Standing in the florist, Jimmy finished ordering the biggest bouquet of flowers that he could afford. He had his briefcase by his side and wore his light tan suit. His tie was loose and down his shirt as he waited for the flowers to be put together. He had finished work early that Friday night and had gotten three phone calls that day about taking on people's cases. They wanted to meet with him on Monday after seeing his ad in the paper. He had Cecilia to thank for that and that was why he was buying her flowers.

"She must be a lucky lady," the florist spoke, taking hold of some daffodils and adding them.

"I'm the one who is lucky," Jimmy responded, moving a hand into his pocket. "I know you must hear that a lot and it sounds cliché, but in this case it is true. I'm punching…she's miles out of my league."

The woman smiled, her cheeks puffing out. "Actually, we don't get that a lot," she responded honestly. "Most times the men seem to enjoy thinking that they are great by treating their significant other. They rarely talk about being lucky themselves."

"I guess most of them are jerks."

"I don't like to judge."

Jimmy chuckled and rocked back and forth on his heels. It was another second before the door opened, the bell ringing above it. Jimmy continued looking forward as the woman, Mary – according to her name badge, placed the flowers down for a moment and looked to Jimmy. "I'll be one moment," she said and he nodded. She looked to the man who had just walked in. "How can I help you?"

"I called earlier about collecting a bouquet," he said and Jimmy recognised that voice.

He stood level with Jimmy and felt Jimmy's eyes on him. He turned to the side and recognised him again. Jimmy looked up to him and wondered if he should say anything. He knew what had happened between him and Cecilia. She had told him everything. But looking at Martin, her ex-husband, Jimmy felt insignificant. Martin was broader than Jimmy. He was conventionally handsome. He had piercing eyes and his hairline didn't look to be receding rapidly. He had a stable job and he wasn't a screw up.

"McGill," he said as the woman went into the backroom, searching for the order.

"Martin," Jimmy said. "Surprised to see you here."

"Why is that?" Martin asked, voice clearly defensive and Jimmy shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, what are the coincidences of bumping into each other at a florists?" Jimmy asked and he noted Martin's jaw loosen. "What did you think I meant?"

"Nothing," Martin shook his head.

"Oh," Jimmy said. He couldn't help himself. "Did you think I'd be shocked because you're in a florist buying flowers for your current wife after professing your love to your ex-wife?"

Martin seemed to pale then and Jimmy felt a sudden thrill at winding him up. He deserved this. He deserved to be wound up because he was an asshole and Jimmy wasn't scared of telling him that. He should think about how he made a mistake every day.

"So she told you?" Martin could only manage to ask.

"We don't keep secrets," Jimmy responded.

"So what?" Martin asked, voice terse again. "You want to gloat? You want to stand and gloat about how she chose you? Congratulations, you have her."

"Have her?" Jimmy echoed. "She isn't a possession, Martin. She has her own mind and she made it up. She decided what to do, but you were an idiot in the first place…hurting her like that…she did nothing wrong. She loved you and you threw it back in her face. I'm not going to do that. I'll never do that to her."

Martin seemed to get annoyed as the woman came out with his bouquet. She placed them on the counter and Martin tore his eyes from Jimmy and to the woman. He grabbed his wallet from his pocket and stalked forwards, opening it up. He pulled out two twenty dollar bills and placed them on the worktop.

"Are these for Marnie?" the woman asked. "How is she doing? She must be coming along in her pregnancy?"

"Yeah, she is," was all Martin said. He picked the flowers up and turned around. Walking to the door, he looked to Jimmy one more time. "She'll wise up eventually. She'll realise that she deserves someone better than a wash up failed lawyer."

"Maybe," Jimmy agreed, "but that will be for her to decide."

Martin stormed from the florist, slinging the door wide open as Mary huffed loudly. Once the door had closed, she went back to arranging the bouquet that Jimmy had ordered. Looking to him over some white snowdrops, she shook her head.

"What got to him?"

"No idea," Jimmy lied.

…

Cecilia groaned as she heard a knock on her door. She knew that it would be Jimmy. She had given him a key. Why had he not used it? Tossing her magazine off to the side, she stood up from the sofa. She padded barefoot towards the door rolling her eyes. She reached for the latch and pulled it down. Opening the door, she spoke as she pushed the wood behind her.

"You know, I gave you a key to avoid me having to let you in," she spoke, but then her eyes widened as she noted the large bouquet of flowers in front of her. Peering to the side of them, Jimmy looked to her as her own lips quirked upwards in a sly smile.

