His beer was getting warm.

Alec, Jonathan and Sebastian had all finally convinced him to come out of the house. It had been months since Clary broke things off with him and he wasn't exactly over it, but he realized no change would come from being cooped up in his apartment. So here he was- 'stepping out'.

It was a Thursday night in New York City, and the bar was packed as if it was a Saturday night. He wondered what event was nearby that drew in this much of a crowd. Overhead played a song he frequently worked out to, Paralyzer by Finger Eleven. While he sat in a stool by the bar, drunk patrons who wanted another round kept bumping into him as they attempted to squeeze past him to wave over the bartender. "It'll be low-key ," Alec had said, "we'll go somewhere we've never been before so you don't risk running into her."

Low-key his ass. There was a collection of beer and shot glasses on the bar top simply because the bartender and barbacks were too busy from all the drink orders to take them off to the side to wash. This was not a low-key night. All down the bar were young adults around his age either slumped over their drinks, flirting with potential one night stands, or watching the football game overhead. Ahhh, he thought, everyone's out to catch the football game.

"Sweetheart!" Sebastian called over the booming music and the crowd, "Let me introduce you to my friend…"
He rolled his eyes, Sebastian kept calling girls over to their area at the bar and introducing him as a 'lonely bachelor'. Every single girls eyes lit up at the opportunity to greet him, not that he entirely minded. The women were all drop dead gorgeous- they just didn't have red hair and green eyes…or freckles…or a cute tinkling laugh-
He shook his head. She would've called by now if she wanted to work things out.

He had pounded down his first beer, just to loosen up and not be a total buzz kill tonight. But his second beer sat nearly untouched in his hand. Diana, was the latest girl Sebastian had called over. She was a third year student at NYU, studying film. She was a cute brunette with an equally cute smile. She kept going on about how she ran into Steven Spielberg at a bar once and he invited her to a Billy Joel concert at The Garden, and how cool he was even though she thought his movies were a bit ridiculous, though well produced. The girl could talk. He nodded at everything she said, she seemed like a smart girl…but he definitely wasn't interested. He wondered if he would ever be interested in any other girl ever again.

He peeked down at his watch, 11:19PM. He had already finished up the media projects he was working on and didn't have anything to do tomorrow, besides teach his boxing class at the gym in the late afternoon. Jonathan had been incredibly forgiving at him skipping class all these weeks. They both co-owned the gym Fight Club here in the city, and both took turns teaching boxing and other methods of sparing to their members. Sebastian, Alec and Simon Lewis were all instructors at the gym as well. Alec did it more out of a hobby than for income- he had his families corporate law empire to assist in running. And Simon couldn't make it out to the bar this particular night because he was picking out color schemes for his upcoming wedding to Alec's sister, Isabelle Lightwood. Though he imagined by this time in the night, they would have been done with all their wedding appointments.

Never did he think Simon would be engaged before him. He truly thought he and Clary would be the first in their group of friends to tie the knot, as they had been smitten with each other since junior year of high school. But Clary was the jealous type, and the girls who were interested in him were the bold type. She was naturally growing tired of the disrespectful woman who he trained at the gym who would 'accidentally' send him nudes. He got more 'accidental nude' pictures sent to him in a week than he could count on two hands. That's a lot of 'accidental nudes'.

What had been the last straw for Clary was when she had stopped by the gym one day to drop off some pasta for his late lunch. She never really came to the gym besides their opening week, when she came to show him and her brother Jonathan her support. This time when she visited she apparently saw how handsy his client was with him. Kaelie Whitewillow was her name, they both just so happened to have gone to high school with her. Kaelie was interested in him back in high school too, and he made mention to Clary when she had joined the gym as well. Clary had stormed out that day. Jace hadn't even noticed. Jonathan was the one to tell him once his hour long class with Ms. Whitewillow was over. He had blown up her phone attempting to call her- he couldn't just leave the gym, he had other clients waiting for their very expensive sessions with him. By the time he got home nearly all of her stuff was packed into her bright pink suitcases. "I can't do this anymore Jace. I really can't."

He had begged her and even told her he would stop being an instructor at the gym if it would change her mind. She had shook her head, "It takes me filling up a suitcase and being halfway out the door for you to finally come to the conclusion that you should leave that stupid gym? You disrespect me by allowing those whores to put their hands all over you. No more."

And then she left.

In all honestly, he shouldn't have let his clients flirt with him. He never flirted back, but he knew a lot of woman came to the gym solely because of the plethora of handsome instructors, including himself. He only ever had eyes for Clary, so he allowed his female clients to flirt and schmooze him. To him it didn't matter, they weren't Clary. They would never mean anything to him. But to Clary, it obviously was important. He couldn't blame her. Her father Valentine Morgenstern was a notorious womanizer and had cheated on her mother for years before she finally worked up to courage to leave him. She didn't want a repeat of that in her own life.

