The first time it happens he's so drunk that the words come out completely slurred. There's a sloppy grin on his face and his arm is heavy across her shoulders. Jess is just a touch past tipsy, where everything in the world is suddenly incredibly hilarious to her, and she giggles at nothing in particular as she drags him down the hallway, staring down at her feet so she doesn't trip.

"C'mon, Miller, let's get you to bed," she says, pulling him in the right direction. She slides her arm out from around his middle and he sways on his feet a few moments before settling heavily on the bed.

He's sitting on the edge of the mattress, smiling easily at her with half-lidded eyes. She laughs at his dopey expression and nudges his shoulders until he falls back onto the mattress and starts to kick off his shoes and his slacks. Nick flounders with the comforter while Jess watches in amusement, giggling at the way his ankles are still tangled up in the bottom of his pants. After a few seconds she takes pity on him, yanking his pants free and helping him straighten the blanket to cover most of him.

Nick makes a contented noise and nestles into the bed. "Thanks, honey."

Jess giggles a little, nervous and tipsy. She ruffles his hair and laughs again at the way his nose crinkles up in annoyance as he bats at her hand.

The next morning, Nick doesn't seem to remember anything that happened last night with any particular clarity, and she's too hungover to try to bring it up. She brushes it off as one of those weird moments fueled by foolhardy alcohol consumption and decides to not let herself read too much into it. God, why does she keep doing this to herself? He never remembers any of it. Or even worse, maybe he remembers all of it and it still doesn't mean anything to him. He smiles at her and hands her a plate of scrambled eggs before settling down with his own plate and a cup of coffee to read the newspaper. God, she hates his stupid, perfect face. Stop making me fall in love with you, Nick Miller!

She still really hasn't gotten used to the fact that Schmidt and Cece are together. It's weird, because Schmidt can be a real asshole sometimes, but lately he's been on a bit of a sweet streak. They might even call him reformed; they haven't had to use the Douchebag Jar in weeks. Jess wonders if any of that is Cece's work. There's something charming about the way Schmidt looks at her, a genuine affection that shines through the douchebag persona he tries his best to maintain.

Cece has changed too. There's a genuine happiness to her features that puts a sparkle to her usual 'resting bitch face.' Of all the guys Cece's dated, Schmidt is far from the worst, even at his douchiest. Schmidt can be a mixed bag at times, but Jess really does care about him, and she thinks he feels the same way about her. Cece seems to bring that side out of Schmidt. She's glad that her two friends have been able to find happiness with each other, even if they're both too stubborn to admit it.

And maybe it's a little selfish, but it's nice to have her best friend over at the loft all the time, even if it's a little unsettling that she's wearing Schmidt's shirt and a pair of boxers while Jess makes them both brunch. Nick lingers in the kitchen while she works, teasing her incessantly while Cece sips at a cup of coffee, still waking up. She blinks her eyes blearily as she watches the two of them argue over their near-death experience in the parking lot just last week.

"Oh, you're always starting fights with everyone, Nick." Jess hip bumps him out of her way to the stove. "I mean, not everyone's out to get you."

Nick pokes her in the side and she squirms before swatting at his arm. "He had a gun, Jess! He was literally out to get me."

She scoffs and snatches her spatula out of his hand before scrambling up the eggs. "Isn't Nick the most negative person you've ever met?" she asks Cece over her shoulder.

"I'm not negative; I'm being a realist. You don't know people like I do." He crosses his arms over his chest and does his full-on grumpy turtle face. "I don't have a job where I smile and people do what I want them to do. I don't live in whatever fairy-tale world you do."

Jess rolls her eyes and knocks her shoulder into him. "You never smile."

"A smile is a sign of weakness," he dead pans and Jess laughs.

"Did you want any of this?" Jess asks as she drops two pieces of bread into the toaster.

Nick shakes his head and shoves his hands into his pockets. "Nah, I already ate early this morning."

"Then what are you doing pestering me for?" she asks with another laugh.

"Alright, alright." He throws his hands up in surrender. "I'll get out of your hair. Good to see you, Cece."

He disappears down the hall and there's a short moment of silence in the kitchen as Jess finishes up their brunch.

