#putting tara and kim wexler in an enclosed chamber in my mind and watching them fight

[craftbreaks]

( nightmare telegraph received: @tocook. ) it’s 9 a.m. and you’re interrogating me?

sure, she looks out of place in denny's, dressed up in the charcoal suit and the dress shoes. tara prefers the coffee she makes in her own home, in the way that she prefers everything she makes with her own two hands, but she'll drink whatever. that's what law school teaches you—drinking the dregs from the coffee pot, awake for the forty-eighth hour, staring down the barrel of an endless march of assignments. sitting in a shitty albuquerque diner a little past nine in the morning isn't nearly as bad as any of that, but it does feel almost as debasing.

she jabs her fork down at the hash browns, watching as they're slowly subsumed by the cloyingly bright yellow of the egg yolk. all things meld together eventually, given time.

being involved with all of these people out here in new mexico is bad news. tara knows better. it's a mess in the making. jesse pinkman has bright blue eyes, a too big smile, and a whole roster of bad jokes. she already checked over his very public myshout page to get a feel for who he was. all it told her was that he's not having nearly as much sex as he advertises, definitely. but in person, there's something else in his eyes, a brittleness, a feeling like collapse might be around the corner if someone pushes him just right.

dangerous quality to have, but she's not his keeper. she's just a lawyer.

"this isn't an interrogation," says tara mildly. the tines of her fork scrape against the plate, an aural assault just to make it feel more like an interrogation. "i'm just detail-oriented, pinkman. that's all."

she picks up the piece of sourdough bread, barely toasted, limp and soft to the touch. "besides," she adds, "i'm buying, so if anything, you're getting a free breakfast, and i get to listen to your whole sordid story. and because this is a favor, you're getting advice from a lawyer pro bono and skipping the initial consultation, the need-based applications, the fucking hassle. most people would call that a privilege."

the piece of bread gives between her teeth, too soft. no resistance. tara chews. swallows. the butter is tasteless. still, she chews, swallows, smiles. it's always good to bite down on something and feel it give.