“There he is again” Nat thought to herself as she saw Alex going into the club with yet another man. Each night this week, while Nat had been working in the all-night diner, she’d seen Alex going into the Peacock club with a different guy and sometimes he’d come out with 2 or 3.

Nat wasn’t a prude, she didn’t care that Alex flitted from one guy to another, sometimes over the course of the night. But she wanted to know what he had, that she didn’t. She was fun, good looking and single, yet here she was volunteering for a night shift because yet again she didn’t have a date.

Nat and Alex met a few years ago in the diner, Alex often stopped by for lunch and one day when Nat was serving his coffee, she noticed he was drawing the most amazing cartoon she’d ever seen. Nat loved to draw and before she knew what she was doing she blurted out, “that’s incredible” startling Alex who was engrossed in his work. His hand slipped but he was lucky he missed the paper instead drawing over the table in front of him. Nat couldn’t believe she almost ruined such a beautiful drawing, she was mortified.

In front of him Alex was working on the latest artwork for his story, it depicted a strong, naked muscle man planting gentle kisses onto his smaller male lover. Another edition of his Mighty Max series about a bisexual superhero. Alex was usually a pretty quiet guy, but when Nat started asking him about his work, his eyes lit up and he came alive. He loved his characters and the adventures they went on, he loved to feel how they developed and grew on their own. They inspired the words; he was just the lucky one who got to write them down and tell their tales.

Nat and Alex had been friends since that day, often chatting about Alex’s work or Nat’s latest artistic creations. Nat once asked Alex about why he always had so many different men each night, but he just replied “Research” with a cheeky wink. Although she would ask how her normally shy friend managed to be so successful with so many men, Alex would always just chuckle and nothing more. Nat wished she knew his secret, maybe then she wouldn’t be alone working the graveyard shift while everyone else was out having a good time.

Nat had seen Alex come and go to the Peacock Club with a multitude of different men over the week that she was working the graveyard shift at the diner. Blonde, brunette, red heads, tall, short, muscled, toned, average, older, younger. It was like he was trying to ‘research’ every type of guy under the rainbow.

Tonight’s sacrifice in the name of his research included a tall, pale, skinny man, and a darker man with a beard as black as the night sky and an impressively broad chest highlighted by his smooth leather jacket. The two men were very different from each other and yet Alex looked equally happy to be with both of them as he entered the club.

Nat didn’t realise she’d been staring at the threesome when she was startled but a customer at the counter. She apologised for not noticing him come in and asked, “What can I get you?”. The man who entered wasn’t the normal sort who she’d see at night. He was tall, wearing a three-piece suit and had a handlebar moustache.

“I think a better question is what can I get you?” replied the mysterious stranger. Nat was confused and just stood unsure how to respond to the man. He continued, “I saw how you were staring at that man, is he the one that got away?”, Nat let out a startled laugh at that, “Oh no, we would never work like that, we’re friends but…” she trailed off unsure how to continue.

“You wish you were more like him, surrounding by desirable men”. Nat just nodded as the stranger read her mind. “I can make it happen for you, give you the men you desire”. Nat again just stood looking confused, was he trying to pick her up or pimp her out, she wasn’t sure, but she knew she didn’t feel comfortable.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but if you don’t order,” she paused as the man raised his hands to stop her. “Here, take my card” the man said as he made a business card appear in his hands like a magician would a playing card. Nat tentatively took the card and read the words;

Dr James
Scientist of Desires

She looked back up and the door was just closing behind the mysterious doctor. Her first thought was “who comes into a late-night diner and doesn’t order anything?”, but then her thoughts turned back to the card. ‘He was crazy wasn’t he’, ‘there’s no such thing as a scientist of desires’, ‘I can’t call him, can I?’.

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.

For the rest of her shift Nat couldn’t stop thinking about that card. She knew it was nonsense and she should just throw it away, but she couldn’t. Something at the back of her mind kept telling her she should contact the doctor, like a little devil sitting on her shoulder and getting louder and louder as she got closer to going home.

