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Cruise

CHAPTER 3

PREVIOUSLY

"Jess, that's an adorable name. I should probably get back to work. If you see me around, talk to me." -Jeffrey

...

"I'm not gonna stop flirting with her, dude. I like her. Do you have a problem with that, sir?" -Jeffrey

"Yes, I have a problem with that because... um... I'm her boyfriend," -Nick

...

"I think... I think I can't give Cece space any longer," -Schmidt

...

"Nick! What the hell did you do to Jeffrey?" -Jess

"Don't you dare panic moonwalk away from me this time, Miller!" Jess shouted, but he had already started to panic moonwalk away. "Nick, I'm serious, stop it. I just want to talk things out with you. Clearly everything isn't going as smoothly as we wanted it to, but we can fix it!"

"I have to go, Jess, I can't talk," he said, and continued to bite his lip and moonwalk out. "There's nothing to fix, actually. Everything is all good. Nothing is awkward, just like I had hoped. I'm all good, Jessica Day!"

"No, you're not," she said, and grabbed his arm to get him to stop. "Sit down, and there will be no yelling here. All I want to do is talk things through with you. If we're really friends now, this should be easy for us."

"Okay, fine. Sit down and talk things through? I can do that," he said, and they both took their seats on the deck chairs.

"I know you said or did something to Jeffrey," Jess said, raising her eyebrows. "He said I have a boyfriend. Earlier he was flirting it up with me, so someone obviously said something to him, and I know it was you!"

"Me? What about the other guys?" Nick asked, starting to get sweaty. "Oh, you know Winston, Coach, and Schmidt, always with their schemes. Or maybe it was Cece trying to protect you from getting hurt because you really shouldn't be dating again so soon!"

"You're still and always will be a terrible liar," Jess said, smiling slightly. "Don't try to pin this on anyone else. I know it was you. Did you have a problem with me dating him?"

He sighed and confessed, "Yeah, of course I have a problem with you dating him! I don't know how to do this, Jess! With all my past girlfriends, it was easy because I didn't live with them. But I have to see you every day. Your home is my home! This is one break up I just can't deal with."

"If you had a problem with me seeing Jeffrey, why didn't you just talk to me like we're doing now?" Jess asked. "Next time I think you're getting jealous, I'm bringing out the feelings stick!"

"Oh, god, no, don't bring that thing!" Nick cried, laughing a little. "I like this... I like being friends with you again. I don't want it to be awkward. Let's be friends again. No more feelings getting in the way. And that means no more purpose for the feelings stick!"

Jess grinned at him and said, "Yeah, we can be friends from now on. And will you please tell Jeffrey that I don't have a boyfriend?"

"Nah, I have other things to d—" Nick began, but saw her glaring at him. "Okay fine, I'll talk to him as soon as I see him next. But you can't go flaunting him around!"

"I would never flaunt," Jess joked, and punched him playfully. "Thank you, Miller. I'm going to get something to drink at the bar. I heard they have really good wines. Wanna come down with me? As friends, of course..."

"Sure, as friends," Nick agreed, and helped her up. "Off we go to drink till we die!"

The two of them went to the ship's bar to get drinks. While they were there, Schmidt found them, but he wasn't looking for them.

"Hey, Schmidtty!" Nick exclaimed, grinning and punching his friend in the arm. "What's up, my man?"

"Nothing," he responded too quickly. "Have you guys seen Cece? I really need to talk to her right now."

"Schmidt, no!" Jess cried, shaking her head. "Whatever you're going to do to her, stop. She doesn't need this right now."

"I just want to talk to her, Jess," he said, folding his arms. "Jeez, you say you want to talk to your model ex-girlfriend who you may have hurt terribly, and then everyone thinks you're going to do something bad when you say you want to talk to her!"

"Makes sense to me," Nick said, shrugging and taking a sip of his drink.

"I am done fooling around," he said, putting a hand up to Nick's face. "Jess, where is she?"

"Fine, she's on the Sky Deck," she gave in, sighing. "But wait! I'm going to literally kill you if I found out you did anything more than talk to her. Got it, sir?"

"Yeah sure, I got it," he said, rolling his eyes.

