‘I’m not lonely,’ I said, without much conviction. I looked out through the glass wall of his office at all the cool young people – a girl in a tight T-shirt stopping to chat to a guy with a beard; a pair of blokes heading outside for a cigarette break. There was lots of serious work going on, but Victor’s staff also appeared to like it here. It was a small business that punched above its weight.

‘Don’t make a decision now,’ he said. ‘I’ll email you the job spec and details of salary and all that boring stuff.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I know you’ve only been with this bird a month or whatever, but if you are thinking it might get serious, down the road, maybe you’d be better off with something more secure than freelancing.’ Perhaps sensing he was pushing it, he added, ‘But don’t let me twist your arm. All I’m saying is, there’s a job going, I’d love you to have it, and if you’d rather stay working at home in your jim-jams then I’ll probably be able to keep chucking work your way.’

Perhaps if I wasn’t feeling so pissed off about Karen rejecting my work or if Victor hadn’t slipped that ‘probably’ into his final sentence, I might have made a different decision.

I had always worked freelance, since leaving university. Because of the money I’d had from my parents’ insurance, I hadn’t needed a student loan and I hadn’t felt pressured to find a job immediately. I’d fallen into freelance work when a friend of a friend asked me to do some work for him and it had grown from there.

By the time Charlie came round, I had made up my mind. I was going to accept the offer Victor had emailed to me.

‘The money’s excellent,’ I said to Charlie. ‘And it’s secure. I won’t have to take on shitty little jobs like the one for Karen where I end up doing twice as much work as I’d originally estimated.’

Charlie sat down at the table, bottle of wine already open. Her cheeks were pink from her walk from the train station through the bitter cold. Snow was forecast for tomorrow and England was bracing itself, unprepared as usual.

‘I understand about that bit,’ she said. ‘But otherwise I think you’re mad.’

I was disappointed. I wanted her to be enthused. ‘Really? Why?’

‘You don’t know what it’s really like, working in an office. You’re so lucky being able to work here, and for yourself.’

‘But the people at Victor’s office are cool.’

She furrowed her brow.

‘Not as cool as you, obviously.’

I was trying to make her smile but her expression remained grim.