The sound of the buttons as she entered her pin number focused her attention on the screen in front of her. Her fingers, she saw now, were shaking; the skin in the grooves of flesh between her forefinger and thumb was pink and chapped. Her bank balance emerged, and she paused to think about the implications of the numbers in front of her, the minus symbol confirming what she had just been told. And then she remembered: the new boiler at her mum’s house, which would have eaten up the money that came in from that month’s rent. How could she not have foreseen this? Yet with all that was going on, was it any surprise that she couldn’t hold together situations that she would never previously have let go unchecked?

The overarching implication was less straightforward to dismiss. The fact was that while until now she had just about made ends meet, suddenly things didn’t seem quite so certain. She needed money.

In another moment, she might have rung Tom. She might have asked him if he could access any of the cash due from the job he had been working on; but right now, riddled with uncertainty as she was, could she really risk rocking the boat? Could she trust that she was robust enough to withstand the questioning that might have followed?

She couldn’t be sure, afterwards, that she even made the decision consciously. Pulling out her other phone, she dialled his number, her fingers moving as if of their own accord.

Her face moved into a smile at the sound of his voice.

‘Gabriela!’ Despite his huffiness the day before, he sounded pleased to hear from her.

‘Ivan,’ she said, hesitating only for a second. ‘Listen. I need to ask a favour. I’m so sorry and I wouldn’t usually ask – I really wouldn’t – but …’

‘Gabriela,’ he stopped her. ‘You know you don’t have to do that, just tell me what you need.’

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘I need to borrow some money.’

By the time Gabriela reached the Freemasons Arms, she was feeling calmer, Ivan having promised to transfer the cash to her so that it would arrive by the end of the day. Despite the weather, Madeleine was seated outside, under a heater, a pashmina wrapped around her.

‘Jesus, it’s been so long,’ Madeleine said, hugging her tightly.

‘Well, in my defence, you do now spend half your life flying around, saving the world … But we can talk about that later.’ Gabriela paused a moment before carrying on, ‘What the actual fuck?’

Madeleine nodded. ‘Assume you’re talking about our old friend Emsworth. Yeah, well, it looks like the discrimination case was an easy way out for him.’

‘What do you mean?’ Gabriela said, inching forward in her seat.

‘I mean, perhaps it was a convenient distraction.’

‘A distraction from what?’