"You and Nick seem to be really getting along." Cece says casually, taking a sip of her coffee with feigned innocence.

Jess carefully scoops their eggs out onto two plates. "Yeah! He's been helping me get ready for my Willow School interviews."

Cece raises one perfectly-shaped eyebrow. "That's nice of him."

"Mhm." She places slices of avocado on their toast and then sets the plates on the kitchen island before sitting down beside Cece. "He's been really helpful."

"I'm sure," she says pointedly, spearing a strawberry and popping it into her mouth. "'Cause I think he's really into you."

"Nick?" Jess splutters, nearly spitting out an ill-timed drink of orange juice. "No. No! We're just friends."

"Are you kidding me?" Cece says in disbelief. "I saw the way he was looking at you. He was totally flirting with you just now."

"Yeah, right," she scoffs. "Nick acts like that around all of his friends. It just feels different because I'm a woman."

"He definitely doesn't act that way around me. In fact, Nick hasn't really been dating at all," Cece suggests with a pointed look at Jess. "I know how you get, Jess. You can't just be friends with these guys. You can't separate these things out. I love you, babe, but you're clingier than Velcro."

"I'm not-" Jess huffs. "Nick and I are friends. That's it. He doesn't have any feelings for me."

"Oh, please. You don't think Nick hasn't thought about sleeping with you?" Cece says with a sly smile as Jess recoils.

Jess uses her fork to pick at her eggs. "You just think everyone wants to sleep with everyone all the time."

"They do. That's why I think that," Cece says with her usual self-assuredness.

Jess rolls her eyes. Cece is out of her mind. Why would Nick be into her? She's weird, her eyes are too big, and she's never been in a relationship with a guy where he didn't cheat on her, probably because of the way she's so vanilla and boring in bed. Cece thinks everyone wants to sleep with everyone, but that's because she's hot. The rules are different for hot girls. She turns guys' heads just by walking down the street or entering a room. People hardly even notice Jess whenever Cece's around. It's why she didn't like to hang out with Cece at the loft back when she first moved in. Schmidt and Winston kept tripping all over themselves trying to impress her and it would be like Jess didn't even exist anymore.

"I don't know, Ceec-"

"He kissed you, Jess."

"Shh," Jess shushes her and looks around frantically. It would be just her luck for Nick to walk in right as they were talking about him.

Ever since that night she's done her best to act like the kiss never happened, to push away the memory and pretend like she was too drunk to know what she was doing. But damn, that kiss. It hasn't been easy to forget. Every now and then she'll catch her gaze drifting towards Nick's lips, trying to recall the way they'd felt against hers, the slick slide of his open mouth that made fireworks go off behind her eyelids. She's dreamed about it once or twice when she went to bed after one too many glasses of pink wine, and she could feel the faint memory of his teeth teasing her lower lip, the rough stubble of his jaw against her palm, the lingering smell of his cologne and the taste of whiskey on his breath.

"That was ages ago," Jess insists, blushing furiously. "Besides, you're the one who told me to stay away from him."

"It's different now that he's divorced," she explains, as if it's really that simple. "Plus, you totally still like him."

"What! No. I-" Jess huffs. "No! it was one drunken, accidental kiss. It meant nothing to me."

Cece looks at her skeptically. She opens her mouth to say something else when they're interrupted by Nick walking into the kitchen.

"Hey, Jess," he says with smile, rubbing his hands together. "I'm heading to the grocery store. Abbi needs a few things for her summer science fair project. Did you need anything?"

"Yes," Cece says quickly and then turns back Jess, who stares back at her in wide-eyed panic. "Jess, you should go with him, because then you can get that thing that you really need."

Nick glances skeptically between the two of them. "Oh, I wonder what that is."

Cece smiles, completely ignoring the death glare Jess is giving her. "Give her just a minute."

"Okay, well don't take too long." He checks his watch. "I've gotta go pick up Abbi this afternoon."

"Right-o, partner," Jess says with a jolly little salute.

Nick chuckles and shakes his head. "Alright, Jess."

He heads back down the hall towards his room and Cece leans in to whisper to Jess.

"Don't you hear how he says your name?" she says excitedly. "Jess."

"He's from Chicago," she hisses back. "That's just how he talks."

