another little snippet of Jess/Nick, set after the Story of the 50. fyi, I love Schmidt... but come on, we all totally know this is what Jess was thinking. (:

x x x

Okay, so here's the thing, just to get it out of the way: Jess didn't have feelings for Nick. Well, she didn't think she did, anyway. Sometimes she got a little confused, especially thanks to all the ideas Cece filled her head with, but that was just speculation, silliness. In other words, foot-pointing be damned, for the moment, there wasn't anything between them. Nothing concrete. And, hello, come on, that should be super obvious, especially since Nick was dating that girl Julia now. They were totally into each other. And that was a good thing. Nick needed that, especially after all the awful ickiness with Caroline, and the naked awkwardness with Amanda. She was happy for him—no, honestly, she was. Cross her heart and hope to die.

Still. When that gross douchebag Benjamin slid into the seat next to her on the Party Bus, and he started saying all kind of absurd things in her ear, and all she wanted to do was sink into the pleather cushion and get as far, far away as possible—well, when she heard that voice say, "Leave her alone," she'd thought for a moment it was Nick. More than thought, not quite hoped—she'd assumed it was. It seemed like his style, after all. Like the time he'd come back to sing for her at the restaurant after she'd gotten stood up, or how he'd done the chicken dance with her at the wedding. It would only be natural that he'd once again help out his roommate, his bro, his friend, his target-of-much-foot-pointing. A person can't just do all of that stuff with a girl, say her name in a stupid, suggestive Chicago drawl, wake up a neighborhood for just some Christmas lights that she really really wanted to see, and then not rescue her from a total creep.

But no, as a matter of fact, it was Schmidt who did the rescuing, and there was just something so disappointing about that. Not that she wasn't grateful—though the chaos that ensued just after seemed a bit much. The point was, she'd expected Nick, and instead got Schmidt. At the time of the rescue, she'd glanced over his shoulder to see Nick, sitting at the back of the bus, his arm around Julia, laughing and not even noticing Jess and what was happening to her.

Her disappointment was enough to make her wish her knight's shining armor had been made up of a little less cardigan, and a little more lumberjack-y flannel.