Miley handed Nick his coffee cup and sat down across from the table. He was silent. All he did was stare at the coffee as he slowly stirred in his milk. He seemed to be in a trance. He was starting to worry her.

Miley bit her lip and took the teaspoon from him gently.

"What happened?"

Nick remained silent. After a few moments, he looked up at her. He looked exhausted from what Miley assumed was a big argument with Selena.

"She told me she needed a night alone. She shoved me out the door. She didn't let me pack a bag or anything ... She said she might not be there when I go back in the morning," he said, his voice hoarse. He sounded as though he had been yelling a lot.

Miley pursed her lips, disappointed with Selena's behaviour. Sure, Nick didn't want a baby just yet. That didn't give Selena the right to treat him like dirt. Miley then pushed her personal opinions on the matter aside and looked at Nick. She reached out her hand and covered his. "Want to talk about it?"

He hesitated, then spoke. "We got home and she just sat there at the table. She kept staring at me like she hated me. I said to her that I wasn't ready. She just went ... crazy. She started yelling about how selfish I am and how I never consider what she wants. She started yelling about all this stuff from college, like Carolyn and Jessie, so then we had this big fight. Then she told me to go and she said she might go stay with her mom for a while and she might not be there tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, Nick." She touched his arm and put on a smile for him, to give him some positivity. "You can stay here as long as you want." When he didn't answer her, she thought for a moment. "Okay. Tell you what. Tomorrow night, we'll all go out. You, me, Demi, Joe and Kevin. Take your mind off the whole Selena thing."

"You have your date tomorrow night."

"I can rearrange that."

Nick smiled slightly. "I appreciate that, Mi, I really do, but I know you were looking forward to going out with Jake. No matter how much I dislike him, I couldn't ask you to change your plans for me." He paused. "I'll be fine."

"Okay, if you're sure. Like I said, you can stay here as long as you want."

"Thanks, Mi."

He rubbed his forehead with his right hand and closed his eyes. "She can be so stubborn sometimes," he muttered to himself.

"Don't worry yourself about it. She just wants to start a family with you. You should be flattered. Just give her time to let off steam." Miley stood up and grabbed her phone off the table. "I'm heading to bed. You know where I am if you need anything."

Nick smiled again at her. "Thanks again, Miles." He stood up and headed towards the living room.

Miley walked into her bedroom and headed straight for the closet. She grabbed a spare blanket off the shelf and grabbed one of her extra pillows. She then walked back down the hallway and into the living room to find Nick sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. He looked up when he realised she was there.

"Thanks," he muttered as she tossed the blanket and pillow to him.

Miley hesitated, then sat down beside him. "Selena and you are going to be fine, you know. You two are always arguing and you've always made it through okay. You and her will be back to normal in no time," she comforted.

Nick smiled softly at her. "You really are a good friend," he said softly.

Miley didn't say anything. She instead smiled back at him and looked at the clock. It was almost one o'clock.

"You got work tomorrow?"

"No."

"Right, you can come with me then. I need some things moved around in the office and some bits and pieces done. You can help me out."

It was less of a suggestion and more of an order. Nick smiled at the bossy attitude of his friend and nodded.

"Sounds good," he said.

Miley smiled at him and stood up to go to her bedroom. As she walked out of the room, she turned around and looked at him again.

"Oh, and Nick?" He looked up at her from the couch. "It's okay to be upset over what happened with you and Selena," she said softly.

His worried, stressed expression softened at her words. He smiled up at her and started to unfold the blanket. He put the pillow at the end of the couch and lay down on it, throwing the blanket over himself.

"Goodnight," he said to her.

Miley smiled in return and walked to her bedroom. After she had changed and brushed her teeth, she lay in bed and thought about Nick. She couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. His wife had kicked him out for a pretty stupid reason and chances were that she wouldn't be there when he got back.

But what could she do to help? It wasn't like she could change his opinions on having a child. It wasn't like she could make Selena calm down or wait a few years. There was nothing Miley could do to help except offer Nick the spot on her living room couch.

The following morning, Nick walked into the kitchen to see Miley drinking coffee at the sink as she looked out the window at her small backyard. When she heard his feet padding along the wooden floor of the living room and into the tiled kitchen, she turned and smiled.

"Sleep well?" she asked.

"Not really," he grumbled.

She smiled at him sympathetically. "It will be okay," she said.

He sighed. If she said that one more time, he was going to strangle her. He got a cup out of her cupboard and filled it with coffee from her coffee maker on the counter. He turned and looked at her.

"What do you need done at the hotel today?" he asked as he drank his coffee.

"Like I said, just move some things around in the office. You can help me in the restaurant as well. They finished painting in there the other day and the furniture for it arrived yesterday. You can help me move around the tables and set the places," she replied.

Nick nodded. He finished his coffee and put the cup in the sink.

"Thanks for letting me stay. I'm going to head home and have a shower and get dressed. I'll meet you over there in about an hour," he said.

"Okay. See you soon," she said.