Cece ignores her. "And did you see his feet? A guy's feet point at what they want. His feet were pointing right at you."

Jess groans. "Why wouldn't his feet point at me? Otherwise, he's standing like a duck." She stands up to prove her point, but Cece remains unimpressed and unconvinced.

"Just trust me, Jess."

"No, you're reading way too far into this." Jess crosses her arms over her chest. "This is just because you're with Schmidt now. You're trying to push me into a relationship too fast; I'm fragile."

Cece rolls her eyes and tosses her hair over her shoulder. "Please, you've been messing around with Sam since forever now."

She frowns. "That's different."

"Jess!" Nick calls, re-emerging from his room. "You ready?"

"Yep!" Jess yells back, snatching her purse up off the dining table. "You are not coming in here and ruining all this," she whispers threateningly at Cece as she rifles through her purse.

Cece holds up her hands in mock innocence and Jess narrows her eyes at her.

Jess is a mess at the grocery store, overthinking everything Nick says or does, Cece's voice echoing in the back of her mind whenever Nick does as little as smile at her. She can't pry her eyes away from his feet, which are pointing at her. And she knows that it's all nonsense, but now she's all turned around and Nick keeps saying her name all weird. He reaches out to grab her arm and Jess' breath catches in her throat because there's a tingle that radiates away from his strong grip and there's something in his eyes that Jess swears wasn't there before.

"We're friends, right, Nick?" She says when he tries to hold open the door for her as they leave the grocery store.

"Yeah, of course we are." He pops open the trunk and drops his bags into the back. "Why do you ask? Are you like, breaking up with me or something?" he teases as he slams the trunk door shut before walking around to the front of the car.

"No," Jess says quickly as she climbs into the passenger's seat. "I'm just glad we're friends. Friends."

Nick frowns at her and starts the car. "Did Cece say something to you?"

"What?" Jess squeaks out. "No. Nope."

He pulls out of the parking lot, and they end up stopped at a traffic light. Nick turns back to look at her, concern still tinting his features. "You've been acting weird ever since this morning. Is something wrong? Did I do something to offend you?"

"No. Just don't worry about it," she says as she racks her brain, trying to think of some kind of explanation that isn't the truth. Maybe distraction will work. "So, um, how's your dating life?"

"Eh." Nick stares out the front windshield and taps his thumbs on the steering wheel. "What about you? How's Sam?"

Jess bites down on her lip nervously. He's avoiding her. Is there something he's not telling her? Could Cece be right? No. No. Of course he isn't. This is all Cece's fault. She's gotten Jess all spun around and now she's overthinking something that isn't there, something that's never going to happen. She curses her best friend in her head. Jess had just gotten over her weird, confusing feelings for Nick. And now Cece's dug it all up and left her to deal with it all over again.

A woman carrying a large bouquet of flowers leans down into their open window. "Rose for the lady?" she asks with a pleasant smile.

"No," Jess answers quickly, her eyes going wide.

"Okay, I'll buy you one," Nick counters, pulling a few dollars out of his wallet, and Jess shakes her head again. "Or two... they come as two?"

"No, no." Jess feels dizzy all of a sudden, like she can't get enough air. Is the car suddenly shrinking?

"I'll buy two," Nick says with a smile, passing the cash over to the woman. She nods and passes him the package with a wide smile before moving on to the next car. "Thank you." Nick turns back towards Jess with a grin. "Here, take some roses."

"You don't-"

"Jess, it's two dollars," he cuts her off. "It's not a big deal. Just take the damn flowers."

She stares down at the roses for the rest of the car ride, trying not to hyperventilate. This is crazy. Nick's not- He wouldn't- He isn't- Ugh. Why did Cece have to weasel her way into this? They were doing perfectly fine before she decided to get involved. Now she's freaking out for no reason and getting all worked up over nothing. Nick doesn't have feelings for her. He doesn't.

The second time it happens Jess is so exhausted and feverish that she's half convinced it was all a dream.

She gets sick, really sick. Bad enough that her manager Tashina takes one look at Jess before pushing her out the door and insisting she stay home until she feels better. Jess drives home in a daze, and it's not until she's standing in the open doorway to the loft that she realizes that she actually drove home. She sways on her feet for a moment before dropping her purse down on the table by the entrance and stumbling off towards her bedroom.

