A/N: Oh hi, I'm alive :D I don't know why I took so long to update, but I did and I'm sorry. Like I said before, I have so many ideas and life's a bitch. This chapter is longer than usual but whatever, I liked how it turned out. As always, if you see something wrong (I haven't proofread this baby because I'm at work right now and I just wanted to post it as soon as I could) please let me know! Thank you everyone who left a review for the previous chapter, you all have a special place in my heart 3

xxxx

"Hey Nick, it's me... Uhm, Caroline. I know it's been a year since we've last spoken to each other, but I was going through my stuff and I remembered that some of my clothes are still with you. My blue cardigan and that floral blouse that my mom gave me... Can I stop by to pick them up or, I don't know, maybe you can come over? Anyway, call me when you can. Bye!"

Nick held his phone away from his ear and stared at the screen for what felt like an eternity. He never, ever thought he was gonna hear about Caroline again, not after everything they had been through the past year - well, he had been through. After a couple years together and being in a relationship that was not going so well between them (at least that was what Caroline had said), she broke up with him on a Sunday afternoon and made it clear that she didn't want any contact with Nick or whatsoever. Needless to say, he spent months in hell trying to get her back and crying around the loft and now... he was completely over her. Nick was damn sure he was absolutely over Caroline.

Was he?

"Did they announce the extinction of beer or what?" Winston chuckled, flopping down on the sofa next to Nick "What happened, man?"

"I..." Nick cleared his throat, throwing one last glance at his phone before looking at Winston "Caroline called. There's some stuff of hers here and she wants them back."

"Oh." Winston paused, knowing the impact of that unexpected fact on his friend."Is she coming here?"

"I don't know, she actually left a voice message and asked me to call her back." Nick threw himself against the cushions "Ughhh, this is so hard."

The door opened and Schmidt and Jess walked in, each holding three garment bags. Jess sat on the couch across the room and huffed.

"How do you live with Schmidt? He's worse than Cece when it comes to shopping!"

"It's not like we shop with him anyway, we've learned our lesson." Winston replied, shrugging. Schmidt rolled his eyes and grabbed the bags from Jess's lap.

"I thought I could use some feminine help picking a suit for the office's party next week, but no, Jess likes disappearing through the women's department and suggesting black cats patterned ties to match my black shirt!"

"They were so cute!" Jess chuckled and turned to look at Nick. She noticed the lack of ironic comments and his frowned face and waved her hand to get his attention "Hey Nick, what's the matter?"

"Weird stuff." He mumbled, with his arms crossed. Jess raised an eyebrow, confused, and glanced at Winston in a silent question. He shook his head.

"His ex-girlfriend called and she wants to come over to get her clothes back."

"Caroline?!" Schmidt's eyes widened.

"Ex-girlfriend?" Jess frowned.

"It's been what, more than a year you guys broke up?" Schmidt placed his garment bags down on the couch and put his hands on his hips "Sorry but I smell 'fake gold' digger! Besides, did you tell her you used to wear the clothes she wants back to cry and drunk dial her?"

"You wore her clothes?" Jess's jaw dropped and Nick threw a cushion at Schmidt, hissing "shut up" at him. After managing all the embarrassment Schmidt just gave him in front of Jess, Nick sighed and looked at her.

"That girl put me down, okay? I would do anything to get her back and, I don't know, I just kept calling her and acting stupid and ugh" he huffed, annoyed at himself "I was stupid. That's all."

"I see." Jess replied, mulling it over for a few seconds. "Do you still like her?"

Jess's question took Nick aback. He actually wasn't sure how to answer that - after so many attempts of getting Caroline back and failing miserably, he learned how to live without her in his life and move on without any form of contact with her. He didn't text, didn't call and hell, he even managed to stop checking out her facebook page after spending nights crying because of a check-in in a cool bar with some random dude. Nick was fine without Caroline.

But did that mean he stopped liking her?

"I guess I don't." He replied, in an unsure voice. Winston and Schmidt made an annoyed sound and Jess tried to be as cheerful as possible.

