Nick awoke the next morning to find himself in the clothes he wore to work the night before. While his phone call with Jess hadn't actually resolved anything, it had enabled him to get his first solid sleep in days. He reached over to his nightstand to grab for his phone and see what time is was. As did so, he noted the half full Heisler that rested on the table. Before bed, he had anticipated that he still might've needed a bit of a "sleep aid" to fall asleep. The fact that he barely got two sips into his beer seemed evidence to the contrary.
He flipped open the phone and frowned to find that it was already nearly noon. For once, he actual did have some Sunday errands to run, and he was hoping he could at least see Jess before doing so. He wondered if she had found her way back to the loft yet as he sat up in bed and wiped the sleep from his eyes. He stood up and slowly made his way to the door before anxiously opening it and noting, with some disappointment, that Jess' door was still half-open, just as it was when he went bed, indicating that she was not yet home. He took a few steps toward the kitchen before he heard the sound of keys jingling outside the apartment door. He held his breath, wishing he'd have gotten up earlier, giving him a chance to make himself more presentable.
Nick was again met with disappointment when Schmidt, not Jess, flung the door open and stepped through, carrying a pair of grocery bags under each arm.
"Nick, little help," he said, struggling with the bags.
"What do you have going on her, pal? Are you planning a dinner party you didn't tell me about?"
"No, Nicholas," Schmidt said as they made their way to the kitchen. "I just know a good deal when I see one. That organic market down the street had some real steals this morning."
"What organic market?"
"You know, about a quarter-mile down, by the thing," Schmidt continued as he and Nick started removing heads of lettuce, carrots, apples, oranges, and other assorted fruits and vegetables from the bags.
"No, I don't know," Nick said, shaking his head. "Wait a minute. Organic market? Do you mean those kids that sell stuff out of the back of their Astro-van, Schmidt?
"Don't be silly…. It was a U-Haul. And what does that matter anyway, look at all this fresh, homegrown, organic goodness."
"Fresh, organic… Schmidt! You got these out of a dirty truck from a couple of teenagers. What, it there a local 4H club I'm not aware of in this neighborhood?"
"I don't see where you're going with this."
"Schmidt," Nick said, holding up a bunch of bananas. "Look. These bananas have Chiquita stickers on them. The apples say Dole. Those radishes have rubber bands with the name "Ralph's" on them."
"And your point is?"
"My point is that you got a steal, alright. You just weren't the only one."
Schmidt took half a step back and examined the produce. He ran his fingers through his hair as the realization of what Nick said dawned on him.
"Aw, crap. Crap, crap, crap."
"Relax man, it's not the end of the world. You know, this stuff actually looks pretty good."
"Yeah, but…"
"Whoa, where'd the grocery store come from?" Winston said as he made his way into the kitchen.
"Schmidt got a great deal down at the Organic Market, right Schmidt?" Nick said, encouragingly.
"Yeah, um. Great deal. Produce for all."
"Oh, those kids in the van," Winston said on his way to the fridge. "They got some good deals. I bout about 3 dozen pair of boxers from them a little while back for a real, real nice price."
Winston grabbed a yogurt from the fridge and plucked a spoon from the drawer. As he started spooning the yogurt into his face, he realized that Nick and Schmidt were just standing, staring at him.
"What? It's not like they were used. They were unopened."
"What do you need with 36 pairs of under-… nope, don't want to know, forget I asked," Schmidt said, before returning his attention to the food on the kitchen island.
"On that note, I gotta get ready to go. Big day of erranding," Nick said, turning toward the shower.
"Not a word," Schmidt said.
"What you got going on today?" Winston asked.
"Oh, this and that. Got a doctor's appointment."
"You have a doctor's appointment?" Schmidt asked incredulously. "You? On a Sunday?"
"What, it's when my guy is working."
"Your guy? Since when do you have a guy?" Winston asked, chuckling.
"What? I got a guy. And then I have some other things..."
"What's wrong? Is it… is it a goiter?" Schmidt asked, touching his neck.
"No, I don't have a damn goiter," Nick said, reflexively grabbing his own neck.
"Oh, okay. It's just that you've looked a little extra… you know… jowly lately."
"Jowl-… nope. Not doing this. I got too much on my plate today. No time to get into with you clowns," Nick said before heading off towards the bathroom.
"Just so long as one of those things on your plate is getting things straight with our other roommate," Schmidt said, looking down.
Nick stopped and turned to answer. "That is most certainly on my list, Schmidt. You can count on that."
"Maybe make a little room and throw a few vegetables down on that full plate of yours while you're at it," Schmidt added.
Nick continued down the hall and shook his head before disappearing into the bathroom. Winston nodded his head and turned to Schmidt.
"Well, that's encouraging. Guess our boy just needed a little time digest things."
"That's what it sounds like. Let's hope anyway."
About a half hour later, Nick emerged from his room, buttoning up a grey flannel as he walked into the living room. He looked around the loft and noticed that Winston and Schmidt had disappeared. He walked to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water as he heard the door to the loft open.
"What, did you guys try to catch up with those kids in the U-Haul? Did you try to get your money back or did you just try to score more sweet 'steals'?"
Nick absent-mindedly started moving towards the door before he was stopped dead in his tracks. All the air left his body as he was met with not Winston or Schmidt, but his other roommate, still clad in her pajamas, hair askew, and glasses hanging from her face.