Jess changes into her pajamas on autopilot, periodically pausing to just stare down at what's in her hands until she remembers what she's supposed to be doing. Once she's dressed, she heads back out towards the living room, ready to curl up on the couch and watch her go-to sick day movie: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. She barely makes it to the part where they leave in Cameron's father's red Ferrari before passing out on the couch.

"Hey, Jess," a hushed voice says above her.

She blearily blinks open her eyes, the world swimming as her eyes refuse to focus. Her cheek is sorta stuck to the leather seat of the couch, a little smear of drool on the cushion where her open mouth was.

There's something pressed against her forehead, and it's not until after it's gone that her brain realizes that it was the back of Nick's hand testing her temperature. "You're burning up."

Is she? That kinda sounds right. Jess blinks slowly at him and then swallows thickly.

Nick's face disappears from her view and Jess dozes back off to sleep. She's prodded awake a few moments later by a firm hand between her shoulder blades that lifts her up a few inches before propping her up with a pillow.

"Open up," Nick says, setting two pills into her palm. She swallows them down and drinks the remainder of a cool glass of water under his watchful eye.

Once she's done he helps her lie back down, pulling the blanket back over her shoulders and smoothing her messy hair out of her face. Jess lets out a soft, contented hum and she settles back into the couch. Nick crouches down beside her, his face level with hers. He smiles gently at her and Jess tries her best to return it.

"Well, you have a pretty high fever, so you need to get some rest." He runs his hand through her bangs again, brushing them out of her eyes. His fingers linger along her hairline, almost like he's reluctant to let go of her. Or maybe that's the fever talking.

He gently places a cool cloth on her forehead, and Jess' eyes flutter shut at the sensation. In no time at all she's drifting back to sleep, right on the fence between awake and asleep, ready to tip over at any moment.

She catches a sudden whiff of Nick's cologne as he leans in close to her, and then she can feel the soft touch of his thumb brushing over her cheek and the whisper of his voice. "Feel better, sweetheart." It's a good fever dream.

"Can I talk to you a minute?" Winston asks, his hands on the doorframe as he leans into her room.

Jess looks up from her knitting. "Yeah, of course!"

Winston walks in, nudging the door shut behind him with his foot. He spins her desk chair around and sits down backwards on it, like he's the cool teacher in an after school special.

"What's up?" she asks, counting over the rows she's just finished and trying to remember if she's supposed to knit or purl the next round of stitches.

"It's about Nick."

She glances up in concern, trying to read Winston's expression. "Is he okay? Did something happen?"

He frowns, staring down at the ground like he's trying to find the right words to say. "Well, it's about you and Nick."

"Is he upset with me? Did I do something wrong?" Jess asks, racking her brain for what she might have done or said lately without fully thinking it through. It's been ages since she and Nick actually fought, outside of their normal good-natured bickering. She was under the impression that they've been on good terms lately.

"Look." Winston sighs and looks at her sympathetically. "There's no good way to put this, but a man can only sit back and observe for so long before he has to speak his mind."

Jess' brow furrows. "Then speak your mind."

Winston steeples his hands on the back of the chair. "A line has been crossed."

"What?"

"I think you need to stop leading Nick on."

"What?" she repeats in shocked disbelief. "I'm not leading him on."

"I understand if you're not doing it on purpose," Winston says, holding him hands up in a placating gesture. "But you need to stop treating him like he's your boyfriend, but without the rewards."

"I'm not treating him like a boyfriend!" Jess protests, crossing her arms over her chest.

Winston gives her a skeptical look and counts his points off on his fingers. "You guys go on these fake-dates-"

"What, a man and a woman can't hang out without it being a date?" she interrupts defensively.

"You went to a nice restaurant for dinner and he paid for both of you," Winston counters.

Jess scoffs. "Yeah, because I'm a part-time fast food employee and he's a senior partner at a corporate law firm."