"So what do you do for a living?" Diana asked him. He gave her a polite smile, "I do freelance graphic design for major fortune five-hundred companies, and co-own a gym here in the city with my best friend, Jonathan." He pointed to the fair headed man a few stools away from them who was currently making lovey dovey eyes at their bartender, "That's him."
She turned to look to where he was pointing. He doubt she would be able to see exactly who he was pointing to given how crowded the bar was, but she just nodded. "You guys are huge. Do you work out everyday?", by the look in her eye she was flirting with him.
He nodded ignoring the sultry look in her eyes, "It helps keeping dumbbells in the house in case I'm too lazy to suit up and walk four blocks."

Another girl pushed her way through the crowd up to Diana. They probably came together. The blonde young lady honestly didn't look old enough to even be here, but he doubted the bouncer was checking ID's on a Thursday night. The young woman- or girl- pushed her white framed glasses up her nose and smiled at him apologetically, "Sorry to interrupt!" she yelled over the noise and looked to Diana, "I just saw a girl from the billboard we saw in Times Square- the one with the red hair?"
Red hair? Clary did some modeling work here and there. Maybe it was her they were talking about? He began to look around the bar. Diana's eyes lit up,"Really? Where is she? I want to see if its really her natural color. It's stunning!" She sat up in her chair and craned her neck above the crowd. Her blonde friend pointed to a booth alongside the wall. He followed her fingers with his eyes and low and behold, there she was…

Clary sat in front of a tall untouched glass of what he could guess was a gin and tonic. Across from her sat Isabelle and Simon, but their backs were facing him. It wasn't hard to make Clary out over the crowd, he would know her anywhere he saw her. He cleared his throat, "It's her natural shade." He said.
He didn't even look back at Diana when she asked, "Really? How do you know?" He sighed heavily, "Because she's my ex…" He took his black leather jacket from where it was hooked underneath the bar and excused himself as he made his way to the restroom.

Wow, he thought, a billboard in Times Square…she seemed to be doing great.

He huffed out a breath. To approach her or not to approach her, that was the question. He weighed the pros and cons and honestly there were currently more cons. In his heart, he knew he would never get over her. But she was right about him disrespecting her while allowing woman at his gym to paw all over him. His jaw clenched, after their breakup he nearly offered to sell Sebastian his shares of the gym and give it up altogether. Jonathan had been the one to talk him out of it. He raked a hand through his hair. There was no line to the mens room so he went right in. It smelled of piss and cigarettes. Some poor schmuck was hunched over the trashcan looking very green in the face. Jace walked past him to the surprisingly clean mirror and looked himself up and down. If he interrupted Clary's night, what would he say that he already hadn't already text her or left a voicemail on her phone about? She didn't want to hear it. And he didn't want to disturb her if this was what she truly wanted. The bathroom door opened a moment later and in came Alec, his dark blue eyes settling on him. "We just spotted Clary…" he said apologetically. He nodded at his reflection in the mirror, "Yeah I saw her too."

Alec cleared his throat, "We could close out and head somewhere else. It's still early." He turned his body from the mirror to Alec and fished out his wallet. "Here, I had two beers." He handed him two twenties dollar bills but Alec shooed the money away. "Don't worry about it. So does this mean you're leaving?"
He nodded, "Yeah, thanks for trying to get me out the house. I appreciate the effort but I really just rather be home." He patted Alec on the back, "I appreciate you."
Alec offered a half smile, "Crazy that we ran into her here. She usually goes to the Underdog."
Jace shrugged, "The universe wanted to laugh at me tonight it seems." And with that he stalked out the overcrowded bar into the brisk night air of Manhattan.

He kept his head down as he walked the wide blocks of his city and debated whether to get a late night bowl of Pho or cupcakes from the Sprinkles cupcake ATM a few blocks from here. He decided on cupcakes. Red Velvet or Triple Chocolate? Red Velvet of course.

He passed by couples holding hands and drunk twenty year olds taking selfies making sure to get the view of the city in their photos. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned onto Lexington Avenue making his way down the several blocks to one and only twenty-four hour cupcake ATM in the city. When he finally approached the brightly lit pink ATM he punched in his order and grinned in triumph when he saw he had purchased the last Red Velvet cupcake. He wondered what he could watch on TV when he got home. He turned to walk home and started down the avenue, but stopped in his tracks when he saw who was approaching. She had her head down in her phone- something he had always advised her not to do in the city- and her free hand clutched her miniature shoulder bag to her. The same one he had gifted her for her birthday.

She peaked up from her phone screen and stopped when she saw him. There was a momentary pause as they stared at each other for what felt like a long time, "Oh" she shuffled uncomfortably in place, "…hi." She greeted.

He cleared his throat, "Hi." After a beat he added, "How are you?"

She blinked, "I'm…alright. How about yourself?"

It felt so strange acting this way with her. As if they were strangers. As if they had never shared a bed together. As if she had never cried out his name and begged him to go harder- faster- in the throes of passion. No, now he had no right to look at her that way. Now she wanted to be strangers.
He shrugged, truly not knowing how to answer. He didn't want to feign that he was alright when he full and well knew he was hurting. But he also didn't want to come off as whining and seeming as if he wanted her pity.