"If you don't, then everything will be okay, right?" She reached for his phone and put it right in his hand "Come on, call her and say she can come to pick up her clothes anytime she likes."

"Ha, I'm not calling her. Nope."

"Okay, as your best friend" Schmidt announced "I cannot let the humiliation..."

"There's no humiliation."

"...that I see here happen. We are gonna call your ex girlfriend - notice how I said ex meaning you are not getting back together with her - and tell this lady she is welcome into our home to grab her Target cardigan and tear stained blouse and leave. Come on Nicholas."

"You're a nut and we" Nick pointed at Schmidt, Winston and Jess, getting up from the sofa "are not calling anyone. I will text her and be cool and casual and act however I want."

Jess watched as Nick angrily kicked a cushion out of his way and marched to his own room. She didn't know why she felt bothered by this situation, but one thing was certain: she wasn't comfortable - it's like she didn't expect to have someone else to acknowledge Nick, even if this person was an ex. Knowing how dumb that sounded, Jess shook that feeling away and walked up to Nick's door. Before she could go down the hall though, Schmidt called her name.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Uh... I'm going to help Nick with this issue."

"Jess, that's dangerous territory" Winston said, reaching for the control remote and turning the TV on "Schmidt and I suffered over this break up for like three months and Nick took way longer than that to get over it."

"He cried a lot." Schmidt shuddered and Jess crossed her arms.

"Guys, Nick needs closure and as his friend and, specially, as a woman, I'm gonna help him get that." She turned on her heels and walked down the hall "Don't wait for us!"

Schmidt rolled his eyes and sat next to Winston to watch TV. Jess knocked on Nick's door once and when he said "Come in", she pushed the door open and flopped down the bed next him.

"What do you want, weirdo?"

She smiled widely and hugged his arm.

"I'm gonna teach you how to deal with this situation. Lesson number one, we're sending her a voice message, not a text. "

He tried to look annoyed, but her goofy smile and happy blue eyes didn't allow that. Sighing, he comfortably set himself beside Jess and handed her his phone.

"Try to not make me sound stupid, alright, I've had enough of that. Now, what should I say?"

xxxxxx

Nick glanced at the time in his phone one more time. Caroline called him - at the loft, just to pick up her stuff - and said she would be there at six. It was five to six and, unfortunately (or not), one of her abilities was punctuality - he swept his hands on his pants one more time.

Stealing a glance at Jess, who was at the kitchen heating up water for tea, Nick instantaneously felt calmer. Even after she helped him getting in touch with Caroline, he wasn't sure about asking her to be there when his ex knocked at his door, but she was so cool about it all that he actually felt relieved, since Schmidt and Winston wouldn't be home at that time. He involuntarily smiled at the sight of her adjusting her glasses and walking up to him with a mug of hot tea in her hands.

"So, did Caroline text or something?" Jess sat down next to Nick on the couch "It's six o'clock."

"No, but she'll be here anytime now. It's a rare thing for her to be late, or at least it was. So,those cupcakes you baked this morning..."

"How do you know I baked cupcakes?"

"I can smell them from here."

Just in time, someone knocked at the door and Nick looked at Jess with wide eyes. She reached out and gave him a light squeeze on the hand.

"Take her clothes" she nodded towards the folded blouse and cardigan sitting on top of the coffee table "Give it to her and ask if she wants some tea. Be a polite boy, Miller."

"Do I look like a sixty year old granny to offer people tea?"

"Just do it, dude."

" Okay, mom."

"Shut up." Jess chuckled and pointed at the door "Come on, she's waiting!"

Nick sighed and took Caroline's clothes in his arms. As he slowly walked towards the door, he thought about everything he could be expecting at that very moment: a punch in his heart, a pain in his stomach, a feeling of sadness or regret washing over him, heartache sensation, etc etc. But what he did not expect when he saw his ex girlfriend standing there waiting for him was to... smile.

"Hey" Nick friendly greeted Caroline.

