Thanks so much to Marsbarr for all the help on this one! I owe you! PS apologies for any errors lol I couldn't be bothered proof reading it...
"Look, ma, I'm really sorry." Nick began to poke at the chocolate cake in front of him with his fork, avoiding his mum's eyes which were sympathetically glued to him.
"Sorry for storming out or sorry for making Jess upset?"
"I'm sorry for… All of it. Why do I always make her cry? I can't think of anything worse than hurting her…" He paused for a minute and looked up to meet his mother's intent stare. "But it's like, every time we take a step forward, there's a million steps back."
"It seems to me like you both think too much. Love hurts and then it doesn't for a while and just as you think you're safe, the pain is back. But I promise you, this will all be worth it. For the both of you. You just have to let it do its thing, and stop thinking about it." Bonnie said softly as she placed a hand over Nick's.
"Bring Jess to Chicago for Jamie's wedding." Nick's face went from deep in thought to stunned and a little nervous.
"As in, Winston, Schmidt and Jess? Yeah, I'm sure they'd love to come." Nick stumbled across the sentence as he attempted to convince his mother that that's what she meant.
She rolled her eyes as she reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope, sliding it across the table to an anxious looking Nick.
"You know it's an intimate wedding, Nicky. You're lucky you even got an invite." She said with a wink as she watched him pull out the two plane tickets, rechecking the envelope for more.
"Why are you surprised, Nick? She's your girlfriend. We want her there and I'm sure she'd love to be there."
Nick stared at the tickets in his hand, his thoughts ticking over at a million miles an hour. Jess wasn't his girlfriend and it wasn't Bonnie's fault she didn't know that. But now he was going to have to come up with an excuse, because surely he couldn't ask Jess to come to an intimate family wedding… And expect her to play the girlfriend role in front of his family…
"Nicky? What do you think?" Bonnie's soft voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Uh, thanks ma... I'll think about it."
Am I really going to this 'thing' with you tonight? Nick hit send on his phone with a big smile on his face. He really did want to go, in fact, he was even kind of excited about it, but he enjoyed stirring her up way more than giving in.
No, I just invited you for a conversation topic...
Well I mean, it was kind of last minute. You know how long it takes me to organise an outfit.
Ha ha. Wear whatever you want, it isn't formal or anything.
Good, because I got this new tracksuit…
Shut up Miller. I'll see you tonight.
I'll pick you up at 7 xx
Jess put her phone down on her bedside table as she picked up her book and attempted to find her place again. Not being able to regain concentration, she jumped out of bed and began flicking through all of the dresses in her closet.
Just before 7pm, there was a knock at Jess's door.
"Come in!" She sang as she took a deep breath, attempting to contain her smile.
Turning to look to the now open door, her eyes went wide as she opened her mouth in a grin.
"Nicholas Miller! You do clean up alright, don't you?" She giggled as she pushed his shoulder and gestured at him to spin around. He was wearing a dark grey button up, roughly tucked into a comfortably fitted pair of black jeans and tanned pair of loafers, matching his belt perfectly.
"I know what 'it's not formal' really means in your books, Jessica." He said with a laugh. "And lucky I do, because I'd hate to be out dressed by my date in the pretty black dress." He winked as she began to blush.
"You've seen me in this before, Nick. I'd hardly call it formal."
"Well, I think you look great, Jess. As good as the first time I saw you in it."
"Shut up, Nick! You don't remember the first time I wore this…" She said challenging him with a chuckle.
"What? You think I could forget that double date we had with Cece and Schmidt? The one where Cece found out Schmidt was cheating and Winston went all weird about the table booking thing…" Nick started to mumble as he began to get off topic. "Of course I remember the dress; it was my favourite part of the night."
"Nickkkkkkk…" Jess shook her head with a giggle as she began to push him out the door. Any longer in that room and she wouldn't be able to pull herself of off him.
"You two look just lovely!" Bonnie screamed as she pushed the two together and attempted to use her phone to take a photo.
"SCHMIDT WOULD YOU COME IN HERE AND WORK THIS FOR ME?" Bonnie yelled towards Schmidt's bedroom, causing Nick to instantly remove the arm he had wrapped around Jess's waist and 'naturally' begin rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well hello, Nicholas, Jessica." Schmidt said, dramatically, nodding to the both of them. "And hello Tom Ford." Schmidt gestured to Nick's feet.
"Yeah… Sorry about that, Schmidt." Nick looked down to his feet.
"Nicholas, you know I love it when you borrow my clothes. I just can't believe you picked all of this out without my help!"
Jess giggled as she noticed the embarrassment take over Nick's face and tugged on his arm.
"Take the compliment, Miller."
