‘No, please,’ she begs, pushing up onto her elbow and staring down at me, her brown, tear-filled eyes beseeching. ‘Seriously, Brendan, I know we’ve both fucked up, and I knew I was playing with fire by lying so much, but I need this job. I’ve still got—we’re not done with the expenses, you see. I need to save more, I need to know we have an emergency fund in case Tabs has any complications. I can’t go back to relying on the NHS again. I’ve never felt so powerless in my life. Forget I said anything. If you’ll—I just need a couple more months.’ She hesitates. ‘I’ll do whatever you want.’

She’s breathing heavily, and I feel sick to my stomach once more, because Jesus fuck. She thinks I’m firing her, and she thinks she can tempt me to change my mind by offering to overlook her own sexual boundaries?

I have never heard such fucked-up horseshit in all my life.

I pull her right back down onto her pillows and haul myself up so I have the advantage. ‘Fucking hell, Marlowe. Don’t you ever, ever offer to prostitute yourself like that, understand? I’m not firing you, love. The contract stays. I still want you as my PA, and God knows, I’m not about to cut your pay either. I’m telling you I won’t touch you. I’m not in the habit of exploiting struggling single mothers who do desperate things to save their kids’ lives. Not consciously, anyway,’ I add, because I’ve been unwittingly doing just that.

She glares at me. ‘I can’t take that obscene salary every month and not hold up my end of the bargain,’ she spits, and I hate this. I really fucking do. I hate that there’s any transaction between us, and I hate that she feels some obligation to “uphold” it, and I hate most that I’ve ruined the tentative trust that was blossoming between the two of us.

‘Well you have to, because I have no intention of going anywhere near you sexually in the office, and if you try something then that’ll be harassment,’ I argue.

We eye each other mulishly.

‘I could quit.’

‘You need the money, and there’s no fucking way I’d let you go back on Seraph’s books. Over my dead body. Look, you have two options. You can take a pay cut and I’ll fund all of Tabby’s medical bills going forward, no questions asked. Or we can continue everything about our working relationship, minus the sex part, which gives you the chance to save whatever you need.’

She hesitates, and I know she’s close to caving. The perverse benefits of negotiating with a broken, exhausted woman, I suppose.