"Hi!" She enthusiastically greeted him back and threw an arm around his shoulder to give him a half hug "How have you been?"

"I've been great, thanks." He lifted her clothes mid-air "I guess this is yours?"

"Yeah" She chuckled and Nick handed her the cardigan and the blouse "Thanks for... Well, for keeping them. It was really nice of you."

"No problem. You wanna come in?"

"Sure."

When Caroline walked into the loft and noticed Jess sitting on the couch, zipping through TV channels, Nick noticed she hesitated a little. Caroline gave him an awkward smile and held on tighter to her clothes in her arms.

"Is this your new roommate?"

"This is Jess, she lives across the hall and is my friend." He scratched his head "Hey Jess, this is Caroline."

"Oh." Caroline paused. "So this is Jess."

Jess happily set her mug down on the coffee table and stood up to shake Caroline's hand. Nick could tell Caroline was freaking out inside a little bit: her smile was tight, she dropped Jess's hands as soon as she could and made sure to set a good distance between she and Jess once they were side by side. It was almost as if Jess was the one who was dating him now.

"Nick told me you were coming over so I made tea" Jess said as she walked to the kitchen. She looked at Caroline over her shoulder "Do you want some? There are cupcakes too! I baked two trays of them this morning, I could totally get one for you. Or two."

"No, I'm good with just tea, thanks."

"You can get one for me."Nick said and Jess rolled her eyes at him in a playful way.

"As if you needed to ask, turtle face" Jess turned to Caroline "This guy stops by my apartment almost every day before going to work to check if I have any food. He's like Yogi Bear and thinks he's smarter than the av-er-age bear. "

"Your imitation game is terrible, Jessica."

"It's actually great and you know it." She replied and turned back to the stove. Nick shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"So, how's work, your family...?"

The conversation flowed smoothly amongst the three of them, but it wasn't like they were all friends. Soon Caroline found a way to leave early and thanked Jess for the tea; Nick walked her to the door and she gave him the same hug she did when she first got there, but this time less excited.

"Thanks again. It was...nice to see you."

"Nice to see you too. Long time, right?"

"Yeah." She then hesitated a little, but spoke anyway " I'll be around this week, you know, so if you want to grab a coffee or talk, just call me."

Nick's mouth formed a small "o". Nick from a year ago would have given everything to have Caroline standing in his doorway, asking him to call her and grab a coffee. It was all he dreamed of for months. But now... he didn't know. Nick was having some actual progress on his professional life for the first time and he even felt that his friends had grown closer to him since Caroline was gone, so going back to her after everything he had gone through felt like regress. Plus, when Nick saw her that day, he was 99% sure he was no longer in love with her.

He didn't know why he was so sure about that though. He just did.

"I'll get back to you later about it, okay?" He said, taking Caroline completely by surprise. She took a few seconds to reply, and when she did, she just smiled awkwardly and said "Okay". They waved good bye and as Caroline walked down the stairs of the building to leave, Nick felt two arms squeezing his ribs as if he was a freaking teddy bear.

"Sooo" Jess looked up at him "How did that go? Do I need to get emergency cupcakes right now to make you feel better? "

He looked down at her big blue eyes and couldn't help but smile. Damn that pretty face of hers.

"Everything turned out just fine, Jessica, thanks for asking, but I do think I need emergency cupcakes."

"Chocolate ones?"

"That's right."

Jess giggled and let go of him. As she jumped up and down across the hall towards her own apartment, something occurred to Nick: He wasn't 99% sure he wasn't in love with Caroline anymore. He was 100%.

xxxxx

"Hi Caroline. Nick, voice! Hiii Caroline. I got your message *pause of three seconds and the sound of a slap on someone's arm * Awch, Jess, what the hell? Keep going. *sound of a sigh* I got your message and yeah, you can stop by. Your clothes are here and they... they are clean. They were never used. So yeah, we'll be waiting. Bye! *you could do better.* *I'm sorry if I didn't make you happy, Jess* *You forgot to hang up* *Oh,shit!*