"Thanks Schmidtty." Nick gave him a wink as Schmidt looked softly between the two. He could never get over the affect Jess had on Nick. It was so obvious that every action he took revolved around her reaction.
Bonnie's smile was so content as she passed Schmidt the phone.
"Say cheese, lovebirds!" Bonnie giggled as Jess moved in closer to Nick, to which he responded by rewrapping his arm around her. He couldn't help but take a peak down at the beautiful woman who was tucked under his arm and before he could look up, the flash of the camera went off.
Schmidt giggled as he looked closely at the photo, passing the phone back to Bonnie he moved in close to Nick and whispered
"God, you two are convincing" Schmidt said with a chuckle as he patted Nick on the back and wandered back to his room.
Jess rushed over to Bonnie's side to look over her shoulder and check out the picture. A smile crept over her face as she saw Nick staring extremely lovingly towards her, while she obliviously stared to the camera.
"Send that to me, Bonnie." She chuckled as she walked back to a yet again embarrassed looking Nick.
"So, Nick has you all sorted with a cab for tonight?" Jess asked Bonnie warmly as she wrapped an arm inside of Nick's, instantly causing his body to relax.
"Of course he hasn't, Jess." Bonnie chuckled. "But don't you worry about me, everything is sorted out."
"It was really great to have you, Bonnie. We haven't eaten this well in years, have we Nick?" Jess laughed as she nudged Nick, encouraging him to snap out of his trance and acknowledge the conversation.
"Yeah, thanks for everything, ma." Nick mentioned sincerely, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek.
Bonnie leaned in to embrace Jess in a tight hug.
"You know you're welcome anytime, Bonnie, really, we'd love to have you around here more often. Keep this boy of yours in line." Jess said with a smirk.
"Or maybe Nicky can bring you back to Chicago sometime soon!" Bonnie giggled as she winked at Nick as he rolled his eyes with a smile.
"Yeah, maybe." Jess said barely audible as she reached out for Nicks hand and pulled him to the front door.
"Have a great night, you two!"
The car trip was filled with back and forward banter, but Jess had something running through her head that she was desperate to get out. She just had to pick a time to say it.
"Oh by the way, my colleagues… they're probably going to be all over you tonight. Just a warning." Jess tried to cover her anxiousness with a giggle.
"Oh reallllly…" Nick chuckled, taking a second to look over to her and read her expression.
Noticing her nerves, he was quick to attempt to re-lighten the mood.
"And you would feel… Jealous about that, Jessica?" He said, completely smug.
"HA!" Jess forced a laugh out to cover for her guilty look. "Jealous? Pffff, please. Of you and one of the girls? No way! I just thought I'd warn you in case you wanna fix your hair or something before we get inside." She said as she leaned over to mess up his hair.
"Dammit, Jess!" He laughed. "This took me like 30 seconds to do!"
"I like it messy." She giggled. "It matches the stubble you've got going on." She said as she moved her hand to underneath his chin, jokingly scratching the little bit of a beard he was working.
Shaking his head, he rolled his eyes and put the car into park, turning to look at her. She was already staring back with a smile.
"Do I look ok, Jess? I need to be on my A-game for these ladies."
"You're so annoying!" She laughed as she climbed out of the car.
"So Jess… who's this?" Jess rolled her eyes discretely as she turned to look at Nick who was standing closely beside her, sipping away at his beer and looking around the room.
"Chloe, Amber and Lou, this is Nick." She said as she gestured towards him.
Nick reached out his hand to shake the three lady's, nodding to each of them as he did so.
"Quite the catch you've got yourself, Jessica!" The pretty blonde mentioned as she more than obviously checked Nick out.
Jess paused for a second, considering playing along with the relationship thing, like they had with his mum, but she soon chickened out.
"He's my roommate." Jess said quickly as she nervously avoided Nick's gaze. He on the other hand was so focused on her, fascinated by her obvious discomfort.
Jess noticed the three ladies perk up at the idea of this very easy on the eye guy being single was brought to there already intoxicated attention.
"What do you do, Nick?" One of them asked extremely flirtatiously.
"Uh, I'm a bar tender." Nick spoke with a rough voice until he cleared his throat, still barely taking his eyes off of Jess.
"That is just so sexy!" The three women all chimed in, in excitement.
"I just love a man who can handle his alcohol!" Nick chuckled as he saw a secret smile take over Jess's lips. Looking up at him, she raised her eyebrows as if to say 'I told you so'. To which he chuckled again and placed his hand on the small of her back.
The women gave off a confused look between themselves as they sensed the vibe between Nick and Jess.
"Won't you make us a drink, Nick?" The blonde said in an attempt to be seductive, reaching out and grabbing Nick's hand to pull him from Jess.
Jess gave him a modest thumbs up as she watched him be dragged away by the women.