She nodded and walked up to the cupcake ATM. She punched in her selection but looked back to him and pointed to his pink cupcake box, "What flavor did you get?"

"Red Velvet." That was her favorite flavor. And he just remembered he bought the last one. He sighed, "Oh- actually, this is the last one…"

"Oh…" She looked back to the ATM awkwardly.

He held out the box to her, "Here, it's fine. I shouldn't be eating this anyways. It's pretty late. I'm just going to go home."

She hesitated for just a moment before reaching out and taking the cupcake box from him. "Thank you…" she said timidly.

He nodded and started walking in the direction towards his apartment. It was blocks and blocks away- he could easily hail a cab or take the subway, but the brisk air would do him good and calm him down. After all these months, he once again crossed paths with the only love of his life- twice in one night- only to not be able to touch her. To reach out to her and feel silky curly red locks in between his fingers. The universe- or God- really loved to mock him it seemed.

"Jace!"

He cocked a brow and jerked his head back. "You good?" he asked, surprised she had called him. Clary came up to him looking once again hesitant. He wanted to tell her she didn't need to be that way with him, but it would probably just make this more awkward. "I saw you at the bar." She said. His breath hitched, "You did?" Had she followed him out here…? He doubted it, but surely she must have seen him leaving?

She shook her head, "I saw Sebastian had a queue of woman lining up to talk to you."
He took a step back, he totally had forgotten about that. "Listen-"
She held up a hand to stop him, "It's fine, really. I just thought it was funny to watch."
He arched a brow, "You were watching?"
She blushed, "I- well, kind of, yeah. I was just surprised to have seen you out. Jonathan kept telling me to call you. That you weren't leaving your apartment and whatnot…" she trailed off. "I was just surprised."
He grimaced. Of course Jonathan begged his sister to call him. That's what best friends did, right? "Yeah well…I- it was Sebastian's idea. Not mine. The girls, I mean." He finished.
She shrugged and pulled her purse to her body, "I figured…"

There was a pronounced moment of awkward silence before she looked down at the cupcake box in her thin hands. "Well, I should get going…"

He dared himself to say what he was thinking. To hell with playing it cool, "You wanna go back to my place?"

Her head shot up and mouth opened in surprise. She blinked and cocked her head to the side, "For what exactly?"

He shrugged, "To talk…or not talk."

She held his gaze for what felt like an eternity before a small smile played at her lips, "Why do you think I would want to do that?"

He braved a small cocky smile on his lips, "Because I have a little hunch that you followed me out her from the bar and you're trying to play it off like you," he made air quotes with his fingers, "bumped into me."

She blushed, "I did not follow you!"

He hummed, "Not buying it, Ms. Fairchild."

"I didn't."

"You totally did."

Just then her phone rang and she answered it. He could hear Isabelle's voice through the phone as she tried yelling over the music at where he assumed was the bar he had just saw her at, "DID YOU FIND HIM?!" she hollered at Clary.
He threw his head back and barked out a laugh. The universe didn't hate him after all. Clary's face turned beet red as she lowered the volume of the phone call and hissed, "No." into the phones receiver, before hanging up. Her green eyes bore into his, embarrassment all over he delicate fair face. "I can explain…"

He put an arm around her and walked her to the edge of the sidewalk where he attempted to hail them a cab. "You can explain in the cab ride to my place. We have all night."
She smiled and look up at him from where she was tucked under his arm, "Jonathan told me you wanted to sell your shares of the gym?"

He looked down at her and open the door to the cab that had just pulled up beside them on the street. "I wanted to, but we just settled on me training only our male clients from now on to avoid unwanted…petting." After a beat he added, "I heard you're on a billboard in Times Square?"

She blushed before ducking into the cab and scooting down the backseat to make room for him, "Isabelle has a friend named Magnus who saw me and swore up and down I was his new muse. He has me in his shoots everyday."

He entered the cab behind her and shut the door. "I'm happy for you." He said before giving the cab driver his address and settling back into the leather seat. "Really happy for you."
She settled into the seat as well, "Thanks…I'm happy you didn't sell your shares of the gym. You love that place."

He looked to her and saw she genuinely meant what she said, which was surprising given that the reason they broke-up stemmed from the issues with certain clients at the gym. He smiled down at her, "I love that place, but I would give it all up in a heartbeat for you."

She ducked her head and stared at her handbag and cupcake box in her lap. He continued, "I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, Clary…"

She looked up at him, her green eyes glowing despite the darkness in the back of the taxi cab. She offered him a small smile, "I already have."

This One-shot was inspired by the song "I Should Probably Go To Bed" by Dan + Shay.
Thanks for reading. I haven't written fanfics in years and I was just really bored this past New Year so I figured 'why not' and tried my hand at writing a couple. Check out my other one-shot and wrote and published yesterday called "Not So Unrequited Love".
Hope you enjoyed it :) and Happy New Year everyone!