‘I just wanted to come and talk to you.’ Duke smiles, and when she understands he really does mean to address her she creases up her face, bemused.

‘I feel like we didn’t get off to a great start last night and you were stood here by yourself, so—’

‘I’m just trying to get some work done,’ she interjects, shrugging. She doesn’t say it harshly or nastily, she just … says it.

‘Oh.’ Duke nods. ‘Sorry.’

She looks at him again and then continues typing into her phone. He doesn’t intend to look over at her screen, but he must have done because his head casts a shadow over her phone so she looks up again.

‘Seriously?’ she asks him, taking a step back.

He’s really messing this up. Again.

‘No, sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosy. God. You make me nervous. Have you ever been told that before? That you’re intimidating?’

She doesn’t look up as she says, ‘I think that sounds like a you problem, not a me problem.’

‘Right.’ Duke nods again. ‘Sure. Okay. Well, not a morning person, I see.’

He doesn’t move. He’s gone from wanting to establish some kind of rapport to feeling like what the hell? In less than thirty seconds. Is she really not going to even feign niceness? She doesn’t even know him; how can she not like him? She must be like this with everyone. He feels like he’s been conned, somehow. This frostiness is not a character trait that comes across in her work.

‘Look,’ Evie says, finally casting her eyes back over him. ‘I’m sorry, okay? I’m dealing with a ton of stuff here, and I haven’t had coffee yet, and I just need to, like, make it to midday and then maybe I can give you the old razzle-dazzle or whatever it is you need from me to stop you from looking like I just stepped on your puppy. I apologise for being …’

‘Rude,’ Duke supplies, when it seems like she can’t settle on the word. He doesn’t mean to be combative. It’s just, well … It’s the only word that fits.

‘Er,’ Evie muses. ‘I haven’t been rude.’

‘Somebody tries to come talk to you and you tell them to get stuffed? Seems pretty rude to me.’

‘Says the man who thinks he’s owed a woman’s attention?’

‘I don’t think I’m owed anything,’ Duke counters. ‘I came to try and right our little … interaction … from last night, because we’re working together, and it seems like the right thing to do. But I can tell that has somehow rubbed you up the wrong way, and so you’re right, you don’t owe me your attention. I will back away slowly, now …’