Cecilia Morris hated many things. She hated the Albuquerque heat. She hated the way the sun would shine so strongly that it would burn her pale skin if she spent more than an hour in it. She hated the way she would sweat profusely when she was coming to and from the newspaper office and the courthouse. She hated the fact that she had to make sure she had a spare shirt in her trunk in case she ended up perspiring through her deodorant.

She had only moved to Albuquerque because of her husband. Well, her ex-husband now. She had moved there because his mother had been ill and he had begged for them to leave New York and move back home. She had agreed. She wasn't a cold-hearted bitch. She knew what he was going through. Of course, she hadn't expected him to be sleeping with his childhood sweetheart while she went out to work and pay the bills for their apartment.

And now she was stuck in a small newspaper that was barely staying afloat. She was stuck reporting on boring crimes instead of crimes that made headlines and went worldwide. She doubted anyone cared about Bob Michaels's row with his neighbour that had led to the destruction of his letterbox.

"Please tell me you have something interesting."

Jimmy turned around as soon as he heard her speak. He had been looking at the order of cases on the wall, not noticing Cecilia sat behind him on the wooden bench. She wore a smart pencil skirt with a white shirt tucked into it, the sheer material just see through enough for him to notice the plain white bra she wore.

"I wish I could help you," Jimmy responded to her, moving to sit down next to her on the bench, reaching into his briefcase. "But I'm on an aggravated assault this morning and that's it. I'm trying to meet with some new prospective clients this afternoon."

"Anyone interesting?" Cecilia wondered, reaching into her satchel and pulling out a bottle of water.

Shrugging, Jimmy looked over the magnolia coloured case file he had been given, opening it and scanning it as he spoke. "Just a couple of local businesses in the area."

"Well, I hope it goes well," Cecilia said and Jimmy nodded, sighing lowly.

"So do I," he mumbled, knowing full well the extent of his dire finances. He looked over to her as he saw her fold one leg over the other, her lips pursed around the bottle of water as she drained it. "Anyway, what you doing tonight?"

"The same as usual," Cecilia said. "Usually I do that with you. Why? You bailing on me?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said, his confident tone back as he shut his folder, suddenly losing his interest in it before placing it back into his briefcase. "I'm meeting one of the clients next to a Mexican restaurant. Wondered if you fancied a bite to eat before we go and drown our sorrows?"

Arching an amused brow, Cecilia let her lips tug upwards. "Careful, McGill," she warned him. "Someone might think you were asking me out on a date."

Jimmy scoffed, moving to his feet with his briefcase dangling by his side as he spoke once more to her. "They clearly don't know how you drink like a fish. Dating you would bankrupt me and I'm poor enough as it is."

"Such a charmer," Cecilia said, tone sarcastic as she also stood up and looked to him. "But that sounds good to me. Send me the details and I'll be there for just after five. That okay?"

"I'll wait for you before I order," he joked, walking backwards and away from her as she rolled her eyes and he pointed in her direction. "But don't stand me up or I'll be forced to call that hot young model I met last week."

"What? In you dreams?" she teased him back and watched him turn around, the smirk still on his face as he went, leaving her alone and smiling to herself before heading into a courtroom. Perhaps she could try to salvage something from the day.

…

The Mexican restaurant was classier than Cecilia had been expecting. Pushing the door to the restaurant open at just gone ten past five, she spotted Jimmy in his beige suit instantly. Letting the door shut as a waiter came over, she motioned to Jimmy and told him that she was with that guy.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Jimmy responded back, but the expression on his face was enough to tell her that he was forlorn. Clearly he didn't have the reception he had hoped for from the potential clients.

Moving to pick up the bottle of wine that sat in the middle of the table, Jimmy poured out two glasses, sliding one over to Cecilia as she offered him a small smile.

"How did it go?" she wondered, not wanting to be openly pessimistic in front of him.

Shrugging, he looked off to the side. "Like the forty meetings before it."

"That bad, huh?" she mumbled, sipping on her wine while Jimmy let out a low chuckle, not bothering to respond to her as she remained mute, letting out a weary sigh after a few moments. "Have you thought about trying to join a firm?"

"No chance," Jimmy said with a firm shake of his head. "Besides, the only firm around here is HHM and you know what I think of them. I don't want to go begging Chuck for a hand-out and make him think I can't cope."

Cecilia sent him an even stare. "You're living in your office," she reasoned with him and he rolled his eyes at her. "Come on, Jimmy."

"And I can manage on my own," Jimmy retorted. "Besides, weren't we supposed to be eating a civilised meal or did you come here to start a fight? Because, you know as much as I love your dry wit and logical reasoning, I could do without it tonight."

Holding her hands up in defence, she leaned back in her chair, her gaze still set on Jimmy. It took a moment before she folded one leg over the other underneath the table, hands resting on the surface as she completed the motion.

"Fine," she gave up. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Anything but work," Jimmy mumbled, drinking his wine slowly.