But Schmidt was going to attempt something that Jess would most definitely hate—try and win Cece back. Sure, his chances were slim, but he was going to risk it. He was definitely still in love with her, and he couldn't sit around and bottle his feelings up any longer.

He confidently marched to the Sky Deck and scanned around until he located her. She was staring at the screen of her phone, jabbing at it and tapping. Schmidt took a deep breath before going in. He stood next to her, tapping her shoulder gently while saying, "Cece... can we talk?"

"Hey," she greeted. "Yeah, in just a minute. I wanted to FaceTime Buster now. He's got plans tonight, so now is my only chance to talk to him until tomorrow."

His heart sank. He hated it when she talked about perfect little Buster and his... perfectness. He stood there awkwardly while Cece jabbed the screen a few more times and called her boyfriend, who was back in LA. The handsome young man appeared on the screen with a grin on his face. He waved to his girlfriend happily.

"Cece, hi!" he exclaimed in his perfect accent. "I'm glad you called. How's the cruise, babe? Are you having fun?"

"It's alright," she said, smiling. "The room kind of sucks, but I think I can manage. How are things back home? What are you up to?"

"Nothing much," he said. "I went to work, got home, and I was just getting ready to go to my friend's party. Anything fun that you're doing there? I'm sure there's lots to do on a cruise ship."

"Yeah, I haven't done much," she responded. "There are activities, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Your day sounds like a blast. I wish I could be there with you."

"No, I'd much rather be there with you!" Buster exclaimed. "Being on a cruise with you sounds way more fun than a party with my friend. I wish I could keep talking, but I did make a commitment to show up, so I'm going to follow up on that and continue getting ready."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later, Buster," Cece said with a smile. "Have fun, bye."

"Bye," he returned with a smile before hanging up.

And Schmidt felt terrible when Cece put her phone away and turned to him. He quickly stuffed the ring box in his pocket. He couldn't give that to her now! She clearly really liked Buster and wanted it to work with him, so he didn't want to be the one to mess it up. He owed that to her, even if it killed him. He loved her so much.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" Cece asked, smiling at him.

He saw how happy she was when talking to Buster, and springing an 'I love you' on her probably wouldn't be the right thing to do. He sighed and quickly tried to come up with some other thing to ask her. He really couldn't tell her he loved her now.

"I actually just wanted to ask you how things with Buster are going!" Schmidt lied.

"Oh... um, they're pretty good," she said, half-smiling. "He's a really great guy, even though all of you guys make fun of how young he is. Wait... why are you asking about him? I thought you hated him."

"No, Cece, I don't hate him," Schmidt said, shaking his head. "Initially, I didn't like that you were dating him, but he's your boyfriend, and I want to try to make nice with him. I want you to be happy."

"Really?" Cece said with a bright smile. "Thank you, Schmidt, that's really sweet of you. Maybe when we get back to LA, you can get to know him a little bit better. It should be fun."

"Yeah! Of course! There's nothing I would rather do than hang out with your young boyfriend!" he exclaimed, faking his enthusiasm.

Down about ten beers each, Nick and Jess were pretty much the opposite of sober. They were laughing nonstop and slurring their words like crazy.

"I like this, I like you," Nick said, grinning and chugging down another beer. "I like us... being friends. We are like such good friends. It's not awkward! Winston and Coach and Schmidt and whoever the hell else all thought we couldn't handle this, but look at us, we are handling this like mature adults!"

"Yeah!" Jess agreed. "Friends get drunk together! Boyfriends and girlfriends don't! We are like awesome friends who handle our break up so damn well. So damn well, Nick, so freaking damn well!"

"You're a freak, Jess!"

"No, you're a freak!"

And then drunk Nick couldn't stop himself...

The tension was just so strong that he was practically forced to lean in towards her. Much to her own surprise, Jess was leaning in as well, and then their lips touched. It was soft, gentle, and—only like half a second long. It only took Jess that little time to realize what was happening, and even while drunk, she knew it was going to affect her friendship with Nick. Without any hesitation, she shoved him off of her.

"Sorry I tried to kiss you," he apologized, feeling dizzy.

"It's okay."