“That’s a question you’ll have to take up with all those companies that offer team-building exercises. All I’ll say is that if you want your workplace to bond, take them to the pub and pay the bar bill.”

He shakes his head and moves forward, gesturing for me to follow him. “I’d be bankrupt within twenty minutes.”

I laugh and then stop as he opens the door next to his office. “Oh my God,” I breathe. “Are we going up to your flat?”

He pauses, looking worried. “We were, but we can stay down here if you want. I was cooking dinner, so I thought we could talk while I do that.”

“So, it’s not some surprise appraisal.”

“I’m not quite sure you understand the ways of the workplace. I don’t spring appraisals on people at eight o’clock at night. What do you think happens? That I shin up a drainpipe and shout through their bedroom window?”

I follow him into a hallway decorated with whitewashed walls and a lovely parquet floor. An olive tree sits in a huge stone container next to a tall window. He moves up a flight of stairs and I follow, trying not to look too much at that very fine arse of his. Oh, okay, I totally seize the day and look to my heart’s content. Carpe diem and everything, as Robin Williams said in Dead Poet’s Society.

He opens a huge battered wooden door, gesturing me through, and I find myself in a long hallway. I trot behind him as he moves away, looking through a door and glimpsing his lounge. It’s lit by three floor-to-ceiling windows and they’ve been thrown open, letting in the sounds from the courtyard below. The Juliet balconies are painted the same bright orange as the windows and complement the huge turquoise sofa that sits catty-corner to a battered leather sofa. Two of the walls are lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and there is bright artwork on the walls.

I look ahead and pick up my pace to catch up with him. Signs of the building’s previous history as a warehouse are everywhere, from the original loading doors to the sandblasted beams. Some of the walls have been stripped back to the bare brick while others are painted clear, warm colours. The floor is the original wood planks and they’ve been refurbished to a soft sheen. Someone very skilled did this renovation, and looking at my boss’s broad back, I somehow know it was him. I think what most surprises me is the feeling of warmth and comfort here. I’d imagined him in something pristine and modern, not this place with its bright walls and comfy furniture and books everywhere.