Stone and Losctum Law Offices

At a very large law firm in downtown London, Serenity was hard, hard at work, very much hung over. She was drinking two coffees, with papers scattered all over her desk, rubbing her temples.

"Ms... err, Rosensteel? Would you like more coffee?" came the sound of a worried voice, outside of Serenity's office.

The voice belonged to Ryan Summers, a secretary and multi-purpose errand boy in his early to mid thirties for the uppers in the law firm. He brushed his dark brown hair out of his face, and his plain muddy eyes were full of concern, as he stared at his tired and weak looking boss. He knew that ever since her divorce, she had never been quite up to her usual peppy self, but today was just ridiculous.

"I have eight depositions tomorrow. Three are scheduled at the same time." Serenity said weakly, looking up at Ryan. "Mr. Stone is on holiday in-- in Austria or something-- and if I don't make enough settlements to cover his vacation costs he personally told me I'd be let go. I have two kids, Ryan. I can't do all these depositions, and the Mouran case isn't going to settle, especially since the attorney taking the plaintiff's side is such a sexist. I need another coffee, by the way, thanks." Serenity groaned. The phone started ringing, but she didn't answer it.

"Maybe I could help." Ryan suggested hopefully, as he set the cup of coffee on Serenity's desk. Black, with no cream and very little sugar.
He had been wanting to get some actual experience in the law field, because he had no intention staying the Multi-Purpose Boy (MPB) forever, and this could be his one big chance at last.

"Oh, you would do that? You rock. Could you take the whole Mouran case then, Ryan? I'll spend some time to familiarize you with it, it won't be that difficult.." Serenity said, and she started to gather up all the papers related to that case-- but spilled the coffee.
She swore loudly. The coffee went all over her skirt, as well as some of the papers. Immediately, she jumped up- it was hot, and the whole front of her white skirt and part of the suit jacket was soaked, stained brown.

Ryan jumped a little little, from the shock of the coffee and papers spilling. He reached over, and began to pull out half of the tissue box as quick as he could, and handed half of those to Serenity, and the over half he used to begin to plot out the important documents.

"I-I'm sorry Serenity!" he apologized. "Do you need any help?"

"My clothes will dry, just try to save the papers, please." Serenity mumbled, pressing the tissues on her skirt. "What do you think I should do? About everything. Two of my credit cards went overbalance yesterday.."

"Um... I'm not sure." he admitted sheepishly, as he quickly cleaned up the spilled cup of coffee as fast as he could. "But, I think if you keep moping about, uh, him, it's not going to do you any good. You won't be very productive, anyway."

"But what if he comes back?!" Serenity asked. "I mean, I can't just totally forget about him. And what does it have to do with my productivity?"

"I thought you had already filed the divorce, or that's what the rumors that have been circulating said." he replied with a shrug. "But, maybe if you weren't so focused on that guy, you wouldn't have spilled your coffee, and we wouldn't have been in this mess."

"It's just coffee. It has nothing to do with Elroy. So about these cases.. I have copies of all these papers at home, why don't you just run by after work? Hold on." Serenity picked up the phone, which was ringing. "Hello? No, you have the wrong number. Bye. Okay, so what?"

"Well I guess..." However, when she mentioned coming over to get the papers, he perked up. "But, great! Let me write down your address, and I'll come over later."

"Uh-huh!" So she wrote down her address on a piece of paper. "There's a doorbell, just ring it, I'm not going anywhere tonight."

Serenity, a few days after the dinner date thing, was sitting in her office nervously, holding two coffees. She hadn't drank either of them, and was taking deep, calm breaths, trying to settle the butterflies in her stomach.

"Um uh..."

It was Ryan again, holding yet another cup of coffee. Serenity had been on quite the caffeine craze lately, and he had expected that she would have wanted a third one. But here she was, simply sitting around staring off in space, with two cups of full coffee.

"Miss Rosensteel... is there something the matter?"

"I got you a coffee!" Serenity blurted out, holding one of the coffees out towards him. "You always get me coffee, and last night I was thinking about how you always get me coffee.." What was she saying? She sounded like an eight year old! "And so I finally decided to get you coffee."

"Um, Miss Rosensteel, I don't mean to sound rude, but... are you drunk?" Ryan asked timidly.

"No!" Serenity shouted loudly. After a short pause, she groaned and rubbed her forehead. "Do I seem like it? I mean, I shouldn't be! I only had one beer. But I didn't have any breakfast.." She mumbled, trailing off. Serenity slammed down the coffee and put her head down on the desk. "I'm so going to get fired.."

Ryan walked over, and patted her on the shoulder to comfort her. "It's okay, Miss Rosensteel... you can always take a sick day, and I'll help you out with your work!" he suggested cheerfully.

Serenity hugged Ryan around the waist, starting to cry. Her life really, really was going down the drain. What kind of respectable woman drank three times a week? None of the respectable women she knew.

"It's going to be okay..." he murmured gently in her ear, before giving her a pat on the shoulder as a send off.

"Thank you, Ryan. You're wonderful." Serenity mumbled, sitting up and drying her eyes. "I'm sorry.. sorry about the coffee."

One fine day, what seemed like ages from all the fiascos from before, Serenity was working hard at her desk, sipping a coffee. She was not drunk, nor hung over. She had had a perfectly normal night the night before, in fact. She pressed a button on her phone. "Ryan, I need your help with filing again." She said, before pressing the button yet again to turn it off. That button was a speaker right into his office phone. She started playing some of her favorite music in the background- that helped her think during the long work hours.

"Alright I'm coming...-by the way, you sound a lot better. Did you manage to sleep well last night, and not drink?-Err, forget that part about drinking." Ryan asked. A few minutes later, he came inside Serenity's office with a portfolio in his hand.

"Hey, Ryan. Have a seat, we've got a lot to go over. I'm still behind. So.." She put the folders down, spinning her chair around to look right at him. "I think we should start dating."