"I wanted to surprise you," Jimmy said.

"Well, you did just that," she said and stepped aside, letting him in.

"These are for you, my dear," he said and bowed slightly as Cecilia laughed and took the flowers from him. She held the large bouquet with both hands, turning it around to look at the varieties of flowers. They were mainly pale colours and they smelled fresh, popping up in a variety of directions with a bow tied holding them together.

"They are beautiful, Jimmy," she said to him. "What is the occasion?"

"Does there need to be an occasion to buy flowers?" Jimmy asked her.

Cecilia shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted, "I have only usually got flowers for my birthday or anniversary."

"Well, I had a good day," Jimmy said to her. "I have three potential new clients from your ad and I wanted to treat you…because…well…you deserve to be treated well."

"That is sweet," Cecilia commented, moving on her toes to peck him on the lips. Moving a hand down to hold onto her hip, he kept hold of it before she pulled back and smiled up to him. Moving over to the kitchen, she pulled out a vase from underneath the sink. Filling it up with water, Jimmy followed her into the kitchen.

Picking up her empty wine glass on his way, he placed it on the worktop and then pulled out his own glass. Going into the fridge, he found the opened bottle of wine and poured them both a glass.

"So you had a good day, huh?" Cecilia asked, arranging the flowers in the vase.

"I did," Jimmy said. She placed the vase onto her dining table and Jimmy then handed her the glass of wine. "I won two of my cases today, which was also a bonus."

"I heard," Cecilia said. "Sorry I couldn't see you, but there was a breaking and entering case combined with theft in courtroom number four that I had to cover."

"The kid who stole ice cream?" Jimmy checked with her.

"And they found him vomiting it back up," she said. "It was a drunk dare that had gone wrong. Someone captured the video of him laid in the middle of the road in his own ice cream puddle of vomit."

"What a lovely image," Jimmy wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah, they wouldn't let me publish it," Cecilia said. "They thought that it might lower the tone of the newspaper."

"On the contrary," Jimmy said as she sipped on her wine, "I think it might increase readership."

"Well, that might not be a bad thing," Cecilia sighed and began moving back to the living room. Following her, Jimmy sat down on the sofa next to her as she pulled her legs up to her chin. Draping his arm over the back of the sofa, he looked down to her.

"Things not going well at the paper?"

"Not really," she admitted to him. "Advertising revenue is down and people are worried they will be laid off. We are struggling."

"But surely you'll be fine, right?" Jimmy asked, trying to be optimistic as she took another sip of her wine. She shrugged as she kept the glass pressed to her lips. Turning to look over to Jimmy, she swirled the wine around for a moment.

She sighed. "I don't know," she admitted to him. "I mean, I'm not exactly covering big crime cases, am I?"

"You're reporting crimes that matter, Ce," Jimmy said, placing his glass down. He moved cautiously, an arm going over her shoulders. Leaning against him, she closed her eyes as Jimmy's chin rested on her head. "They are crimes that matter to the local community. They might not mean anything to others, but around here they're important. So what if they're not big murder cases? It doesn't make them less important."

"I guess not," Cecilia said, but she didn't sound convinced. "I don't know, Jimmy. I'm beginning to wonder if I should start looking for something else."

"Like what?"

"Like working for another paper," Cecilia said. "If things are going to get ugly then I would rather walk away than be pushed away, if you get what I mean?"

"Well, yeah," Jimmy said. "But what other paper is there around here, Ce?"

"That's the thing," she said, "there isn't one, not really. I think that maybe, if it comes to it, then I might have to start looking elsewhere."

Jimmy sat up straight then. She moved from his side and placed her glass down, sensing the tension inside of him from his movements. She pushed her hands through her hair as Jimmy watched the back of her head. She remained bent forwards, knowing that she would have to have this conversation with Jimmy one day or another.

"Leaving?" Jimmy asked her. "You mean you might leave?"

"I don't know," Cecilia said to him. "I am going to see how the next few months go, but it might be that I have no choice, Jimmy."

"There has to be something else…something you want to do."

Cecilia scoffed. "Jimmy, I am a crime reporter," she said to him, deadpanning. "I went to college and studied journalism for this exact purpose. I don't want to do anything else."

"But you…Cecilia…you can't go," Jimmy said and his voice sounded broken. Cecilia moved then, kneeling on the sofa, her dress crumpling underneath her. She reached her hands out to his arm, holding onto it tightly.

"Jimmy, don't do this," she urged from him. "As I said, I am going to see what happens. Please, just let me try to work through everything first."

