schmidt wriggled his eyebrows, having picked up Nick's phone scrolling through the notifications instantly.
"What? Who?" Nick attempted to snatch the phone back but Schmidt easily dodged.
"Accept." Schmidt said as he clicked the 'accept friend request' button and Nick's eyes went big.
"What the hell did you just do, Schmidtty?" Nick finally grabbed the phone and assessed the damage.
"If some reasonably attractive, brunette with bangs wants to slide into your dms on Facebook, Nicholas, as your best friend, I will NOT let you pass up on the opportunity."
"That's my new teacher, douchebag!" Nick yelled distractedly, as he began scrolling through her wall.
Jess had taken about four classes so far. She was getting to know her students. Even starting to like them. Some of them, anyway.
Teaching adults was something very different to what she was used to. Their minds worked a very different way to children with significantly less life experience. She was definitely adjusting.
But it was hard to not play favourites in a class full of people nearly her age. She was constantly having to remind herself, these people weren't her friends, they were her students.
But when she was scrolling through their work at home, writing little comments on the side and little smiley faces at the end, she couldn't help but pay a little more attention to some more than others.
Nick Miller was definitely one of those who took up a little more of her time.
The way he wrote was just… so unexpected. So out of character for the man she thought he was. She really couldn't work him out.
So she would read over and over his work. Trying to find little clues. Anything at all that might help her uncover who the quiet and mysterious man that would smile up at her softly from his desk in the back of her classroom really was.
"Hey Nick!" She had spent the whole class trying to work out what to say to him – anything at all that might trigger a conversation, but as soon as she saw him turn around, on his way out the door, she forgot everything she had rehearsed.
He smiled, leaning up against the door frame. "How can I help you?"
"I – uh – was just wondering how you were finding the class?" She didn't know why she was suddenly nervous. She was his teacher for goodness sake. She stood in front of him and fifteen other people for four hours a week and talked with hardly a problem. But all of a sudden, standing in a room alone with him, and Jessica Day was nervous.
"The class is great. I think you're doing great, Jessica." He chuckled at her shyness. But he really wasn't lying. She was a great teacher and he was getting a lot out of the sessions. He just thought her need for reassurance was more than cute.
"Jess." She blushed and he raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Call me Jess."
"Okay, Jess." He snorted. Continuing to lean confidently on the wall, patiently waiting for her to say something.
"I really like the way you write." She busted out. "The way you connect your words. It's like you say just enough that it's not enough. It's captivating and kind of mysterious. I guess like you, Nick."
He bit down on his bottom lip for a moment. Tapping on the door frame and considering her words.
He finally allowed his eyes to meet hers once again. No words could really do justice to what he was feeling in that moment. She was the first person who had really taken the time to comprehend his writing. But she was his teacher. That was her job.
"You're not really like the other teachers, are ya Jess?" He let off a little chuckle and with that, he left for the weekend.