At the end of her shift, Nat tucked the card into her bag and headed home. She tried not to think of it as she travelled on the bus that night, but even the latest novel she’d been trying to read was failing to distract her.

When she walked through the door, Nat took the card out of her bag and flipped in over in her fingers a few times. She didn’t know what she was expecting but something inside her told her she didn’t need to know.

Nat picked up the phone and dialled the number from the back of Dr James’ card. The call was answered quickly, and the doctor greeted Nat with “I knew I’d hear from you,” before Nat had even said a word.

“You did? How do you even know who this is?” Nat replied confused but the doctors greeting.

“I’ve been waiting for you to call, to help you get your true desires,” before Nat could respond the doctor continued, “meet me at my lab tomorrow night at 7 and I’ll make all your dreams come true.”

The doctor hung up before Nat could say anything else. He didn’t even say where his lab was. Nat looked down at the card and there in front of her was an address. She was sure it wasn’t there before, but there was no denying the words were right there in front of her.

69 Laburnum Avenue, London

Nat’s rational side knew she couldn’t go, she shouldn’t go, but Nat knew she had to go and see the scientist of desires.

61…63…65…67…..69

Nat stood outside the address on Dr James’ business card. The building was tall, maybe 4 floors, and formed part of an old block of smart terraces. A set of steps led her up to the imposing and unnecessarily large black door.

Before she had a chance to knock, the door opened and doctor was standing in front her, dressed just as he was in diner when she had first met him. Three-piece suit, with a white shirt and a pink tie. She could still turn around, run away, and forget all about this bewitching scientist. But she didn’t, Dr James without a word gestured for Nat to enter and she did.

The town house had high ceilings and a long entrance hall with doors along one side. Large gold frames hung on the other wall holding images of men that Nat desired. Had the scientist picked images just for her? ‘Surely not,’ Nat thought to herself.

When they reached the end of the hall the doctor opened the very last door to a large room at the back of the house. It was furnished with 2 large, deep red sofas, more pictures, and paintings of sexy men, some alone, others embracing in passionate but tasteful poses. The rest of the room was decorated just as opulently with gold accents throughout but in a tasteful and elegant style. Nat took a seat on one of the large sofas and the doctor sat opposite her.

“I can make your deepest desires come true, desires you never believed could come true,” Dr James began.
“How do you…” Nat started to say before she was interrupted, “I saw how you were looking at that man at the club. How you wanted what he had. Isn’t that what you want?” Nat silently nodded, her movements out of her own conscious control.

The doctor stood up and asked, “Would you like some tea?”, grateful for the respite Nat gladly accepted. Dr James left the room and Nat was able to look around for a few minutes and collect her thoughts. She still wasn’t sure why she had come, the more she waited, the more she thought this doctor was crazy. She got up to leave, but then the door opened, and Dr James walked in with a silver tray and a pot of tea.

“Don’t get up, your tea is ready” the doctor said in a voice that washed over Nat in a comforting way making her return to the sofa. The doctor placed the tray down on the table in front of her and began to pour the tea into two china cups. Despite her doubts before, she drank the tea and didn’t notice that the doctor hadn’t touched his cup.

Nat woke up feeling very groggy, the last thing she remembered was drinking Tea at the doctor’s house. She sat up startled, had he drugged her? She looked around the room, the walls were dark, and the sheets were a black silk. It wasn’t a room she’d seen before; she didn’t know what had happened, but she knew she needed to get out of there, get to safety.

She turned and swung her legs out of the bed, she looked down to see where her clothes were and that’s when she saw it. She wasn’t looking down at her own body, it was a man’s. The room was dark but there was no disputing that she was looking at a man’s body rather than her own.

A pair of arms reached around her and starting to toy with the nipples on her new body, she wasn’t alone in the bed. Startled by the sudden contact Nat jumped out of the bed and ran to the nearest door, she opened it a found an en-suite for her to retreat into.

