MATURE. Adults only. Every named character is an adult with an age on the page: Ines Cavalcante 43, Tam Arnott 40, Keziah Nkemdi 36, Ruaridh Grieve 58, Dov Bar-Lev 47, Bela Ferreira 29, Odean Whitlock 61, Marguerite Pilley 66. The youngest is 29. No minor appears in any role, memory, photograph, joke, announcement, plan, or future reference. Themes: a standing order for one third of a woman's rent, set up in secret six years ago by the sous chef who works beside her at the pass. Seventy-two monthly entries in her own handwriting certifying a payment she did not make and never read. A man who made leaving impossible and then wanted to be loved for staying. A four-hundred-and-sixteen-seat restaurant in a converted cold store on Finkle Street, and a kitchen that never once lets two people be finished with each other. A ten per cent partnership offered on the first page and withdrawn on the twenty-first because of something the protagonist said in a room full of people. An adult relationship negotiated out loud, in a walk-in, in a staff room, and at a pass at one in the morning. And a closing night on which four hundred and ninety-one covers are costed to the gram so the reader can do the sum. Sexual content: both partners are adults, each says what he or she wants and what stops it before anything begins, either can stop it with one word, and one of them does use the word before they start again. The scene is written in full and is specific to these two people. It is not a reward and it is not a cure, and the person it happens with is the person who did the harm. No civic choice is gated on it and no ending is unlocked by it. There is no death, no injury, and no violence that lands. No weapon, drug, or method of entering a building is described. No slur is written; prejudice appears as what an employer does with a name and a postcode, shown only through consequence. All music is instrumental, lyrics are empty, and vocal playback is disabled. No image, audio, or video file is generated, fetched, or bundled with this project.