"But what if it happens?" Jimmy asked her. "So what? We're looking at you potentially moving in the next couple of months? What about us? Do we just give this up? Do we just call it quits?"

"I don't know," Cecilia said, letting go of his arm. "I don't have all the answers, Jimmy. I mean, we have been dating for a few months now. We're not married and we haven't even defined what we are. Why would I ask you to consider moving for me?"

"We promised each other that we were serious about making this work," Jimmy reminded her.

"That was before I was really scared about losing my job," she responded. "Jimmy, I don't want to do this with you. Can we not just cross that bridge when we come to it?"

Jimmy leaned back in his seat. "But we will probably come to it," he said to her. "And we will have to discuss it. We can't just keep sweeping things under the carpet like we did before we got together. That isn't how a relationship is formed or even succeeds."

"Maybe not," she said to him. "But we both need to face realities, Jimmy. I might not be here in two months time, is that what you want to hear? Do you want to hear about how I have been looking already into jobs back in New York?"

"You just said you were going to see how things go!" Jimmy reminded her.

She climbed from the sofa and stood up before she began pacing. Jimmy sat up once more, leaning forwards and holding onto the sides of his head.

"I lied," she admitted. "Jimmy, that isn't the way my brain works. I need to know what is going on. I like planning and I hate uncertainty. I cannot cope and the idea of losing my job…having no income…it scares me, okay?"

"Fine," Jimmy nodded. "Do you want to go to New York?"

"I…I don't know," Cecilia said. "I loved living in New York. I loved my job and I want it back. There is only one thing keeping me here, Jimmy, and there has been for a long time."

"And what is that?" he asked her.

"You," she admitted, finally looking back to him, eyes wide. Jimmy continued to watch her as she shrugged helplessly. "Ever since we started meeting and going for drinks, you have made my life less shit living here. You're the only good thing I have here."

Jimmy lost his ability for speech then. He didn't know what he should say. Cecilia wasn't particularly good with declarations of affection. He knew that much and had experienced it first hand. She kept her emotions bottled up since her ex had hurt her. It made it difficult for Jimmy to breach her defences.

"Say something," Cecilia begged from him, sitting down on her stool and lacing her fingers together.

"I don't want you to go," Jimmy admitted to her. "I don't want you to go because I love you."

There was silence between the two of them. Jimmy realised what he had said. He realised that he had finally told her the truth. He told her how he really felt. He had tried to keep his emotions in check for a long time, but now he couldn't. Now he wanted her to know the truth. There was no more treading carefully.

"I love you," he finally repeated. "I spend every day thinking about coming home to you. I make sure I get up before you just so that I can make you coffee and see you wake up with that sleepy look on your face. I try to think of how it might feel to hear you say how you feel, just for once, because it would make me happier than you can imagine. But I keep quiet because I know that you aren't ready for that. You aren't ready for any declarations and I don't want to scare you off. I don't want you to do anything you aren't comfortable with, but I can't sit here and pretend, not when you're maybe leaving."

Cecilia felt a lump in her throat. Jimmy wondered if he had gone too far. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she was about to start crying. A few tears dropped down her cheek as she sniffed. Nodding to herself, she felt her own lips quirk too.

"I love you too," she whispered.

Now Jimmy was taken back. He let out a low sigh before standing up, hands on his hips.

"I don't want to go," Cecilia said, tears now rolling down her cheeks. "But I can't ask you to come with me, Jimmy. You have a life here…you have your brother…a job."

Jimmy scoffed. "I have a dead end career and a brother who despises me," Jimmy said. "And what about if I want to go with you? What about if I want to go and be with you? I can find a job in New York."

"Jimmy, that is selfish of me," she said with a shake of her head.

Taking hold of her hands, Jimmy hauled her to her feet. Moving to rest his hands on her shoulders, he bent down to her height, looking her in the eye. "Couples make sacrifices, right?" he checked with her. "Besides, it isn't a sacrifice because we could be together. I want to go with you. I want to make us work. I don't want to lose you."

"You mean it? You'd do that for me?"

"Hell, if I had to move to the back end of nowhere for you then I would," he promised her and she smiled as Jimmy ran his hands up to her cheeks. "I love you, Ce. I'm coming."

Cecilia moved quickly, her lips pressing against his. She threw her arms around his waist as Jimmy kept hold of her, moving to encircle her waist. He bent back and picked her up, longing for that feeling of contentment never to leave him.

….

A/N: Do let me know what you think!