After locking the door, Nat turned on the light and for the first time was able to see her reflection in the mirror. It wasn’t her face looking back at her, but Alex’s. She reached up to touch her face in disbelief, but the mirror only confirmed the unbelievable sight.

There was a knock on the bathroom door, “Hey sexy, why don’t you come back to bed,” called the mystery man’s voice. Nat didn’t know what to do, or what was going on, she cleared her throat and called back, “give me a minute,” but to her surprise it was Alex’s voice she heard saying the words rather than her own.

Nat reached for the cold tap and splashed water on her face. She must be hallucinating or in some vivid dream. ‘This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real,’ she repeated to herself over and over. She looked back up to the mirror, but it was still Alex’s body that was staring back at her.

She thought this must be a dream, a very vivid dream. There must have been something in that tea. ‘If it’s a dream, I might as well enjoy it,’ she thought to herself. After taking a deep breathe to calm herself, Nat opened the door and returned to the bedroom.

Laying on top of the silk sheets on the bed was an Adonis of a man. 6 ft 7 with solid muscles, the fluffiest hair and not a single piece of clothing on. The man tapped the bed next to him and in a heavenly voice beckoned to her, “Ready for round 3.”

Nat gasped, ‘Round 3, this man was insatiable,’ not that Alex’s body seemed to mind, reacting to the naked man on the bed. Nat didn’t know whether to run back inside the bathroom or approach the desirable man on the bed. That’s when the doorbell started ringing, Nat wasn’t sure if this was Alex’s place or if it belonged to the muscle man. When she hesitated, the question was answered by the other man asking, “Are you going to get that?”

Still stunned by everything that was going on, Nat headed to where she thought the front door would be. After making a couple of wrong turns, she found it and opened the door to see who was calling so early in the morning.

Waiting on the step was Nat herself who calmly said, “I know I have a great body, but there’s no need to give the whole street a glimpse,” prompting Nat to look down and realise she was still naked, and Alex’s body was still excited from the man who was waiting in the bedroom.

It dawned on Nat that not only was she in Alex’s body, but Alex was in hers. She stepped aside to let him in, after all it was his place. Closing the door behind him, she turned and started to apologise to Alex, “I’m so sorry, I had no idea this is what he was going to do, I thought he was just going to help me be more confident like you or change my style. I never imagined he could do something like this.”

“Who? What?” Alex asked quizzically, confused by Nat’s babbling, “Slow down, let’s take a seat and you can explain what you mean.” Alex led Nat into the lounge, she was still naked but as was his body, he was clearly used to seeing it. They took a seat and Nat explained about the Scientist of Desires and the tea which she was now sure was drugged with something.

As she was finishing her explanation, the door to the lounge swung open and the naked man from upstairs entered calling out “Baby are you coming back to bed?” Alex and Nat turned to see the man and Alex, in Nat’s body, exclaimed “Max, I’ve missed you!” Alex got up and to move towards the naked muscle man from upstairs and started kissing him. The pair embraced for a few minutes and when they broke apart, Max said “Hello, sorry I’m not sure we’ve met.”

Alex remembered he wasn’t himself right now, so of course Max wouldn’t recognise him. Neither he nor Nat knew how to explain their situation to Max, they barely understood it themselves.

Nat suddenly recognised the man stood in front of them, he was Mighty Max from Alex’s comics. Alex had got every detail of his body perfect in his drawings, he really was a talented artist. Nat knew she had to step in, she didn’t want to scare Max off as Alex obviously had feelings for him. She stood from the sofa, walked towards Max, and placed her hands gently on his hips and said, “Max, my friend Nat is having a few problems and she needs my help, do you think we could take a rain check,” hoping she’d got away with sounding like Alex.

“Sure baby, I understand,” Max replied with a beaming smile. Before she knew what was happening, Max was pulling her in for a passionate kiss. Nat responded to it with ease and kissed him back, it certainly wasn’t an unpleasant experience. When they broke apart, Max turned around to walk away and Alex whispered in Nat’s ear, “Spank his arse,” Nat was wary of this but did it anyway and Max let out a small but pleased yelp as he went to get dressed.

