Nick wiped down the bar. CeCe took a long sip of her drink and stared at him.
"What, CeCe?" Nick asked, growing uncomfortable under her unrelenting gaze.
"I'm just trying to figure out why you came back, is all."
Nick sighed. He really didn't want to talk about that. Especially since the reason he came back was currently drinking pink wine while talking with a tall brunette who obviously went to the gym. Nick looked down at his own stomach, feeling a little inadequate. Schmidt was right, he was getting pudgy. CeCe continued to stare at him.
Winston sat down next to CeCe. He wanted to know too.
"So, what happened between you and Schmidt?" Nick asked, obviously trying to change the subject.
"He white-fanged me. God, he's so stupid sometimes!" CeCe said. Nick could tell she was really upset about the whole situation, so he decided not to press her further on the issue.
The three of them were silent for a minute before CeCe stood.
"It's okay Nick. I know why you came back, I've always known." She muttered under her breath and walked away. Nick stopped wiping the bar and stared at her. There was no doubt in his mind that she knew exactly what was going on, and he smiled a little.
"Winston, you know what's going on too, don't you?" Nick asked.
"Sure man, you've got it bad for Jess." Winston replied, not bothering to look up from his phone.
And there it was, out in the open. It should have bothered Nick a lot more than it did, but if he was being honest with himself, it felt good to be able to confide in someone. But if CeCe knew and Winston knew…then Schmidt would have to know too, right?
"Don't worry man, Schmidt has no idea. He's so oblivious to everything. But I think you should tell Jess soon before she falls for someone else."
Nick sighed and looked up at Jess. The pink wine was making her "twirly" and he could tell from across the room that the tall brunette was trying hard to seduce her.
"It's just so hard man. She's our roommate and if she doesn't want me then there's no turning back. I could ruin everything, and you know you like having Jess around, even if you guys did get off to a bad start."
"I'm not saying it'll be easy, I'm just saying she has a right to know. And besides, you never know, maybe she could return the feelings. I mean look at me and Shelby! We're totally in love. It's worth a shot Nick." Winston replied.
Nick groaned. It always came back to Shelby. Always. Winston was totally in love with her and it drove everyone crazy. But Nick secretly wanted to feel that way. He knew he never felt it with Caroline, not really anyways. He always said it was because he was not a sappy, hopeless romantic. But he totally was. And now that he was thirty, he almost desperately wanted to feel the way that Winston felt towards Shelby… and he wanted those feelings to be returned.
And he wanted all of this with Jess.
"Winston, you know I can't pursue her. She's off limits, I mean, look at what she did to Schmidt! We all know I don't have that much money!"
They both smiled a little as they recalled Schmidt's 30th birthday. They sat in silence for a couple minutes before Winston replied.
"She only did that because Schmidt had tried to kiss her when she didn't want it." He said, finally looking up from his phone. The look he gave Nick told him everything he needed to know, but Nick had to ask, he had to be sure.
"Are you saying that Jess wants me too?" He asked, looking up to the brunette in question. Tall muscular guy was nowhere to be seen as she sat laughing with Schmidt and CeCe.
"I'm saying you should talk to her."
A/N: Sorry this is a short chapter! I really wanted to get Winston more involved in the story, he's always been kind of a background character to me, but I love him! SO anyways, here's chapter 3. I was also planning on writing another fan fiction. It would be a crossover between Big Bang Theory and New Girl (Although I'm not a big fan of crossovers, I had a dream about it last night and I thought it would seriously be awesome! They should totally do that on the show!) Would anyone be willing to read that?