Sorry it took me a few days to get this done. During Paley Fest, the people that actually got to go, saw 2x19 there and there are spoilers online for it right now. But I'm not going to do the rest of this story based on the spoilers because supposedly what I've seen is pretty much a play by play of the whole episode and I don't want to wreck it for anyone.

Nick had been debating for a few weeks whether or not to ask Shane out; his boss's daughter and co-worker. But he decided to just get it over with and ask her because after this morning, it looked like things would never happen with Jess. He was beginning to wonder why he had thought something would even happen in the first place.

Nick flirted with Shane on and off all evening but he hadn't gotten a chance to ask her out yet because it had been pretty busy that night. He finally had a free moment after serving a group of girls who barely looked 21 some margaritas. He started to approach Shane when he noticed Jess walking over to the bar.

"Hey," he said as Jess sat down at a stool, "I thought you weren't going to stop by."

"I figured what the hell, I might as well check it out. And I felt bad about earlier," she started.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You know, about what you told me I did last night and stuff. I think I was kind of rude about it this morning. I was just really taken aback because I seriously have no memory of it," she explained.

"Hey it's not a big deal," Nick said.

Right then, Shane came up to him and adjusted his collar. "Hey you looked like you were about to tell me something earlier. What's up?"

Nick felt weird doing this right in front of Jess. "Ah, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Are you kidding me? You walked right over toward me and as soon as she walked in," Shane glanced at Jess, "You took a beeline toward her."

"I was just surprised she came, " Nick said.

"I thought I'd surprise him," Jess added.

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend," Shane looked confused.

"She's not my girlfriend," Nick replied in an annoyed tone.

The words sliced Jess like a knife but she kept her mouth shut. Of course they weren't together. But why did his statement hurt her so badly?

"Well in that case, I have a friend who's having a party tomorrow night and I'd really love it if you'd come with me," Shane asked him, completely ignoring Jess.

"I'll be there," Nick smiled.

Jess shot Nick a dirty look and got up. She walked quickly out of the bar and sat down at one of the tables outside. Why was this bothering her so much?

When Shane went to the back to go get something, Nick walked out of the bar to go find Jess. Something was up with her and he didn't know why.

"Hey, Jess, what the hell was that?" Nick said as he sat down in the chair across from her.

Jess bit her lip. "I can't do this anymore."

"Do what?"

"This…whatever the hell you'd call our friendship. Relationship. I'm confused. I'm upset and I don't know why."

"I'm confused too Jess. Did it bother you about Shane asking me out? Is this what you're upset about?"

"Yes. Maybe. I guess I just thought that, I don't know, you wouldn't date anyone right now."

"Why shouldn't I? Because I kissed you?"

Jess could only shrug.

"Look, I tried to tell you how I felt. I thought I made it pretty obvious. But you just acted like you didn't want any part of it. Maybe I'm wrong but when someone gets upset that someone kisses them and then even tries to date someone else, one would tend to believe they don't exactly have feelings for them."

"But I do! It's just, I'm trying to sort it all out. It's weird for me because you're my friend and I feel like crossing that line of "more than friends" is going to mess things up with us."

"It might and it might not. We'll never know until we try. I feel like that's our only option because I don't think things will ever be the same anymore."

"I just don't want to lose you Nick."

"I'm not going anywhere Jess. We don't have to jump into anything, we can take our time, see what happens."

"You won't go out with Shane?"

Nick laughed. "I'll go in right now and end things with her. You and I don't actually have to be in a relationship or anything, but let's just not date anyone else and try to figure out what's going to happen with you and I."

"I think that'll be good Nick," Jess smiled, "I'm sorry I've been so confusing."

"You don't have to be sorry. I'm the one that started all of this," Nick said.

"But I don't regret that you did," Jess replied.

Sorry if this chapter wasn't as good as the other two. I kind of lost my motivation to write this story because of the spoilers I read. It just kind of threw off what I had in mind for what would happen.