After Max left, Nat got dressed too and Alex tentatively asked, “Did you and he…you know?”

This wasn’t the confident Alex that Nat was used to, he sounded vulnerable and unsure of himself. He couldn’t look her in the eye while he waited for the answer, looking down towards the ground. Nat reached out and touched his chin, which was technically her own chin, and raised it up so they were looking at each other. Now they were eye to eye, she softly replied, “No, nothing happened,” allowing Alex to let out a visible sigh of relief.

She moved her hand to his arm and teased, “you like him,” exaggerating the like as if she was a schoolgirl again. Alex blushed and simply nodded his head. When he could see Nat wouldn’t settle for just that, he sat down on the sofa and started to tell Nat how he and Max met.

“I was in the Phoenix Club as always, and there he was across the dancefloor. He was shirtless and dancing without a care in the world. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, he was stunning. It took me all night to pluck up the courage to speak to him, which isn’t normally like me at all. I walked over to him and the first thing that came out of my mouth was the least smooth thing I’ve ever said to a guy.”

Alex paused and it lasted so long that Nat had to ask, “What did you say?”. After taking another breath Alex revealed, “while I could have said hi, or how are you, I said, I want to lick you.” Hearing this caused Nat to burst out laughing. “I know, I know, I just wanted to run out of there as fast as I could, I turned to leave but he grabbed my arm, turned me back to him and said to me, ‘I want to lick you too’, and then he licked my face,” this caused another burst of laughter from Nat. Once she’d managed to stop laughing, Nat was able to ask, “And what happened after that?”

“Well, the licking turned into kissing and then,”. “Woah, woah, woah,” Nat interrupted, “I may be in your body, but I don’t need to know what you’ve done with it.” This made Alex laugh for the first time since he arrived. “When did this all happen?” “We met about two months ago, and last night he asked me to be his boyfriend. We fell asleep in each other’s arms and then I woke up like this,” Alex said gesturing to Nat’s body that he now occupied.

This made Nat feel really bad, she was the one that saw the Scientist of Desires, and if it wasn’t for her, Alex would have woken up in bed with his new boyfriend for the first time. “I’m so sorry Alex,” Nat apologised again. Alex reached across and put his hand on Nat’s knee, which was of course his own, and reassured Nat “this wasn’t your fault, but I think we have a few words to say to that doctor of yours.”

Alex and Nat both headed to the home of Dr James. They didn’t ring first, they were just going to hope he was home and demand that he change them back to their own bodies. As they travelled across London by bus, Nat noticed how many looks Alex was getting in her body. She didn’t understand as normally no one paid her any attention. Nat leaned into Alex and asked, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Get everyone to look at you”

Alex looked around, ‘was he really unaware of the attention that was on him,’ thought Nat. Alex shrugged and replied, “I don’t know, I didn’t know anyone was looking at me.” Nat couldn’t believe he was oblivious to the attention he drew, she looked at him and saw an air of confidence in her body that she hadn’t seen on herself before. Was that really all it took? To just look confident, surely it couldn’t be that simple.

Before she could ask more questions to try and understand, they reached their stop. They got off the bus and walked down the road towards the large town house where Nat had been only the day before. They climbed up the steps to the front door and Alex banged on it loudly, showing his frustration at the situation for the first time. The door opened and Dr James was again in a three-piece suit, this time paired with a light blue shirt and a midnight blue bowtie.

Alex didn’t let the doctor say anything, grabbing the lapels of the doctor’s jacket and trying to push him backwards into the house. However, it didn’t have the impact he was hoping for not having the strength he normally had from his own body. Still clinging to the jacket, he resorted to shouting into the doctor’s face, “Change us back!”