"U-Haul? What kind of trouble are those two getting into now?" Jess asked, nervously.
Nick barely heard her. He hadn't laid eyes on her in over 24 hours, though it seemed much, much longer than that. Of course, in reality she looked absolutely no different, but for reasons he couldn't explain, she seemed to have a different air about her. Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder, he thought to himself, but in just over a day? An unsettling thought started to seep into his mind: if this is how being apart for one day affected him, what would two days do? A week? Two weeks? He was not prepared to think about that at this moment, however, so he quickly shut the thought out and focused on the task at hand: the formation of words.
"Yeah… um… Winston and… they…. Err..."
Jess tilted her head to the side and arched her seldom seen eyebrows, trying to make sense of Nick's ramblings.
"Schmidt's got apples," Nick blurted out.
"Schmidt's got… apples?" Jess repeated.
"And… carrots."
Jess' face spread into a broad smile, and a giggle escaped her lips.
"Schmidt's got apples and carrots? Weird," she said as she dropped her keys on the table by the doorway.
Something about that smile broke the tension inside of Nick, and after a deep breath, he regained his composure.
"Let me try that again," he offered. "I think Schmidt and Winston went to go talk to those kids that sell produce out of their van."
"Oh, I love those guys. I buy lipstick from them every so often. They get their hands on some really unique, hard to find shades."
"Makes sense," Nick said as he smiled bashfully and shoved his free hand in his pocket. "So…"
"So…"
They both stood, not really sure what to say. For a few moments they said nothing, and just looked at each other. And for a few moments, that was very much enough for each of them. But, after time, Nick became aware of the silence, and just a tiny bit uneasy with it.
"You and Cece get up to anything fun last night?"
"Not especially. For someone who rarely eats it, she does have surprisingly good taste in pizza, though," Jess said as she smiled and took a step towards Nick.
"Well, Cece's a sharp lass," Nick said, taking his own step towards Jess.
"A sharp lass?" Jess laughed. "I'll be sure to let her know my great-uncle thinks she's a 'sharp lass'."
"What.. what's...", Nick said, before just laughing it off.
"How about you. You get up to anything last night after we talked?"
"Went straight to bed, actually. Kind of a long couple days, you know."
"Yeah, you don't have to tell me," Jess said, taking another step until they were only about a foot apart.
"Jess, I…"
Nick's phone started beeping inside his pants pocket. He pulled the phone out and silenced it.
"Hey, I… actually have to get going. I have a doctor's appointment."
"A doctor's appointment," Jess said, concerned. "On a Sunday? What's up? What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Jess. It's just a checkup. The doctor's a guy I met at the bar, and he's fitting me in today. That's all. Promise."
"If you say so."
"Hey," Nick said, softly grabbing her shoulder. "I want to finish our talk. I don't know how long this doctor stuff is going to take, but… will you be around later?"
"Of course. Got a little grading to catch up on. The kids had to write a brief bio on a 15th century explorer of their choosing, and I gotta try to make sure that they all weren't lifted straight from the internet."
"Kids today have it too easy."
"They really do," Jess smiled.
"Okay, then," Nick said, rubbing her arm. "We'll talk when I get back. Get this all… behind us."
"I'd like that."
"Alright, then. We're on the same page."
With that, Nick gave Jess' arm one last pat and headed towards the door. He opened it and stepped through, turning back before he shut the door behind him.
"I'll see you in a little bit."
"See ya," Jess said as the door shut. She sighed deeply, and rested her hand against the door. After a moment, she turned to head back to her room with the intention of readying for her own shower. As her eyes moved over the table by the door, she frowned as she noticed Nick's wallet sitting on top. She rolled her eyes, thinking it was a typical Nick thing to do. Bar friend or no, Nick was certain to need identification once he got to the doctor's office. Jess plucked the wallet from the table, opened the door, and started after Nick. She immediately heard him talking on the phone as he stood outside the elevator, waiting with his back to Jess.
"So wait, where is the apartment exactly? Right now I live right by where I work, near 800th and Transaction. I'm really, really not looking to commute 45 minutes every day, so if this place is too far out, it's just not going to work. I'll have to figure something else out."
Jess felt the wind knocked out of her as the elevator doors pinged and Nick stepped on, never noticing she was in the hall. As the doors closed, Jess turned back into the loft and shut the door behind her. She stepped to the right of the door, leaned back against the wall, and let her body slowly slide down until she was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees. She buried her face in her arms and sat for several minutes, trying to make sense of what she heard. She couldn't have been sure how long she had been sitting there when Winston and Schmidt returned.
"So, you see, by planting our own fresh basil on the roof, we'll end up saving several dozen dollars over the course of the calendar year," Schmidt said. "And it goes without saying, my pestos will be just absolutely killer."
"Hey, if you say so, Schmidt. I don't really…" Winston stopped, noticing Jess sitting on the floor. "Jess, what's wrong?"
Winston and Schmidt turned and knelt next to Jess. She fumbled to take her glasses off, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her pajamas before looking up, eyes still filled with tears.
"Um.. I think…" she choked out. "I think Nick is moving out. I think… he's leaving us. Which means… I think he's leaving… me."