‘Not me,’ he spluttered. ‘One of the nerds that, like, reads. But you know. You’re good.’

I was good. It was validation I needed to hear more than I cared to admit.

‘Get this right and it’s a big foot in the door for you, Ros.’

‘And if I get it wrong, it’s my foot and the rest of me out the door?’ I joked.

‘I love your sense of humour,’ Ted laughed before looking at me with an entirely straight face. ‘But yes, that is correct, I will have to let you go.’ He carefully placed the tiger head back into the box, holding his breath until the tissue paper was replaced and the lid was safely secure. ‘Protect this with your life.’

‘To the grave,’ I swore as he showed himself out.

Once I heard his footsteps tap all the way back upstairs, I poked into the box with my toe, opening the flap and lifting up the tissue paper. It was hideous.

‘Get through this, make it a success, and the Washington situation won’t matter,’ I whispered to myself. ‘No gaming, no teenagers, no Ted.’

The tiger stared back at me.

‘Thanks for the vote of support, Tony,’ I muttered, turning back to my computer.

This week was going to go on forever.

‘OK, so where did you run off to on Saturday afternoon?’ Sumi dumped her full-to-bursting bag down beside her later that evening. I’d tempted her away from work with the promise of treats at the latest addition to London’s thrilling dessert scene, Yo, a café that specialized in and sold nothing but fro-yo. If there was one thing Sumi was powerless against, it was frozen yoghurt.

‘Well, unfortunately you missed my performance,’ I told her, craning my neck up for a kiss on the cheek. ‘Since you hadn’t arranged any entertainment, I thought it might be fun for me to pull that giant rabbit down on top of myself.’

‘Oh, I know,’ she replied. ‘I saw the photos.’

I felt my nostrils flare. ‘Who took photos?’

‘Creepy Dave, Weird Dean, every single one of those pregnant women,’ she counted off the culprits on her fingertips. ‘And don’t look like that because you would have done the same if it was them.’

‘Not if it was one of the pregnant women,’ I sniffed. ‘At least not if she was really pregnant. Did John stick around long?’

‘John?’ Sumi looked up from her phone before slinging it into her bag. ‘I thought he’d left with you two?’