"At first, I didn't believe it, Cece. I didn't believe that after a month of hanging out together and spending time together and fixing things together, the one time he asks about and seems genuinely interested in me, he ditches me! And I waited there, with two screwdrivers with bow ties, eggs, flour, sugar, and fresh whipping cream like an idiot, and he never showed."
"Did you say you put bow ties on your screw drivers?"
"Yes, Cece. I put bow ties on my screwdrivers so I could tell which one was Phillips and which one was Isabella. I mean, flat head."
"Jess, this is like the one time when Nick happened to forget he was supposed to meet you. Think about all the other times when he's been there for you when you needed him. Or really, when you didn't."
"Well, there was the time with Melon Nick and the scratching," admitted Jess.
"Yeah, and what about the time he protected you from that homicidal student that was actually just into anime?" reminded Cece. "And what about that first Christmas in the loft?"
"Cece, he told Paul I didn't love him and then sat there as Paul and I had that long and awkward break up conversation."
"Well, Jess, he was locked out. And you wanted to break up with Paul anyway. And he made that big detour, missed his flight, and took you to see Ice Magic Folly Street." Cece thought a second. "Jolly Jingle Bell Alley? Christmas Santa Circle Drive."
"Candy Cane Lane," grumped Jess.
"Yeah, fine whatever. The point is that even though Nick is far from perfect, he cares about you. A lot. And you know that. The question is how do you feel?"
Jess scrunched her nose in frustration. "I don't know, Ceec. Nick's a friend, and my roommate. He's a good guy. And yeah, when he kisses me, it's like time stops and I forget my own name. And yeah, maybe I care about him, but he drives me NUTS!"
"Wait, what did you say?"
"That he drives me NUTS!"
"No! The part where you said you care about him. Oh my gosh, Jessica Day, do you care about Nick?"
"What? No. Nick? Sure, I care about him as a friend. Yeah, whatever. I care about all my friends! So what?"
"Really, so if Winston forgot he was supposed to meet you, you'd call me for an emergency brunch?"
"Yeah, sure of course, whatever. You know how I am about punctuality. That's why they call me Punctuality Patty."
"Stop. No one has ever called you that," insisted Cece. "Or say you made cupcakes for Schmidt and he didn't acknowledge them. You mean to tell me you'd pout and send passive aggressive texts telling him that its okay that he didn't eat your cupcakes."
"First of all, Schmidt doesn't eat carbs. And second, yeah, sure, of course, whatever. That's why they call me Passive Aggressive Patty . . ."
"Stop! You know the only reason you got upset is that this thing with Nick meant something. Because you CARE about him. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be talking about this for over an hour, and we wouldn't be stress eating cinnamon vanilla pancakes with a side of French toast. Which, by the way, are fantastic—way to pick a fabulous brunch spot!"
Defeated, Jess slouched in her seat and pouted. "I didn't get my cupcakes, and I still wanted something sweet."
Seeing how sad Jess was, Cece leaned forward the held Jess' non-fork holding hand. "Jess. Did you ever think that maybe Nick forgot because he didn't realize how important these Saturday appointments with him are to you? I love you, babe, but Nick is a grown man with his own life, and unless he has a reason to think of your times together as something special, unless he knows why you're spending every Saturday together doing stuff together, fixing the sink or making cupcakes with you will be just like any other roommate loft activity to him." She squeezed Jess' hand, then leaned back. "Talk to him, sweetie."
"You're right, Ceec. I thought I asked him to spend time with me because I wanted to fix the weird awkwardness between us since we kissed. But now, to be honest, I like spending time with him, and I like getting to know him." Jess sighed. "It's not just about fixing stuff anymore, Cece. I like him."
Cece looked at Jess with a small smile. "I know, hon. You just gotta tell him that," Cece said as she returned her attention to her French toast.
"Okay," Jess said solemnly.
"When he's awake. And not by singing!" Cece pointed her fork at Jess.
"Okay! Okay! Conscious and spoken. Promise!" exclaimed Jess.
"And NO puppets!" said Cece. Jess laughed.