After a week of night shifts at the diner, Nat was ready to sleep for a month. She hated working nights, but the extra pay was welcome and during the quiet hours it gave her time to work on her own drawings with less distractions.

It had been several days since the mysterious Dr James had introduced himself and she hadn’t given the man a second thought. The rest of the week passed and each night, without fail, Alex was at the Phoenix Club with his many men.

After a couple of days off to recover, Nat was back to working the lunch time rush. Unlike at night, customers were coming and going all the time, some would stay for an hour, savouring their meals, while others would just pop in for a quick bite to takeaway.

About 3 o’clock as most of the rush had died down, Alex walked in and headed to his usual booth. Without being asked Nat prepared his usual Cherry Hot Chocolate, unlike his men, his drink order was one thing about Alex that never changed.

“Hi Nat,” greeted Alex looking up from his latest artwork, as she bought over his drink. “Not seen you in here lately, everything ok?”
“Yeah, I’ve been working the night shift for the last week, pretty dull but I got some new drawings done,” she replied while glancing at the image in front of Alex.

She recognised one of the men in the drawing from a few nights ago, the tall man glad in leather, although this version of him also included a leather harness under his jacket.

The sight of the leather jacket reminded Nat of the other man she’d seen that night. It was the same night she’d met Dr James. She shook the thought out of her head and reached inside her apron for her notepad to take Alex’s order, but when she opened the pad, she found the business card sitting between the pages.