Gene shook his head and lit up again.
This sort of retrospection wasn't helping at all.
He went back to his reviewing of the last day he had definitely worn his tie. Sam's tie.
He and Alex had been called out to deal with a shooting incident, but when they arrived at the scene, it turned out an overzealous Community Watch committee member was responsible for the wasting of their time.
'I assure you, Officer,' said the prim man, standing in front of Gene, 'that young man is on a slippery slope! I merely performed my civic duty!'
Gene took a deep breath to tell this small, moustachioed prat, standing there in a suit but still wearing carpet slippers, exactly what he, Gene Hunt, would like him to do with his Civic Duty.
'We appreciate your Community spirit, sir' purred Alex beside him, 'And please, don't hesitate to call us should something like this occur again, though perhaps it would be better to contact your local police station rather than dialling 999 in future?' She smiled winningly and fluttered her eyelashes.
The little man's antagonistic attitude melted in front of this onslaught of charm, and he simpered and stuttered that, in future, he would, and that he hoped he had caused any inconvenience.
Alex assured him that wasn't the case at all, and that it was honest people like himself who were helping keep the streets safe.
Gene fumed beside her, unable to say or do anything but remain calm on the outside.
Internally, however, he was boiling.
They watched the little man walk back to his house and shut the door.
The small crowd that had collected to watch the proceedings had been dispersed by a local police officer, and only a small child, messily eating a dripping ice-cream had remained to watch the adults.
'I do not believe you!' Gene hissed at Alex as they walked back to the Audi.
Alex leant up against the red car, her bomber jacket long ditched in the back seat, sunglasses perched on her head. She looked Gene straight in the eye and shrugged.
'Oh calm down. I hardly think a teenager's bad shot with an airgun is the start of a major crime wave.'
'I wasn't talking about the spotty Herbert quaking in his plimsolls! I was talking about the prat who called this three ring circus waste of time into existence!!' Gene was furious.
Alex fanned herself with one hand whilst pulling her sunglasses over her eyes with the other.
'Oh just leave it! It's too hot for this sort of aggravation. Look, the teenager has been lectured suitably, and instead of a complaint against us for abusing the public, that man now thinks he's the hero of the hour. Fancy an ice cream?'
'No, I do not fancy an ice cream!!' Gene told her, even though the idea had a strong lure in the oppressive heat.
'Shame,' Alex replied as she levered herself away from the car, 'I'm buying...' and she walked over to the white van still tinkling music down the street.
Gene forced himself back in the car and slammed the door.
'Bloody woman!' he fumed, though he couldn't resist watching Alex slowing walking back to the car whilst putting a large dent in a ice-cream cone.
'And don't think you can come in here dripping that all over my upholstery!!' Gene told her, leaning over and locking the door.
'Suit yourself!' Alex told him and proceeded to slowly eat her ice cream with a relish rarely witnessed outside a Wall's advert.
Eventually, after Gene had revved the engine several times, and then remembered to unlock the door, Alex climbed inside and angled herself so she could catch some of the slipstream breeze to cool herself.
This meant she was able to sit at a disturbingly close angle to Gene.
A fact he tried hard to ignore.
Arriving back at the office, he was summonsed to a review meeting by his boss, and he spent the rest of the day feeling more and more annoyed at the whole damn system he worked in.
Arriving back in CID later than he had anticipated, he found everyone gone home for the weekend and a note stuck to his office door.
'Went to Luigi's without you, you're buying!' - the scrawl probably Ray's he thought, Chris wouldn't have the nerve to leave anything like that.
Packing his desk up, remembering to properly shut down his computer instead of just pulling the plug on it, Gene stood up and stretched.
The heat has dissipated a little, and the temperature was more bearable. He picked up his jacket and checked his wallet.
He was just debating whether he could be bothered to go to Luigi's when it dawned on him - what else did he have to do? Go home? Sit alone in his flat with whatever was on the tv?
Alex had asked him last week if he ever got lonely, and instead of ignoring the question or starting an argument, he told her the truth. He had been drunk, fair cop, but not that drunk.
For some unfathomable reason, he could be honest with Alex. Something he found nigh on impossible to be with anyone else these days.
Alex would be at Luigi's.
She had little choice really, as her flat was two floors above it.
That decided Gene. He would go to the Italian, and have a few drinks with the rest of CID.
He would try to see if he could manage to have a proper conversation with Alex, not work related for once. And he would buy her dinner.
Just casually.
She had to eat didn't she?
Gene's head shot up.
Of course! That's where it must be!