"Alright," Cecilia said, scanning her mind for something to say.

But she went blank as soon as she saw them over Jimmy's shoulder. Her eyes widened as Jimmy noticed her cheeks puff out, a shaky breath escaping her as she exhaled loudly. Furrowing his brow, Jimmy turned his head over his shoulder to see what had gotten her so worked up. It wasn't difficult to find out as soon as he had seen it.

"Ah," he said, looking back to her.

"Can we go?" Cecilia wondered, unable to look away and not believe that they hadn't seen her.

"Cecilia, he-"

"-Please," Cecilia interrupted Jimmy, her eyes moving to meet his as he saw the tears begin to form there and he nodded, pulling a twenty from his wallet and tossing it on the table for the wine before leaving.

He followed her out of the restaurant before seeing her come to her car. Her hands went to rest on the roof of it, her head bowed as her hair fell into her face. Jimmy stood back for a moment, not entirely sure what he should do in the situation. He did the only thing he could think of, stepping over to her to rest a hand on her back.

"You okay?" Jimmy enquired and she let out a low chuckle, shaking her head back and forth at Jimmy.

"No," she answered him honestly.

Jimmy wracked his brain for something to help then. Finally he came up with the only thing he could think of. Moving into his pocket, he tugged out the keys to his office and handed them to Cecilia.

"Go back to the office and wait there," he said to her. "I'll be right behind you."

"What are you doing?" Cecilia asked as she saw him move back towards the restaurant.

"Do you think I'm letting your asshole ex-husband stop me from getting a burrito?" he asked and he saw her lips rise as he sent her a small smile and then went back into the restaurant.

He went back to their table and grabbed the bottle of wine and the twenty that hadn't been collected before finding a waiter and asking for their meals to go. He stood by the doorway, his gaze occasionally shifting over towards the man and woman who had caused them to leave. They were immune to anyone else in the restaurant, both of them laughing and joking, an occasional touch of the hand and blush to the cheeks.

Jimmy almost felt nauseous. He looked out the window of the restaurant, noticing that Cecilia and her car had already gone. Turning back to look at the people inside, Jimmy rocked back and forth on his heels, letting out a low whistle before the food came. Grabbing hold of it, he paid with haste and moved to his battered yellow car, climbing into it and driving off, the smell of the food enough to make his stomach growl.

When he returned to the office/nail bar, he locked the door behind him and wandered to the backroom. Opening the door, he tossed the food onto his desk, seeing that Cecilia was sat on his sofa.

"Sorry," she said to him, standing up and peeling the bag of food open. "I know it's been over a year, but seeing him with her…both of them so happy…"

"I know," Jimmy responded, not bothering to tell her that it shouldn't affect her. He knew how it could be. It was difficult to see the one person you loved destroy your entire world.

"I mean, I moved to this god forsaken place for him," Cecilia continued, handing Jimmy a burrito before she found another one herself, tugging it out and peeling the foil wrapper down. "I left everything in New York to come here for him and he destroyed everything for her."

Jimmy chewed down on his food, sitting on his sofa as Cecilia took the other end of the sofa, perching down on the arm of the seat before leaning to the desk. Grabbing the bottle of wine, she downed some of the alcohol before putting it back.

"Do you not want to go back?" Jimmy asked her. "You could move back to New York?"

She shook her head. "I can't afford to now," she replied. "Rent is too expensive and most of my money went on keeping a place around here with Martin when he was unemployed and looking after his mom."

"And if you could afford to go back?"

"And get away from Martin and little miss housewife?" she asked of him. "Then, yeah, I'd move back. I hate both of them for what they did."

"Amen to that," Jimmy held up his burrito in solidarity as Cecilia let out a small laugh at the sight of him. "Anyway, did I tell you about Chuck and Rebecca?"

"You did not," Cecilia said, grateful for a change in conversation.

"Yeah," Jimmy said. "Well, they've been having some marital issues. I don't know the full details, but I think they're struggling. Anyway, Chuck called me earlier and asked for advice. Can you believe that?"

"Good for him," Cecilia said, tone dry. "If he came to you for advice then he must really want to break up his marriage."

"Hey," Jimmy protested to her, mouth full of food as she drained some more wine and handed him the bottle. "I'm not that bad at this relationship stuff."

Cecilia laughed hollowly again. "Jimmy, we both have failed marriages," she reminded him. "We're not the poster for happy couples."

"But they only failed because we were married to cheating partners," Jimmy told her.

"So we got real unlucky," Cecilia clarified before sighing. "But thank you…for this…you didn't have to."

"You kidding me?" Jimmy asked her back, a slim smirk on his face. "Nothing was stopping me from getting this glorious food."

They both chuckled again before Jimmy turned serious after gulping down some wine.

"But you're welcome," he said, tone genuine as Cecilia nodded once.

Both of them lapsed into a comfortable silence, eating the food and musing over the previous conversation. Perhaps both of them were just unlucky and had managed to find each other. That seemed plausible.