Chapter one - The Difference

Nick Miller walked along the usual streets on his usual route to work. He was early for his shift but trying desperately to kill some time. Since Caroline had ripped his heart out and stomped on it, he had too much spare time on his hands. Wherever he went, it reminded him of her. Even sitting at home made him think of her. Even walking along the street to work reminded him of her.

He stopped abruptly, casting his eyes around, desperately looking for something, but he wasn't quite sure what. Every day he would just plod along to work regardless of how he was feeling. Today, something tugged at him. He didn't know what it was but for once, he decided to go with it.

It told him he needed somewhere new. Somewhere he could be a different Nick Miller. His eyes drifted across the street to a little tea room. It couldn't be any less like somewhere he would go. It was cheerful, bright and airy. Hopefully it would rub off on him and make him a bit more cheerful.

It certainly couldn't make him less cheerful, he thought bleakly as he walked inside.

XxxxxxxX

Jessica Day walked to her favourite place in the whole world from her best friend CeCe's apartment. She had been staying with CeCe for the last few days since she had gotten home and found her then-boyfriend Spencer with another woman. Getting out of there and to her best friend's place was a bit of a blur, filled with tears and whirling thoughts.

CeCe had been her pillar of strength, of course, and had let her stay with her without question. She'd told Jess what a dirtbag Spencer was and had managed to rile her up into a rage with the former love of her life. Now she was angry as well as sad.

She wasn't so sure that was a good thing...

She took a deep, calming breath as she turned the corner. She saw the bright sign for Cloud 9 Tea Room. She almost skipped towards the brass handled door, opening it quickly and drinking in her favourite sight. There were little tables of different shapes and sizes strewn haphazardly around, each with a white lace tablecloth and an assortment of squashy, comfortable chairs in every colour imaginable casually put near the tables.

Jess hadn't been to Cloud 9 in quite some time. Spencer didn't like to go anywhere, really. It was a bit of a battle to get him to leave the house, let alone to go anywhere she wanted to go to. She chose one of the smaller tables in the corner with a bright blue chair and flopped down into it.

"Not anymore," she murmured to herself, picking up the menu and feeling her tension disappear as she decided between traditional English cream tea and chocolate dipped strawberries.

"Today is looking uuuuup," she sang to herself quietly as the waitress walked over.

XxxxxX

Nick was actually pleasantly surprised at how nice the tea room was. It had a relaxing atmosphere and with the white lace tablecloths and blue plates it kind of did have a Cloud 9 feel to it.

He sat towards the back of the room and ordered a muffin and some tea. Once it arrived, he removed his jacket and relaxed back into the squashy chair. He felt his face relax more than it had in the weeks since Caroline split up with him. He felt the frown lines lessen between his eyebrows and the headache he didn't even know he had started to ebb slightly.

He heard the front door open with a bang and looked up. A small woman with vast quantities of dark curly hair skipped through it, a strange angry smile on her face. He watched her curiously as she looked around, drinking in her surroundings with her huge sparkly blue eyes like she was looking at an old friend.

He tracked her as she walked to the back corner and flopped heavily on to a comfortable looking blue chair. He adjusted his position in his chair so that he could keep looking at this strange woman, only looking away to give a gentle laugh as she talked and sang to herself.

XxxxxxxxxxX

After her third chocolate dipped strawberry, Jess started to feel a bit brighter. She took a sip of her tea and looked at the collection of paintings and trinkets that festooned the walls. She smiled brightly and pushed her glasses up her nose. Her eyes stuck on a picture of a lonely little red boat that was all alone on a beach and tears sprung to her eyes.

She didn't want to cry in public (again) so she dragged her eyes away from the poor boat and started to look around the tea room at the other patrons. Her eyes caught immediately on the one person who stood out as rather out of place in there.

He was scruffy, with dark hair and dark eyes. He looked like he hadn't shaved for a few days and didn't really care about it. He had what looked like a permanent grumpy frown that was slightly endearing. He had a bit of a grumpy Walter Matthau vibe about him.

He looked over and caught her staring. She looked away, blushing, but couldn't resist another look at the scruffily handsome man. He caught her eye as she looked up and gave her a big, toothy smile that made her heart skip a beat. She smiled back.

He got up and walked over to her. She could feel her cheeks growing hot.

"I just wanted to say hey," he said gruffly. "I'm not leaving cos I want to, I've gotta go to work."

"O-ok," she stammered with a shy smile. This was a bit strange, but in quite a good way.

"Could I meet you here next week so I can do this properly? Whatever this is..." He trailed off miserably, his eyes fixed on his shoes.

"I'd like that," she said brightly, feeling her heart go out to him.

His head shot up and his eyes lit up.

"I'm Jess, by the way," she said.

"Nice to meet ya, Jess," he grinned as he bounded out of the door waving at her.

As he reached the pavement outside, he realised he hadn't told her his name. He hoped she would come back next week to find it out.

XxxxxxxX

Nick got home from his shift at the bar that night, walking brightly into his apartment. His two roommates, Schmidt and Coach were sitting on the couch watching something with explosions. They both looked up at Nick and wore identical looks of shock at their roommate's change in demeanour.

"Nicholas," Schmidt said demandingly. "I thought you were working tonight, not having sex."

Nick looked perplexed. "I was working, Schmidt. Why does your mind always go to sex?"

"You pranced in here, looking like a Cheshire Cat," Schmidt said, raising his eyebrow. "It was the only explanation for the sudden dissipation of your misery cloud."

"Misery cloud?" Nick shouted, storming off to his room and slamming the door shut behind him.

"Jar, Schmidt," Coach said with a shake of his head. "No need, dude."

Schmidt stuffed a bill into the jar and huffily cast his eyes back to the explosions on screen.

Nick flopped heavily down on his bed. Schmidt hadn't even dented his great mood and neither had a slightly crummy night at the bar. He used his usual idiocy to get away quickly to get back to his room. His thoughts drifted back to the girl at the tea room. She was weird, but in a bright and wonderful way. She was like a warm ray of sunshine, he thought to himself, smiling a very rare smile.

XxxxxxxX

Jess floated back to CeCe's apartment. She knew it was too soon for something serious, but just knowing that someone as ruggedly handsome as her stranger was interested in seeing her again gave her a wonderful feeling bubbling in her chest. She felt a bit crazy as she didn't even know his name, but that added to part of the excitement.

CeCe looked up from her magazine as Jess walked through the door and saw her smiling.

"Good day, sweetie?" CeCe asked with a grin.

"It was great," Jess said breathily, falling down on the couch next to her best friend. "I went for tea and deep thinking at Cloud 9 and talked to a strangely hot guy."

"Strangely hot?" CeCe asked with a giggle.

"Yeah, he was crinkled, grimy and grumpy," Jess said with a chuckle.

"The opposite of Spencer!" CeCe said, excited to see her friend start to move on.

"And exactly what the doctor ordered," Jess grinned. "He had to go to work so we organised to meet up at the same time next week."

"Ooh, the opposite of Spencer again," CeCe said with mischief dancing in her eyes. "He actually has a job!"

Jess laughed, knowing she should agree with CeCe but not really wanting to think about Spencer at that point in time. She was so happy to see the beginnings of moving on that she didn't want to dwell on the past.

"We should celebrate the start of moving on," Jess declared. "Girls night out tomorrow?"

"Of course, sweetie," CeCe agreed, delighted to see Jess happy again. "I'm going to a friend of a friend's party tomorrow, so we can go there!"

Jess's grin dropped slightly. "All my going out clothes are still at Spencer's. Can I borrow something?"

"Let's go shopping!"