As they walked towards the club, Schmidt drilled Nick once again. "Ok, so if, or should I say, WHEN Caroline comes up to you and says, 'Hi Nick, you've been on my mind...do you think we could find someplace more quiet to, you know, talk?' -YOU, my fine friend, are going to say:..."

"Sure, let's go name some babies."

"No, NO! Nick, you are not respecting the process, here! It's very simple...the more times you repeat a lie, the more convincing it starts sounding, and the easier it gets to stand behind it. Now, repeat after me, 'No Caroline, I'm just here to help a friend."

Nick tugged at the stupid bandana that Schmidt had forcibly tied around his neck. "Believe it or not, Schmidt, I'm feeling pretty good about this. I think once I get past, you know, just SEEING her, I'll be fine."

But he wasn't. Not after he saw the look on her face...that fluttery, nervousy, happy, "I've been anxious to see you, too" look. And with some banter about "prank" phonecalls, they quickly fell back into a comfortable old groove, and before Nick knew it, he was doing EXACTLY what his friends had warned him about.

But then some little part of him dug in its heels and refused to go any further, without at least asking why she broke up with him. That was the mature thing to do, he thought. Jess would approve, he thought. No sense in just falling back into old patterns, which was really all Schmidt was warning him about, right? If this was going to be a new beginning, then let it be one, and let it start with honesty.

And Caroline appeared to be being honest, when she indicated that apparently his communication skills were so bad, she wasn't even sure that he'd really even cared about her, while they were still together.

Wow. Ok. And maybe there'd been a time when he wouldn't have accepted that, but the night before, Jess had basically told him the same thing about needing to express his feelings better. So he stopped and considered that maybe this was a real thing, and that he should take ownership of it.

So there you had it...communication, honesty, and acceptance of personal culpability. With that, he definitely thought he'd earned a drink with Caroline. It was just a harmless drink, after all.

But just then, Schmidt's idiot friends had shown up. And Peter had bragged about standing Jess up, with no explanation, because she seemed to want a relationhip, and all he'd wanted was a "hook-up".

And immediately, Nick had thought about how happy and nervous Jess had been all day...and about the sweet confidence and optimism on her face when she'd stood by their door and said, "This is gonna be GREAT!"

And he guessed that Schmidt had been right, after all, because the unfamiliar words were coming so easily out of his mouth, and they sounded like he meant them. "I'm sorry Caroline, I gotta go help a friend."