‘Oh.’

‘Don’t tell me – you ordered some fucking red trousers from them and they sent you pink.’

‘No. It’s just that I know someone who works there. My friend Sasha.’

Not just that, but Wowcom was the company owned by Lance. It would be strange to work for Wowcom, given what I knew about the owner and Sasha.

‘That’s great. You’ve got an in.’

We spent the next hour going over the details of the brief and Victor made a call to Wowcom to arrange a meeting later in the week.

‘Sweet,’ he groaned, at the end of the call. I wondered if, beneath the moaning, Victor was actually happy. He clearly adored his wife and children and was running a successful business. He was a self-made man. Rumour had it that he had grown up on one of the roughest estates in North London and that many of his friends were career criminals, drug dealers and gangsters with minders, huge houses and trophy wives.

All through the meeting, the floater in my eye danced and bothered me. But it was a relief to have some work, especially as Victor thought the project would take at least a couple of months.

I got up to leave.

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I forgot to mention. I saw Karen last week. She came to a dinner party round mine. She asked after you.’

‘Really?’

‘She’s still single. Maybe she’s getting the taste for young meat again. I reckon she’d be up for it if you gave her a call. Hey, what are you grinning at?’

‘I’ve got a girlfriend now.’

‘Oh really? What’s she like? Obviously she’s not going to be as hot as my missus – but hotter than Karen?’

I beamed. ‘Much.’

‘You’re kidding me. Got a photo?’

I realised the only photo I had of Charlie on my phone was the topless selfie she’d sent me when I was out with Sasha, and I wasn’t going to show him that.

‘So I’ll tell Karen you lied about having a girlfriend because you don’t want to see her again?’

‘Very funny.’

He saw me out. ‘Actually, Karen was saying she needs someone to design a website for her. Just a personal site, a blog or something. Not a big enough job for me but maybe you should get in touch, earn yourself an extra couple of quid. Or who knows, she might offer payment in kind.’

‘The only time you don’t sound miserable is when you’re teasing me,’ I said.

He sighed. ‘That’s what I always say to my missus. Anyway, want me to ping her an email, ask her to get in touch?’

I hesitated. It might be awkward, seeing her. But the money would definitely come in handy.

‘All right,’ I said. ‘That would be great.’

‘So how does it feel being back at work?’ I asked.