DAY 1

It was past nine. Tired but fully satisfied, Alicia closed her laptop with a delighted smile. Everything was ready for the hearing. Standing up to leave, she stopped, peeved upon hearing her cell phone ringing.

"Hey Peter," she said, her tone rapidly switching from annoyed to apologetic when she realized they were expecting a check-in earlier. "I'm sorry, I was working on tomorrow's hearing and didn't realize it was so late. I'll be home in half an hour," she reassured him.

"It's ok, Alicia, I was just making sure you were fine," he said, followed by his casual warm chuckle. "We'll be waiting for you, then. See you later."

"We'll be waiting for you."

They had moved back to their old house two months before. Although content with her choice, it took her a long while to get acquainted to her new life. Well, technically it was still her old life.

In the beginning, she would wake with the unpleasant feeling that something bad was about to happen. Nothing terrified her more than the thought of her family being thrust into the media spotlight once again. More scandals, more derogatory attacks, more ambush interviews. The prospect of all that kept her on edge. Eventually, she slowly got used to it, till all her fears were gone for good or at least confined in the back of her mind, where ignoring them was easier. Her thoughts were interrupted by quick approaching steps. She turned around to see Will pausing at her door, a folder in his hands.

"I'm sorry, I thought you left." His voice was cold and distant, like it had been for the last two months. Since the day he found out she was openly supporting Peter's campaign, appearing all smiling at his conferences. Since the day her political support turned into giving their marriage another try. As if things weren't weird and complicated enough before, that had been the last straw.

"I was about to leave. I have just finished preparing for the Brennant hearing," she explained.

"This is the file you asked me to review, you can find all my notes inside." It was all he said. He quickly laid the papers on her desk, then turned to leave.

She couldn't help but notice that he wouldn't even look at her. It was painful. After all that happened, she somehow expected him to be happy for her. Yet, he wasn't and he made it very clear.

It started with little things, he was back to avoiding her, choosing to work with every associate but her. Till few weeks before, when something happened.

Walking down the corridor to Diane's office, she heard laughter. She peeked inside Will's office and she was there. Comfortably sitting in his leather chair, that blond lawyer was laughing her head off. What was her name? She couldn't remember. Right in front of her, Will was standing, his face enlightened by a wide smile. They seemed close. Way too close, judging from their flirting and proximity. As if on cue, he looked up to meet Alicia's gaze. She instantly looked away, reaching Diane's office as fast as possible, trying to shake away the unwanted picture.

Later on during the day, Alicia found herself unable to concentrate on anything. That laughter kept echoing in her mind. Will's gestures stayed in her head like a bad picture she wished she didn't take. What the hell was that? What was that supposed to mean? Did she even have any right to feel that painful stab in her stomach? Of course not, that was something she already knew. Nevertheless she couldn't avoid it.

As days went by, Alicia became more attentive of every small gesture, smile, and reaction from Will's side at that woman's presence. It didn't take special intuition to see what was happening right in front of her: light-hearted smiley conversations in the middle of meetings, mysterious appointments and lunches at the most improbable hours of the day, things between those two were getting serious.

Lunch.

She smiled remembering what that meant for them, the excitement and the sudden throbbing of her heart when he texted her that simple word. Lunch. A simple word that didn't imply eating at all, meant to satisfy everything but the palate. The smile turned into a grimace at the realization that it more than obviously meant the same for them. Their secret code wasn't theirs anymore. The word that once made her melt into a turmoil of senses and feelings, suddenly turned into an unpleasant, sour and jarring sound. And what was even worse, she had no right to feel betrayed or cheated. She was the cause of their end and the source of her own pain.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice that Will was long gone. Is he going to her? She shook her head. It was none of her business. Still, the thought was constantly on her mind, resounding like a bad song stuck in her head. It was time to leave, to go back home and get rid of that unpleasant sensation.