‘I just wanted to say …’ Jacqueline tried to look magisterial, but failed. ‘How proud of you I was, on a personal level, when you asked if you could re-interview.’

‘I’m grateful for the second chance.’ Tara glanced down at her nails. ‘I knew I hadn’t given it my best shot. I should have explained what was going on, instead of trying to muddle through.’

‘It was brave. And honest. And more than that,’ she warmed to her theme, ‘it showed us that here was someone who understands emotional pressure, someone who can empathize with those struggling in their care.’

‘Thank you,’ said Tara. It hadn’t been an easy call, but Toby had coached her through it, right down to the ‘power pauses’.

He’d appeared in her room the morning after the flood, and plonked himself down on her bed the way he always used to, displacing a disgruntled Sybil.

‘Phone your boss,’ he’d said, shoving Tara’s phone in her bleary face. ‘David told me how you ballsed up your interview – you need to explain what’s been going on here, and ask if they’ll see you again.’

Tara pulled the duvet over her head. ‘I’d rather eat my own hair, thanks.’ And you don’t want the stupid job anyway, remember, she added to herself.

‘You messed up because you were trying to sort everyone else out,’ he persisted. ‘As usual. But you’d be great at running that place. You know it, they know it. At least give them a chance to consider you properly, and then decide if you don’t want the stupid job.’

She regarded him through a screwed-up eye. Stupid job?

‘Are you reading my mind?’

‘God, no. I bet it’s like a jumble sale in there. Right, now I’ve done your careers consult, you need to get up and help me feed everyone. Molly wants boiled eggs and I’m like …’ Toby mimed extreme confusion, and Tara threw back the covers.

The second interview had gone a lot better. At the end of the following week, Tara was officially offered the role of Wellness Centre Director, which was why she’d been ‘tasked’ with ‘sitting in’ on David Dalloway’s reconvened disciplinary solution session: David had come up with his own commitment to consult with animals only on Friday afternoons, outside the Centre. Jacqueline had accepted it immediately.

Tara suspected Jacqueline’s moon of agreement was ascendant because she’d also accepted Tara’s request for a six-month delay to the starting date, in order for her to have a sabbatical.

‘What better example for the Centre as a whole than to recognize the importance of recalibrating your life’s path, after significant personal upheaval?’ she’d said, nodding so hard her moonstone earrings swung.

Tara couldn’t argue with that.