Nick leaned over and hugged her. "Thanks, Mi. You're a really good friend," he whispered to her.

Miley smiled to herself and ruffled his curls when he pulled back. "You're not so bad yourself," she teased.

Nick grinned at her and turned to walk through the French doors into the living room. He pulled on his dress pants from the night before as well as his shirt and tie and walked towards the door.

"See you later!" Miley called after him.

Nick lifted his hand and waved at her over his shoulder before walking out of her house. He walked down her steps and over to his Mercedes in her driveway. He unlocked the car and got in.

For a moment, he just sat in the car in silence. He couldn't believe that Selena was angry at him for something as silly as not being ready for a kid. He didn't understand why it had to be a big fight between them. He didn't understand why they couldn't have talked about it and settled it calmly and rationally like adults.

He leaned his head back onto the leather headrest and closed his eyes. He had no idea what was going through Selena's mind.

He then opened his eyes and started up the car. He reversed out of the driveway and started driving down the street. In his rear view mirror, he swore he saw Miley watching him out her living room window with a worried expression.

When he arrived at the apartment building, he saw that Selena's car was still parked where it had been the night before. He smiled to himself. That had to be a good sign, right? He grabbed his keys and phone and then jogged across the street to the building.

He rushed up the stairs to their first floor apartment. He then fumbled with the keys, trying get in as quickly as possible to talk things trough with Selena. When he finally unlocked the door, he wasn't happy with what he saw.

Selena was walking out of the bedroom with her suitcase.

She froze when she saw him. She put down her suitcase and rolled in her lips.

"Nick," she murmured.

Nick glanced from Selena to the suitcase then stepped into the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

"Where are you going?"

"I told you I might be going to my mom's for a while to clear my head," she replied quietly.

"And you actually decided to go?"

"Why not?"

"Because you have a life here, Selena, that's why. You have me, your job, your friends." He paused. "What am I supposed to do?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. You'll think of something. You always do." She hesitated, a look of hostility on her face. "You got us into this mess. If you didn't freak out about me wanting a baby then we would be perfectly happy right now," she said coldly.

Anger bubbled inside of Nick. All thoughts of trying to make up with her left his mind. "Don't even turn this around on me. You were fine with it just being you and me until you saw your sister and her kids at your mom's that weekend for your birthday." He stepped closer to her. "You don't really want a kid. You like the idea of a kid. But once that kid comes along, you'll be complaining and bitching from the start."

She lifted a hand to slap him but he grabbed her wrist and gently put her arm back to her side. He smiled at her.

"Don't hit me. You know it's true."

"Why are you being so hurtful?" she whispered.

"Hurtful? Selena, you threw me out of our damn apartment when I said I wasn't ready for a baby yet. You're the one that's leaving to stay with your mom to 'clear your head'." He shook his head. "And you have the nerve to call me hurtful."

She raised her voice in anger. "You're so freaking hard to talk to. You never even listened to what I had to say last night!" she yelled.

"Jesus Christ, Selena! I damn well listened to it and you know I did. I just didn't agree!" he yelled back.

"I can't talk to you when you're like this," she said. She picked up her suitcase and headed towards the door but Nick stood in front of her. "Move out of the way, Nicholas," she said coldly.

He shook his head and looked her in the eyes. "You tell me why you really want a baby. Right now, in this room. Tell me why you want to have a child with me," he said quietly.

The room was so quiet. The only sound was the ticking of the clock and the sound of their heavy breathing as they stared each other in the eyes. The tension in the room was unbearable. Neither of them moved. They stayed in their positions as they continued to stare at one another.

"I want a family with my husband. Is that so wrong?" she said, her voice cold and angry.

Nick laughed humourlessly. "No, you don't. I know you, Selena. If you want something as quickly as you wanted a baby, you have some sort of reason." He smirked slightly. "So go on. Tell me what your grand motive is."

Selena shook her head with tears in her eyes. "I'll call you when I'm ready to come home," she said. She looked at him. "Or maybe you can call me when you're ready to talk like an adult about this." She picked up her suitcase and handbag and walked out of the apartment.

Nick stood there alone in the silent apart, frustrated with himself for making everything worse. Tears came to his eyes. He shook his head. Suddenly, he yelled with frustration and punched the wall.

That day, for the first time in years, Nick began to cry for what he had done.

About an hour later, Nick walked into Miley's hotel. He looked around at the finished lilac walls and the furniture over in the corner. Miley walked out from the back room and around the counter.

She smiled at him, then saw his expression and her smile dropped. "What's wrong?" she asked, hugging him.

"She left," he whispered.

Miley's mouth opened in shock. "Come on, sweetie," she said. She led him over to the bay window over by the front door and sat him down on the window seat. "What happened?" she asked.

He shrugged. "We had a fight. It was bad. She was heading out to her mom's but I stopped her. Then we were fighting and she just left," he replied, his voice quiet, almost a whisper.

Miley put a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, sweetie," she said softly.

