[Three weeks and six days and he's out, and Kazza's come to drive him to his new sheltered housing and his heart is heavy-light-heavy as the roads pass them by.]

New start, new do.

[Text to Julia Bloom:] Come for a cuppa at the new digs? I'll make cupcakes.

I'm done being trapped by circumstance or by people. I'm done with it.

Don't kiss the girl.

Feels like she's about to set me up with someone.

[Gets a cab and stands outside Serpent's End for a long long while, watching the lights glitter.]

[Texts Julia Bloom:] Any luck with Bridget?

[Apron on, hands washed, picking up the order for table 5...] Oat milk latte with a shot of caramel, soya flat white, croissant with butter and jam and the cheese and ham toastie with wholemeal bread. Any sugar or sauces?

[Cigarette outside the cafe once he's closed up.]

Love a cat.

[Diwali celebration with his cousin tonight. Fireworks, and dinner at some gorgeous restaurant in Mayfair. A year ago seems a long time away.]

I am a delicious delicious creature of the night.

[His work apron is slung over his shoulder, curls dandling at the peripheries of his vision as he bends over a notebook. The cheese toastie and cup of steaming chai wait on the table untouched as his pen scrawls figures and diagrams in glossy India ink.]