‘I want to do it. I really, really want to do it.’ The intensity is alarming—Louise and Tabitha are looking over surreptitiously, and Kim isn’t even pretending to be subtle. He’s got his palms on his knees, and he’s leaning forward in his chair as though he’s watching a particularly shocking edition of Police Camera Action! Is Imogen propositioning her? ‘I’ve been thinking, and I had a long chat with my mum, and I just this minute thought of a good name. Touch.com. Because that’s what this is. That’s what’s missing. We’re inviting people to feel.’

Harri blinks, trying to catch up with Imogen’s words, which are being issued at triple speed. She’s still talking. ‘…and I know it’s a big risk, a huge risk really. But maybe staying at Panache would be the bigger risk, because I know I’d keep having to compromise. And right now, they love us, but they will only love us for as long as we keep making money for them. This is a chance to do the thing that I really believe in. I think we’ve already done the difficult, scary bit, really. I believe in it. The investors believe in it. If you believe in it, then we’re in business.’

When Harri and Imogen find Linda in an office on the top floor, it takes Harri a moment to notice that she’s holding Imogen’s hand. Also, doing so while saying ‘We have something that we really need to tell you’ to an expert in employment law, is an ill-advised move. The pair just about manage to compose themselves, although Harri can’t stop grinning, as she starts to tell Linda ‘it is with the deepest regret that I am tendering my resignation.’

‘We understand we need to put it in writing…’

‘A new opportunity has presented itself…’

‘More than happy to serve a notice period…’

Linda rolls her eyes. ‘Stop! Stop talking like that. I’m surrounded by HR robots, all sodding day long, I do understand the Queen’s English, you know. Just what is it that you two are going to do? I am agog!’

Imogen Mounce, sex writer, broadcaster and—not that she knows it yet—one of the most influential women in media, under thirty, looks at the floor and sketches a small circle with her toes. ‘Um, it’s for storytelling…erotic…empowerment…sexual…’