Nick took a deep breath and stood up. "It's okay." He looked around. "What do you need done?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject.

Miley hesitated. "Are you sure you're up to it, Nick?"

Nick put on a smile and looked at Miley. "I'll be fine. I need to take my mind off Sel," he replied. He gave Miley a quick hug. "Thanks, Mi," he said. It felt as though he'd said those words too many times in the last few hours.

"Okay," Miley said, doubtful. She led him into the dining room. "The paint in the lobby is still drying, so I was thinking that we could get started in here. If you could just move around some tables and stuff, that would be great."

Hours later, the decorators had left and the tables and chairs were all set up in the dining room. Nick and Miley were standing together in the lobby and getting ready to go.

"Have a good date tonight with ... you know, Jake."

"It's okay to say his name. It isn't, like, cursed or anything."

"I don't like saying the name of an ass."

"Nicholas."

"Fine, fine, I'll be nice. Like I said, have a good date."

"I'll call you when I get home. Tell you all about it."

Nick chuckled and gave Miley a hug. "I'll pass on hearing all the gory details, thanks." He took a step back and headed towards the door. "But call me tonight anyway."

Miley nodded and waved. Nick smiled over at her and walked out the door to his car. Miley watched him through the French doors as he got into his car and drove away down the street.

Miley then checked her phone. She was already running about five or ten minutes late. She grabbed her bag off the counter and walked out onto the street. She locked the doors quickly. Soon enough, she was driving down the street to the bar she was meeting Jake at.

Moments later, Miley had pulled up outside the bar and was inside. She stood over at the bar and ordered a drink. She felt someone tap her shoulder and turned.

"Jake. Hi."

He looked different. He had cut his shaggy blonde hair to be short. He was much taller than Miley remembered. His toned chest could be seen easily through his white v-neck. He still had the same charming smile and crystal blue eyes, though.

"Hey, Miles."

"How are you?" she asked, sitting on a bar stool.

Jake sat down beside her with his beer and smiled again. "I'm good. How about you?"

Miley nodded. "I'm pretty good."

"I thought we were meeting up for dinner."

"I thought it would be more comfortable here."

"Oh, okay. I heard you're opening up a hotel a few miles from here."

Miley smiled. "Yeah, I am. Where did you hear that?"

"I was talking to your brother the other day at the park. He was there with his daughter and I was there with my niece and we got talking," Jake explained.

"Oh, that's cool. So what are you doing now?"

Jake shrugged. "Not much, really. I'm doing some theatre work right now. I gave up on the whole Hollywood thing a couple of years ago and moved on to plays and stuff," he replied.

"How's that going for you?" Miley asked.

"Honestly, I don't enjoy it at all. But what can I do? I just about graduated from high school, I didn't go to college and I'm not really good at anything else, you know? I guess I'm just stuck with acting for a while until I can find something else," he said.

"I'm sure you'll find something."

"Yeah. So have you kept in touch with anybody from high school?"

"Yeah, I have, actually. Nick, Joe, Demi, some other people. You?"

"No, I lost touch with everybody when I moved to Los Angeles. How are they doing? I meant to keep in touch but then I was so busy trying to make it that I just fell out of sync with everybody else."

"They're good. Demi and Joe are actually engaged now. They just moved in together."

"And Nick?"

Miley hesitated. She didn't really want to go into Nick's marital situation at that moment in time. She bit her lip and sighed.

"He's married to a girlfriend of his from college."

Jake chuckled to himself and shook his head.

"What?" Miley asked, confused.

"Nothing, nothing," Jake said.

"No, tell me," Miley urged, smiling slightly.

Jake sighed and smiled back at her. "It's just ... in high school, everybody thought that you and Nick would end up together, that's all. It's just a bit of a shock to hear that he married someone else."

Miley froze and stared at Jake. She had never heard anybody ever say that she and Nick would end up together ... had she? Maybe she had and she hadn't listened.

"No, Nick and I have a purely platonic relationship," she said softly.

Jake shrugged. "To everybody else, even me when we were dating, it seemed like you two would eventually end up together. Like, your chemistry together was always really intense. It was kind of intimidating to me." Jake paused, then smiled and leaned closer to Miley. "But I'm really glad you two didn't end up together," he whispered.

Before Miley knew it, Jake was kissing her. She didn't push him away. To her surprise, she was kissing him back. But even though Miley was kissing Jake, all she could think about was Nick and what Jake had said about their chemistry.

She had no idea why she was still sitting there, kissing Jake. Then she decided. She didn't have any chemistry with Nick (well, at least not any romantic or even sexual chemistry), and she was going to prove that to everybody.

Sorry for any typos. I was a bit lazy when it came to checking over the last like half of it. Hope you enjoyed this chapter :) Thanks to RhondaAnn1, nickandmiley3, xmileylovex and TheMsBrandy1 for your reviews. It meant a lot that you guys reviewed and gave me your opinions :) So, everyone, please try and review and tell me what you all think of the story.