After a half hour of simple 'yes and no' responses to the lady's attempts at flirting, Nick set his eyes upon Jess as he watched her sit quiet and bored in the middle of a conversation with a bunch of the older staff members. He could tell she was somewhere else with her thoughts.
"Hey ladies…" He put down the bottle of vodka as he turned to look at them all, huddled behind him giggling like a bunch of school girls. "Would you excuse me for a minute."
Marching over to the bench, he grabbed the bottle of wine he had noticed Jess drinking before and took a seat beside her on the couch, shaking her out of her deep thoughts as she turned to smile at him.
"More wine, my lady?" He asked in a very fancy tone.
"Thanks Nick." She giggled quietly as she held out her glass for him.
Nick was quick to join in on the oldie's conversation, shaking all of their hands and politely pretending to be interested in their intense 'class streaming' discussions. Jess couldn't help but shake her head and chuckle every time he chimed in and it made him all giddy inside to know he was making her laugh.
Another twenty minutes had gone by when Nick hopped off his seat besides Jess as she turned to look at him confused.
He couldn't help but chuckle as he could see her sudden shift from relaxed to tense in concern he was going to leave her alone again. Leaning forward, he placed a soft kiss to her temple as he looked back to her eyes and whispered,
"I'll be right back."
Jess excused herself from the conversation as she wandered over to the snack table, filling up her wine, once again and keeping a distant eye on Nick who was headed for the bathroom.
All of a sudden, she was bombarded by an overly excited looking Amber and Lou who both began to speak at a hundred miles an hour.
"Jess! You two are soooo more than roommates!" Amber squealed excitedly. "He is so into you! Have you seen the way that man looks at you?"
"You're so lucky, Jess… He's a real man!" Lou chirped in with a big grin.
"I mean –"Jess began to talk hesitantly before she was interrupted by Amber once again.
"Don't let a guy like that get away, Jess! Go get him!"
Jess let off a nervous laugh as Lou gave her a gentle nudge towards the bathroom, turning back to look at the girls for confirmation, she took a deep breath and a quick chug of liquid courage.
Walking down the hall to the bathroom, she stopped dead in her tracks as she came across Nick, pinned up against the wall by a very intoxicated looking Chloe.
"Hey, get off me!" Nick yelled as he attempted to remove her arms from around his neck.
Nick turned his head to a very in shock Jess, staring directly at him, just before she turned and headed straight for the door.
"JESS!" Nick yelled as he pushed Chloe off of him a little rougher than he had hoped.
"JESSICA WAIT!" He rushed through the chatting people as he grabbed her hand and turned her to face him.
Tears had begun to fill Jess's eyes as she stared deep into his. He attempted to catch his breath, still gripping tightly to her hand.
"I swear to God Jess, that was absolutely not what it looked like."
Jess bit her top lip as she shook her head.
"I don't care, Nick, you can do whatever you want." She said, her voice breaking in parts as she continued to hold back the tears.
"I'll tell you what I want, Jess," He said, lifting his hand to wipe a tear from her cheek, "I want to spend time with you. That's the only reason I came here tonight. And so far, I've spent a whole heap of time making people drinks, talking to that bunch of old guys about things I truly couldn't give less of a shit about and even being borderline sexually assaulted by that blonde lady over there. But I'm still here because I know, at the end of the night I'll get to drive you home and FINALLY get to spend some time with you."
Jess laughed as the tears began flowing even more freely down her face and Nick took a sigh of relief in the forgiveness he found in her eyes.
"Day, can we go?" He said in a defeated laugh as he shook his head.
"Nick, go left!" Jess yelled as she drunkenly leaned ever in attempt to take the wheel from him.
"Jessica!" He laughed as he used a hand to pull both her hands away.
"I don't want to go home yet…" She giggled as she threaded her fingers through his.
He took his eyes off of the road for a second as his breathing hitched. Drunk Jessica Day was so brutally honest and it drove him crazy.
There they were, at one in the morning, sitting on the beach. Nick had his arms stretched out behind him, holding up both his and Jess's body as she leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Hey Nick…" Jess broke the silence with a soft and sleepy voice.
Nick looked down to her, worried for what she would say next.
"I'm glad we're back here, you know, after all this time."
Nick chuckled as his eyes continued to settle on the top of her head.
"Back at the beach, Jess?"
"No silly!" She giggled as she shifted her position to meet his eyes.
"Back here. Me and you. Like this." Her eyes began to blink heavy as she let her head fall back to his shoulder.
"Me too…" He whispered barely audible as he kissed the top of her head gently.
"I'm not going to remember any of this in the morning, am I?" She said quietly with a yawn.
"Nope." He couldn't help but smile, remembering perfectly a time he used that exact line, in this exact spot.