Chapter Three

It had been two months since Jess had moved out of the loft. With her new job it wasn't hard to find a new apartment now that she was making enough money to be able to afford a place on her own. Sure she wasn't planning on moving out so abruptly, but after everything that had gone down there was absolutely no way she was staying in the loft, in that bedroom.

She really did miss her roommates, though. She had never really lived on her own before and she never really thought about how utterly lonely it would be. She missed waking up on the weekends and walking out to the kitchen and being greeted by a smiling Schmidt and Winston, CeCe had also been added to the mix in the few months before she had left for Portland now that her and Schmidt were officially back together and engaged. She even found herself missing a certain grumpy turtle-faced roommate on occasion. After everything he had done, she couldn't believe it was possible to still miss him, but… she did, she really, really did.

Jess had just arrived home after an incredibly stressful day at school. Dr. Foster was on her case all day about budget cuts and possibly having to cut some of the teachers. She seriously hated that man.

She had yet to unpack all of her belongings since moving in, well aware that it had been two whole months since she moved in, but with the stress of work and helping CeCe pick out her wedding dress and running around looking at venues with her, she just hadn't had the time. After eating a little dinner, Jess decided it was finally time to unpack the rest of the boxes that lay strewn across her small apartment, cleaning and organizing always had a strange way of easing her stress after a long day.

After unpacking the rest of her living room and finally hanging up the adorable prints that she had purchased at the vintage antique shop a few blocks from her new place, smiling smugly to herself, impressed with her hanging and leveling skills, she walked into her bedroom to start on the boxes in the closet.

She had finally gotten to the last box and as she started to go through the items in the box, she realized why she had put this particular box in the very back corner of her closet. Inside the box she found a stack of photos, a navy blue hoodie and the heart that she's had since she was a little girl. The heart that once hung on her bedroom wall in the loft and had been moved to Nick's bedroom wall when they moved into his room together. Her vision began to blur and she stared at the heart in her hand, her mind wandering back to the look on Nick's face when he had come home from the bar to find this heart hanging on his, no their bedroom wall.

**Flashback**

"Hey, Jess. I'm home. Where yah at?"

Jess couldn't help the smile that spread across her face.

"I'm in OUR bedroom, Nicholas!"

She heard his footsteps coming down the hall as he approached the room.

"Tadah!"

Nick looked around the room, slight confusion etching his face.

"What the hell did you do, Jessica?"

He said with a slight chuckle.

"Well, Nicholas… I just thought that since we're officially sharing a room now, that I could add some of my things. You know, so it's "our" room rather than just "your" room… Is… Is that okay?"

Nick smiled at her, before noticing the medium sized heart that was now hanging from his wall.

"Hey, that's the heart that you had hanging in your old room."

His eyes sparkled as he looked over at her with a heart stopping smirk on his face.

"Yeah, it is. I've had that since I was little girl, my grandmother gave it to me. She always told me to keep my heart to myself until I found someone worth sharing it with."

Jess smiled up at him while walking towards him before wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing her face closer to his. His arms immediately wrapped around her waist as he pulled her close and smiled down at her.

"Are you saying that I'm worth sharing your heart with, Jessica?"

The look on his face made Jess's insides melt into a pathetic goo.

"Mayyybe"

He leaned his head even closer to hers, his lips touching hers as he spoke.

"I love you Jess, I've never met anyone more worthy of sharing my heart with, you have no idea how happy it makes me that you chose me to share yours with."

Jess grabbed roughly at the hair at the base of his neck, kissing him passionately, before pushing him towards to bed.

"I love you too, Nick. So much"

**End Flashback**

Jess squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back the tears that she could feel forming. She set the heart aside before picking up the stack of photos, knowing she was walking into dangerous territory. The first few photos were of her and the guys when she had first moved in, them playing True American and hanging out at the bar. It wasn't lost on her that in all of them her and Nick were right next to each other, always touching in some way, whether it was his arm around her shoulders or waist, or her hugging one of his arms close to her body.

As she got further through the stack, she came across her favorite photo of her and Nick. It was before they were dating, before he had kissed her. It was of them at Clyde's sitting in a booth, his arm wrapped around her shoulders and her leaning heavily into his side. In the photo she's beaming at the camera while Nick is staring at her. How had she never noticed? The way he looked at her, the way he had always looked at her, she could practically see the love pouring out of his dark eyes.

Jess dropped the photos back in the box along with the other contents it held and shoved it back into the corner of her closest before slamming the door and falling onto her bed face first. Why did she miss him so much? He had lied to her, broken a promise to her. He didn't deserve to occupy any part of her thoughts, but since the day they had met, he always had and most likely always would.

She thought back to the night before she moved out, how she had told him that she would never forgive him and that she never wanted to see him again, realizing that she really hadn't let him speak his peace. Not that he deserved it, but she still couldn't help but wonder what he would have said if she let him say what he wanted. It's hard to tell by one simple conversation, but that Nick Miller sure did have a way with words when he really let himself feel real emotions.

Ten minutes later, Jess found herself behind the wheel of her car driving towards the loft. She had no idea what she was doing, but something inside her needed to see him, needed to hear what he had to say. As she pulled up to her old parking spot, she stepped out of the car and walked towards the building, stopping dead in her tracks as she saw another figure approaching the loft.

How could she have been so incredibly stupid? Nick had once told her that when someone was broken, they just stayed broken. He was a broken man and she didn't know why it had even crossed her mind to let him explain himself, he broke everything he touched and eventually he would do the same to the woman she watched enter the loft. Turning back towards her car, she sat down, started the ignition and headed back towards her apartment, feeling her heart shatter in her chest for the third time in the past two months.