For the past four months or so he always came in on a Monday or Thursday lunch hour and order a doughnut and coffee as regular as clockwork. Sometimes he would have a few companions with him, but mostly he would come alone and he would always sit at a table by the window if one was available.

He was quite good looking, with a certain boyish charm even though he had to be in his early to mid thirties. And Carla Murray, along with her other two waitress colleagues, Jen and Lucy found themselves vying with each other over who got the chance to serve him.

By now he was on a first name basis with all of them, and they knew him just as Mark, who worked in the offices of some government law enforcement building a few blocks away. Apart from that they knew very little else about him, but that didn’t stop them surmising things about his personal life, as Jen was the first to notice he was not wearing a wedding band on his finger they suppose he was still single.. Maybe even divorced.

If there was a girlfriend none of them had the nerve to enquire, but they couldn’t imagine him not having a swarm of girlfriends if he chose. Just looking into his grey blue eyes, and to see his cheeky charming grin he managed to make them all feel like they were special without trying to hard.

Yet it was only Carla who found herself starting to realise there was a lot more to their good looking customer who would light heartedly flirt with them all occasionally

Training for the past few years as a budding actress, she had made a habit of studying people, there were times she didn’t even realise she was doing it.

Working in Dino’s Doughnut shop was not exactly her chosen career path, but at least it paid the bills for now. When it wasn’t too busy, it give her time to observe various customers who came and went, Because she was as intrigued as her co workers by Mark she had found herself paying him special attention especially when she thought he wasn’t aware of it.

It was on a few of these occasions when she watched him she became aware, when he sat alone, sometimes a bleakness came into those grey blue eyes as his mind wandered of in his own private thoughts. She would catch him run a hand through his short cropped fair hair as if some of his thoughts disturbed him and he was trying to shake it of.

Sometimes stare out the window onto the busy crowded street, and it seemed he was miles away in his own little world, and she had this uncomfortable feeling whatever he was thinking about wasn’t too happy because it brought a sad expression to his face

Carla never discussed these observations with Jen and Lucy, she was sensitive enough to realise that if he was going through some sort of private pain, it was not her business to discuss.

It did not mean that on those occasions she found herself pondering what could have happened to him to make him look so sad. Yet she felt she almost imagined it, whenever she or her companions approached to serve him or clear the table, the smile would be on his lips, along with a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes and he would act like he didn’t have a care in the world, and he would always leave a generous tip, another reason why they liked him a lot.

But Mark being a customer and she the waitress, Carla never had any thoughts of having a chance of a deep meaningful conversation with him.

It was practically impossible, with her being busy serving others that came in and the fact his visit to the doughnut shop never lasted longer than twenty minutes, so mostly there was always only time for quick ‘Hello, and how are you doing today?’ kind of conversation

And it might have remained that way if it hadn’t been for one angry young man called Robbie Hannigan who came into the doughnut shop one day seeking Mark, hell bent on revenge ……