They're not dates. It's two friends hanging out over coffee or lunch or dinner. It's like the furthest thing possible from a date. It works out great. She'll get something to eat with Nick when he gets home, and then Sam will pick her up whenever he gets off from work. Her friendship with Nick has been getting even stronger lately, mostly because they're spending so much time together. She loves getting to hear all about what Abbi is up to these days, and it's nice to have a listening ear to vent to about her insane morning shift manager or the finicky soccer mom she argued with over the phone for thirty minutes over whether the Diet Coke she ordered was in fact Diet Coke.

Winston ignores her explanation and moves on to his next point. "You're all touchy-feely with him."

"I'm touchy-feely with everybody. I give everyone hugs; Nick knows he has to put up with that." Jess frowns.

"He's there whenever you need a guy," Winston elaborates. "You want a cup of tea, he'll make it. You lose your phone, he'll call it."

"We're friends. Nick is my friend. That's what friends do."

Jess can't believe they're arguing about this. Winston's being crazy. Of course she isn't leading Nick on. He'd have to be interested in her for that to happen, which is obviously so far from plausible it's insane.

"Maybe that's how you feel," Winston concedes. "But other people might see it differently."

Jess furrows her brow. "What do you mean?"

He shrugs. "I just think that there's a reason why Nick hasn't been dating anyone."

She rolls her eyes. "Because he's literally in the process of getting divorced. He just ended things with Caroline."

"That was months ago, Jess." He sighs. "Look, I'm not the only one who's noticed it."

"Oh did Schmidt put you up to this?" she asks with an angry glare. That nosy, meddling son of a bitch.

"No, he's not involved," Winston says quickly. "But haven't you noticed the way guys don't hit on you when Nick's around?"

"What, because they think we're a couple?" Jess asks with a sarcastic laugh. "That's absurd."

"Alright, fine, Jess. You win. I know you care about Nick, but if you care about him, you need to let him go." Winston holds his hands up in surrender and stands up out of the chair. "I just wanted to bring it to your attention."

"I think you're being ridiculous," she says with a huff as Winston slowly backs out of the room. "But thanks anyways."

A few days go by and now that Jess is hyper aware of every thing she does, and maybe Winston has a point. She and Nick are just friends, but it's tricky. She's always had relationships in different boxes. Friends in one box, boyfriends in another. But with Nick everything is messy. The lines aren't quite as clear as she's used to. She doesn't want to screw up what they have with each other. He's too important to her, and the last thing she wants is a bunch of people telling her what they can and can't do together.

They go out to the bar that weekend. It's just her and Nick hanging out as friends as Jess tries to keep Cece's and Winston's meddling out of her head. They laugh and chat and get tipsy and it's fun the way it always is when it's just the two of them. Nick heads off to get them another round, and Jess stays at their booth to wait for him.

She ends up talking to this really sweet guy named Paul, who also happens to be a middle school teacher. She tells him about the position she's starting in a few weeks and they start comparing notes on lesson plans while doing some casual flirting. It's going super well and Jess is just about to ask for his number when Nick comes back from the bar and sits down next to Jess in the empty seat of the booth.

"Here's your wine, Jess," he says and passes the glass over to her.

She smiles at him. "Thanks, Nick."

"Oh." Paul looks between the two of them, his gaze flicking to where Nick's arm is resting on the back of the booth behind Jess' shoulders. A moment ago Jess hadn't even thought about it, but now everything clicks into place. Winston's words from earlier echo in the back of her head.

Paul awkwardly excuses himself, and Nick watches him go with a confused expression.

"Huh." Nick turns back to face her. He takes a sip of his own cocktail. "Weird."

Jess stares back at him, the realization slowly sinking in. "Yeah."

The third time it happens it stops her dead in her tracks.

Nick's been preparing for this crazy important deposition for the past three months, and the testimony is in two days. Needless to say, he's been running off of minimal sleep and straight caffeine in the final push to the finish line, working around the clock at the office or hunched over their kitchen table, stacks of documents piled up around him with his scratchy handwriting filling up the margins and a plethora of legal pads with his own notes written and rewritten, bits and pieces highlighted or scratched out at random.

Jess stumbles out of bed at 3am, just waking up from a horribly-timed impromptu nap after a shift at the Shanty. Nick is still up, mumbling to himself and scribbling something on a scrap of paper. She starts up the tea kettle and is rummaging through the cabinets for a tea bag when she feels a slight weight press against her lower back. She glances to the side to see Nick reaching up into the upper cabinets, his warm hand resting lightly on her to keep his balance.

