All For You [New Girl]

7. Jess's Dinner Party

A/N: shoutout to those of you following along! i'll be updating wednesdays and saturdays,  hope you like this story <3

It was a dreary mid-November morning when Nick awoke from a dream that the FBI stormed 4D and took all his friends to jail (He couldn't remember exactly why, but he was pretty sure it was Schmidt's fault). As a result, Nick was up earlier than usual. He tried to return to sleep. He counted sheep. He stared at the patched hole in the ceiling. He gave up. The deed was done; he was awake.

And so he wandered into the bathroom, wandered out, wandered past the couch and the doorway and into the kitchen to find Claire in the kitchen with a pile of pancakes a foot high.

"Are you wearing my shirt?" he asked. He roughly traced the line of his eyelashes with his fingers as he tried to drive away the last bit of the fog of sleep.

"Yeah, sorry, I forgot to grab clothes." His shirt dwarfed her, hanging past the waist of Jess' striped pajama bottoms. Her hair was wet.

"Did you shower here?"

"Mhm. Want some pancakes? I might have made too many."

"It looks like you're cooking for an army." She laughed and handed him a wobbling stack. The top one had a smiley face made out of chocolate chips.

"You like it?" she asked with a matching grin. By then his mouth was already full, so he just nodded emphatically. She poured another ladle of batter into the frying pan.

"Why're...you..." Nick managed between bites, "showering here?"

"Avoiding Colin."

"That bad, huh?"

"No, it's fantastic, thank you very much." She stared off dreamily at the ceiling until the sizzling of pancakes brought her back to earth. Nick rolled his eyes.

"And that's why you're hiding in our kitchen."

"I'm not hiding. I'm avoiding."

"There's no difference."

"There's a big difference."

"Fine, why are you avoiding your boyfriend?" Why was Nick getting involved, again? He didn't actually want to know, he told himself, he was just being nice.

"He's not my boyfriend. We're just sleeping together. It's the perfect arrangement. No feelings. Just sex."

"And you think that's going to end well?"

"Don't question my life choices while you're eating my pancakes."

"How long have you guys been not-dating?" Nick couldn't believe he was still asking about this. Maybe Jess's constant prying was getting to him. Oh, God. Could it be? Was he was becoming gossipy?

"A couple weeks. Do you think Jess will eat some of these?" Claire gestured at a small skyline of pancakes.

"She already left. She had to meet with the principal. Winston will eat them."

"I should probably get going too. When do you have to be at the bar?"

"Noon."

"Lucky. I have to go pick up my boss's mail."

"Quit."

"If only. I'll see you later. Don't tell Schmidt I used his weird hair milk."

"That's why your hair looks so shiny."

"Yep. Did you want your shirt back?" She started to lift the hem.

"I'm good."

"I'll give it back later."