Sorry for the hiatus people, have been busy with school! This'll be a long chapter though, to reward you guys for being patient (except you, 123serendipitee, you hurried my ass XD But thanks for the nudge, its nice to know people actually care enough for my writing! 3) Thanks to all for the lovely reviews, favourites, the like.
Another Saturday night, another date night.
At least that's what it felt like to Nick- the constant hurry to find 'The One' (not that he believed in any of that crap- did he?) and start a stable, familial existence.
Ugh.
Anyhow, tonight was going to be a little different. After a little prodding from Cece- he could swear that girl was up to something- he and Rebecca, and Jess and Greg, were going out on a double date.
He didn't particularly like the idea of that, and he had a feeling Jess didn't like it much either. He met his grumpy gaze in the mirror, and sighed. He really needed to work on looking more relaxed.
He smoothened down the creases between his eyebrows. Yes, that was much better.
There was a brief knock on the door, and Jess barged in, adjusting her earring.
'Hey Nick-'
She had caught him with his fingers squarely on his forehead.
She blinked bemusedly and smiled.
'-What are you doing?'
Nick dropped his hand embarrassedly.
'No-nothing.'
She grinned. Nick sighed inwardly. She knew what he was doing.
'We have to be leaving soon, we don't want to be late!'
She closed the door.
'Double date, grumpy pants!' she sang from the other side.
Nick tried not to laugh.
It took them a while to get out of the loft.
Schmidt had decided that Nick's shoes clashed horribly with his shirt, and had insisted that his pants be ironed first.
Typical Schmidt.
But Nick supposed he did have a point about the shirt. Why had he bought it anyway?
The ride to the little Italian restaurant was a largely quiet one. Jess kept drumming her fingers on the dashboard nervously, and Nick felt a queasy sort of anticipation.
Nick decided that he'd break the silence.
He cleared his voice.
'So, Greg seems nice.' Oh, yuck.
Jess slowly inched her head to face him.
Greg was a marketing consultant, all spiffy suit-and-tie, and a gentleman by all accounts. In the bank account- he was pretty competent too.
'Yeah, he is,' she replied quietly, before continuing, 'So, Rebecca seems nice.'
Nick nodded affably. Rebecca Wilson was a cool. She was responsible, level-headed, Julia-like (he inwardly blanched a little) and she was witty and fun. And pretty darn-sexy to boot.
She was pretty fantastic, when he though about it.
'Yeah, she is,' he agreed.
They pulled up at the restaurant.
Jess grabbed Nick's hand as he turned the ignition.
'Let's just be cool roommates tonight, okay?'
Nick studied Jess' huge blue eyes. She wasn't kidding- and she wasn't beating round the bush. They both knew what she was talking about, yes?
He nodded.
They climbed out the car, and Nick was careful to place distance between them.
Friendly distance, friendly distance- that's like at least one foot?
'Hey!' Jess called brightly, as she saw Greg waiting at the table. Greg stood up and smiled.
'I hope we weren't late or anything,' Jess called, giving Greg a squeeze and sitting next to him as Greg pulled the chair out for her.
'Not at all, not at all- you look beautiful, by the way,' he grinned.
Greg glanced up, and Nick got his first good look at him.
Tanned face, perfect teeth, and nice hair. A young, less uptight Russell maybe?
Greg extended a friendly smile and hand.
'You must be Nick. Hi, I'm Greg Stevens.'
Nick took the hand and shook it heartily. Greg was nice and relatively good-looking. Yuck.
He smiled, and prayed his eyebrows were relaxing.
'Hi Greg. Nice to meet you.'
Nick studied the body language between Jess and Greg. They seemed comfortable enough with each other, and Greg was obviously pretty taken with Jess. Who wouldn't be? Anyone would be crazy to dislike her. Jess Day did look nice tonight, Nick decided, now that he could see what she was wearing under her coat.
A ladybird print dress. Classic Jess-wear.
Nick smiled gently.
'Nick!' a woman called from behind.
'Rebecca,' Nick turned around to greet her.
'Sorry to keep you guys waiting,' she planted a quick kiss on his cheek, and he took her coat.
'Rebecca Wilson, my roommate Jess Day and her boyfriend Greg.' he introduced.
Jess got her first good look at Rebecca Wilson.
She had beautiful hair. It was red and fiery, and it actually looked natural. She had a broad smile and pretty brown eyes. And she had a really nice green dress with pretty sleeves on.
'Hi Jess, Greg,' Rebecca smiled a brilliant smile.
Jess beamed in return. Rebecca was gorgeous and had awesome fashion sense. She had kind-of wished that Rebecca would turn out to be a kind-of bitch. Sigh.
Social niceties settled, they grabbed the menus.
Jess scanned Nick and Rebecca over her menu.
They were pretty touchy-feely. Rebecca was leaning against Nick, and he was leaning back into her! Jess felt a stab of annoyance. She and Greg could be equally affectionate.
She toyed with Greg's fingers and put her head on his shoulder.
Greg looked down at her, surprised but pleased. He planted a kiss on her forehead in return.
Nick caught the finger-toying and forehead-kissing over the menus. He didn't like it one bit. He could go with forehead-kissing. Rebecca loved affection. She was pretty passionate anyway.
'I was thinking about the vongole, what do you think?' Rebecca broke him out of his thoughts.
'It wouldn't taste anywhere as good as you,' Nick grinned, and kissed her forehead. Hell yes for PDA.
Rebecca laughed and faced him.
'So would you,' she smiled, and she went back to leaning against him. Nick raised his eyebrow at Jess. Just a little.
Jess gripped her napkin with her free hand. She didn't want to think if Nick tasted like vongole or not. And she could have sworn he just challenged her with an eyebrow raise.
She breathed in deep, feeling the adrenaline. They were playing a game now, were they? Two could play at PDA. Heh. That rhymed.
'Greg, what do you say we take-' she crept her fingers up his arms flirtatiously, and said in a shouting whisper, 'a little walk after dinner?'
Nick countered quickly.
He turned to Rebecca, 'Let's grab the car and make a couple of rounds later,' he said pointedly.
Rebecca lit up and nodded enthusiastically.
'Nick,' Jess said sweetly, 'we came in my car.'
Nick unabashedly looked back at Rebecca and asked, 'You came in your car, right?'
Rebecca looked rather confused now.
'Of course,' she replied.
'We'll take Rebecca's car,' Nick announced, 'Its got an e-nor-mous backseat,' he winked at Greg.
Greg looked at Jess and Nick questioningly. He then settled for looking at Rebecca, who seemed just as lost as he was.
Sensing the awkwardness, Jess stood up and grabbed Nick's arm.
'Nick,' she admonished loudly, 'you always forget to wash your hands.'
And she dragged him to the bathroom.