"Here you go, darling," he says as he hands over the box of tea Jess was looking for. His voice is rough and tired, and the bags under his eyes are deeper than they've ever been. But he looks at Jess out of the corner of his eye with a soft smile on his face. Then he presses a kiss to her temple and walks back over to where his work is spread all over the table.

Jess stands there in shock, still reeling from his accidental misstep. Nick's been a walking zombie these days, coasting through on autopilot since he's been buried up to his neck in work. All of his thought processes are focused on legal prep instead of focusing on what he's doing in the moment.

He's so sleep deprived that he got mixed up. His exhausted brain must have thought she was Caroline and acted on instinct. That's the only explanation.

But she can't help but notice how much Nick seems to hover around her, the way he's always so nice to her. At first she had thought it was him pitying her after she lost her job, but now she has her teaching job at The Willow School. And yet he's still coddling her, always eager to find ways to do things for her.

God, she's so selfish. Winston is right and she just lets Nick do all these things for her because it feels good to her just to be around him. But she's bad for him. He just got divorced and they've been hanging out and he's developed all these false, residual feelings for her because he's lonely and scared of finding who he's really supposed to end up with. What are they even doing together? She lives with this guilty feeling for weeks. She finally snaps one day, when he steps in to unlock the front door of the loft for her even as she's reaching in her purse for her keys.

Jess whirls around and places her hands on her hips. "Will you cut that out?" she yells. She wants to make him hate her.

Nick looks at her, startled. "What do you mean, Jess?"

"That! Why do you have to say my name like that? Jess," she says with her best impression of his dumb accent, and Nick frowns even deeper.

"What on Earth are you talking about?" He runs a hand through his hair, looking lost.

"Everything!" She shakes her fists up at the ceiling in frustration. "The fancy dinner dates and the pet names and doing things for me all the time."

Nick doesn't look any less confused after her explanation. He opens his mouth to say something but then falters.

Jess huffs and crosses her arms back over her chest. "Do you think I can't take care of myself on my own or something?"

"No-"

"That I'm not capable of handling myself?"

"No!"

"I'm a grown woman, Nick!" she yells, and it echoes down the empty hallway. "I can make decisions for myself!"

"I know you can!" he yells back.

"Then stop-"

"Stop what?" Nick interrupts, setting his hands on his hips and looking at her expectantly.

Jess groans. Why is this so hard to explain? "Doing all of that."

"All that?" He huffs in a mix of annoyance and frustration. "I'm just trying to be nice, Jess."

"You don't have to be nice to me!"

"You want me to be rude to you all the time?" Nick asks in disbelief. "Is that what you want?"

"If it means then you won't be all-" She waves her hands vaguely in the air. "You know."

Nick rolls his eyes. "No, Jess. I don't know."

"Acting like you care."

"You don't want me to care about you?" Nick almost sounds hurt, like the wind's been punched out of him.

She crosses her arms over her chest and frowns. "Yeah."

"Jess..." he says softly, reaching out towards her.

She knows that she should pull away, that they need distance before this spirals out of control. Nick is her friend. He's still raw from the failure of his last relationship. And Jess is, well, a mess. They'd never work out, and then she would lose one of her closest friends. That's the sick joke the universe wants to play on her: She can't have him and she can't be without him.

Nick's hand lands on her upper arm, but she doesn't jerk away.

"I didn't realize what I was doing," he says soberly. "I'm sorry it upset you."

Jess bites down on her lower lip. "It's fine."

"You don't want me to do those things for you, Jess. I'll stop. I'll back off," he promises, and lets go of her arm.

She nods in agreement as she dies a little more inside. Nick finishes unlocking the door to the loft, and they both retreat to their respective rooms. Jess leaves her door ever so slightly ajar, a betrayal of her heart, some stupidly hopeful ache in her chest that hopes Nick will read through her transparent attempt to push him away and chase after her anyway.

But it doesn't work. She falls asleep in her empty bed, staring out the window and fighting off the feelings she's worked so hard to ignore.