Nat put her hand on Alex’s shoulder and calmly said to him, “he can’t do anything if you don’t let go of his jacket Alex.” Alex reluctantly let go and Nat turned to doctor and firmly repeated Alex’s words, “Change us back.” The doctor simply waved his arm to guide the pair inside the house and back to the sitting room where Nat had previously drunk the Tea that had got them into this mess. Alex and Nat sat side-by-side on the sofa with Dr James opposite them.

“I made your desires come true,” Dr James said simply facing Nat in Alex’s body, “isn’t that what I promised to do.”

“I didn’t want to be Alex!” Nat exclaimed, “I wanted to be more like him, the confidence, the success with men, but not to become him!” Alex looked at Nat, how had he not known this about his friend before today. He wanted to say something to her, but it would wait until they had their own bodies back. He turned back to the doctor and said to him simply and plainly, “Change us back now, Nat didn’t need your help, she’s my friend, if anyone is going to help her, it’ll be me.”

The doctor got up and left the room in silence, after a short while he returned with another tray of tea. He poured the cups and once they were both ready told them, “Drink these and you’ll both be restored.” Without hesitation, both Alex and Nat drank their cups of tea. They didn’t ask what was in it, they just believed it had to return them to their own bodies. Once they had finished every drop, they were asleep within a matter of minutes.

Nat was the first to wake up, she again felt the silk sheets from Alex’s bed beneath her. ‘Not again,’ she thought to herself. She then felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see Alex looking back at her, “Did it work?” he asked. She looked down and was delighted to see her own body once more, “It did!” she exclaimed. The two hugged, both relieved that they were no longer in each other’s bodies.

“Are you nearly ready?” Nat called out from the lounge of Alex’s flat. “Almost,” shouted Alex from his bedroom. “Stop groping your boyfriend so we can get to the club some time tonight!” Nat was only half joking. Alex and Max had moved in together a week ago and couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Nat didn’t begrudge Alex for that; she was really pleased to see her friend so happy. It’s what she wanted for herself too and tonight, Alex had promised to be her wingman at the Phoenix Club, now that he was off the market.

Alex and Max walked into lounge hand in hand, “We’re ready” smiled Alex as they entered. “About time too,” mocked Nat. She stood and hugged her friend and they headed out to the club. The Phoenix Club was a dance club with a stage and the most amazing dancers performing each night. Although it was mainly gay men that went there, Alex had promised Nat he knew of a few guys that would be perfect for her.

Once they were inside the club and all got drinks at the bar, they found a booth to the side to settle into before the first show was due to the start. As soon as they were tucked into the booth Alex and Max started kissing passionately again, while Nat was watching all the men enjoying themselves on the dance floor. She knew most of them were gay but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy the view, especially as many of them were only wearing obscenely short shorts.

The lights on the dance floor went down, the music stopped, and a spotlight came up on the stage. Alex and Max both came up for air and turned to face the stage, Alex wrapped up by Max’s huge biceps. Onto the stage glided a beautiful man, not skinny but he also didn’t look like he was in love with going to gym 24 hours a day. The music started and the man began to move elegantly across the stage. Nat was captivated by his every move; he was graceful but still masculine.

As the show came to an end, the lights went down and everyone in the club applauded and cheered. The dance floor was once again lit, and bodies started moving around the club again. “What did you think of that Nat?” asked Alex from behind her, “he was amazing,” Nat said turning to face her friend. “I’m glad you thought so, his name is Matt,” Alex said nodding to behind Nat. Nat turned and found that standing in front of her was the beautiful man from the stage. “Matt this is Nat,” Alex said introducing the two.

“Hi Nat, can I buy you a drink?” asked Matt, Nat was stunned but managed to reply, “I’d like that.” Matt held out his hand and led her to the bar. The pair chatted together for the rest of the night, only separating when Matt had to go perform again. Alex had really come through for her, Matt was straight, sexy, graceful, and funny. Despite everything that happened, Alex truly was a great friend to her, and she was glad they had walked in each other’s shoes, literally.

THE END