"You know what's great about beer?" Schmidt said while slowly sipping from his glass.

"What's that, buddy?"

"It's delicious! You JUST can't mess it up!" Schmidt said with an expression of pure joy on his face. "You know what would be cool? If we took all of our beers and created one MEGA BEER! I bet it would be amazing."

"No, Schmidt I think that would be horrible." Winston finally piped up. He was enjoying his beer and did not want to see it go to waste.

"Think about it! My beer is good, your beer is good, Nick's beer is good. Together they'll be a giant, delicious MEGA BEER!" Schmidt said excitedly.

Nick and Winston shared a look that only a best friend would understand and nodded. "Ok, Schmidty, let's do this!"

Schmidt began pouring his beer into Nick's glass. "Oooooh!" He said, far too excitedly for his own good. He took Winston's beer and began to pour his beer in as well.

As much as Nick and Winston wanted to pretend to hate the idea, they joined in Schmidt's excitement as the glass was completely full. "Hahaha! Mega beer!" They said together.

Nick noticed two girls gesture toward them as they walked into the bar, obviously disgusted by the Mega Beer. Great, he thought, like we need any more help striking out with the ladies.

"Alright, Schmidt, this was your idea. You take a drink first." Nick said, bringing his attention back to the events taking place in front of him.

Schmidt smiled at his friends, looking back and forth between them several times before picking up the glass and taking a big long drink. Nick and Winston held their breaths until Schmidt finally came up for air.

He made a face that told them he was debating how he felt. Finally he said, "You were right. This is disgusting. Ugh! I think I'm going to be sick!"

Nick and Winston couldn't help but laugh at Schmidt. "I'll go get us some new beers." Nick laughed as he got up from their booth.

He immediately saw the girls that scoffed at them on their way into the bar. One of them was standing up, flailing her arms around, while the other was trying to calm her down. He walked over and stood at the bar next to the excited girl.

Watching her try to down her drink as quickly as possible, he warned, "Easy there, champ."

She turned her head and looked at him dead in the eyes. Not sure how they could get any bigger, her eyes widened at the sight of him. He was certain he'd never seen eyes that shade of blue in his entire life. And of course she probably saw us with that stupid Mega Beer on her way in, he thought. He half frowned at the thought. How embarrassing.

As her friend quickly walked away, she turned her giant eyes back to him and giggled. "Hi, I'm Jess."

"I'm Nick." Not sure what else to do, he held out his hand to shake. Weird? Smooth? He thought to himself.

"I ummm... Need some courage. That's why I was drinking my drink as quickly as possible. Liquid courage." She said with a smile.

Her smile was radiant. Although, it wasn't just her smile, it was her presence. Hypnotized, he returned her smile and nodded. "Yeah, I know how that goes."

She turned to her nearly empty drink and stirred. He turned to the bartender and ordered his beers, as well as whatever she was drinking. When the bartender gave him the drinks, he slid the fruity looking cocktail toward her.

"Well, here ya go. Hopefully you find the courage you need." He smiled at her while he picked up his beers.

She looked up and made eye contact with him again. Gah! He thought, it's going to be a long time until I can forget those eyes. He made a face that was a combination of a smile and a frown as he turned and began to walk away.

"Hey Nick!" He heard her call out behind him. He stopped breathing as he turned and looked into her ocean blue eyes.

"Yeah, Jess?" He smirked. He liked the familiarity he shared with this girl he'd only met a few minutes earlier at the bar.

"Umm, thanks for the drink. If I find the courage I'm looking for, I'll let you know." She smiled so big that it seemed like her whole body was smiling. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before.

"Yeah, you do that." He smiled and turned to sit back down with his friends. He willed his silly weak knees not to betray him until he could get back to his booth.

Nick dropped the beers down on the table and sat down in a daze.

"Whoa, earth to Nick! Where are you, buddy?" Winston waved his hand in front of Nick's face.

"What? Huh? Me?" Nick stuttered.

"What's up, man?" Schmidt looked concerned.

"Don't look now, but I just met a girl at the bar and she was pretty awesome. Her name is Jess." Nick said, shaking himself back to reality.

Both of his friends were staring, so he decided to turn around and look also. As soon as he turned to look at her, she turned around and looked in his direction as well. He face went bright pink when she noticed them all staring at her and she quickly turned around.

"Thanks guys." Nick said, in a low defeated tone.

"She's pretty, but her friend is HOT!" Schmidt said as her friend returned to her side.

"Yeah, well never mind." Nick said, drinking from his beer. There's no way a girl like that would ever go for a guy like me, he silently thought to himself.

Winston and Schmidt started talking about hot girls while Nick sat thinking about what he should have done and said to Jess.

He heard her and her friend laugh at the bar and he turned to look at her once more. She was looking at him too. All he could think was, Don't do it. DO NOT smile that smile at me. But she did, and he couldn't help smiling back.

He turned his attention back to his drink and only looked up again to see Jess and her friend as they walked out of the bar.