‘Could be quite late,’ he said, his warning softened with regret. ‘But you could stay at mine? Late supper with an early breakfast on the side? I am sorry, I clean forgot. This book is taking up so much brain space.’

‘It’s fine,’ I assured him, all the air going out of my day. ‘Don’t worry. And honestly, I don’t mind late. Maybe I can meet Sumi after work.’

‘Yes, why don’t you do that.’ He sounded relieved. ‘Just don’t tell her I fucked up again or she’ll be round to mine with the cheese grater.’

I laughed as we said goodbye and I put my foot down, undertaking an elderly lady in a Ford Fusion with a bumper sticker that read ‘Hot Rod Granny’. He was busy, it was all reasonable. So why was I so annoyed?

‘How did it go?’ Ted asked, jumping on me the moment I got back to the office. ‘Is everything OK? Did he agree on guests? Have you got anything I can give to the marketing team?’

‘It was good,’ I started. ‘I think—’

‘Great, choice, you write up the notes and send round a memo. We need to get things moving, Ros, moving and shaking and rocking and rolling.’

I was not the sort of person who would assume a co-worker was taking cocaine at work but if I were … Ted walked away, snapping his fingers and repeating the words ‘Snazzlechuff Says’ to himself over and over and over.

Grabbing a Diet Coke from the fridge, I looked back at the sunny, potentially class-A-riddled office and opened the door to the staircase. Time to return to where I belonged.

It was only Wednesday but I’d already spent every night since Sunday in my shed, all on my own. By the time I got home from work, I didn’t have the energy to talk to my parents and there was always the threat of a repeated sushi incident. Lucy wasn’t feeling up to coming into town and I wasn’t feeling up to crossing the length and breadth of London when I knew Creepy Dave would be there as well. Sumi kept cancelling on me and Patrick had his meeting. Which left my oldest, greatest, would-never-let-me-down, best-in-the-world friend, Adrian.

‘Can’t,’ he said from the screen of my phone. ‘Sorry.’

‘You’re sure?’ I pleaded, batting my eyelashes and puckering up my lips as Adrian reared away in mock disgust.

‘If I wasn’t sure already, that mug has made my mind up for me,’ he replied, pretending to yak over his shoulder. ‘I’ve told you, I can’t. I’ve got a big date.’

‘You’ve always got a big date,’ I said, deep in the bowels of PodPad. ‘Cancel it and come to dinner with me.’

‘Afraid I really can’t.’

I stared at his face in the giant screen, his big green eyes staring right back at me.