Harry walked with her. He was wearing his uniform and it was eliciting stares from all corners of the room. He placed his bowl and coffee down on her table.

‘Join me, why don’t you?’ she said.

‘Only if you promise not to be a sycophantic bore.’

‘I’ll try my hardest. I genuinely have no interest in how you became such an impressively brilliant human being.’

Harry smirked and sat down. ‘Are you sure? I mean, it’s a great story?’

‘What are you speaking on today?’ she asked, unable to stop smiling at him.

‘Why are you asking? You already know the answer.’

‘I know the title but not what the point of it is.’

‘You can’t work out the point from the title? “Ships, sailors and secret missions” isn’t giving it away?’

Karene shook her head with a slight laugh. ‘That’s not your title.’

‘Crap, really? Well, that’s what I’ve prepared.’

‘I doubt they’ll notice.’

‘Thanks.’

‘No. I mean they’ll all have their heads stuck in their emails. Most of them are here to be seen and do business rather than to learn anything.’

‘Well, why would they need to learn anything? We VIPs know all there is to know.’

Karene was enjoying herself. It was rare to find a man with such a knack for quick banter. ‘So you never married. Was that a career decision?’

Harry held his drink just below his mouth. ‘That’s a subject change. What makes you think I’m not married?’

Karene blushed. Why had she said that? ‘You don’t wear a ring and there’s no mention of a family in any of your profiles, plus …’ She stopped, realizing the error of what she was about to say: you’re flirting with me.

‘Plus?’

‘Nothing. That’s it.’

He studied her for a moment then finished his coffee. ‘I need another.’

He left the table and Karene fought the urge to put her head in her hands. He returned with another Americano for her with just the right amount of milk. The guy was paying attention.

‘Caroline and I have been married for eighteen years. We have two kids, Sophie and Jake. I don’t mention them because it’s not relevant and it’s nobody’s business.’

Karene hoped the heat on her face wasn’t showing. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘That was rude of me. Most of the resilient people I’ve studied have very strong support networks. Their husbands and wives are often critical to their resilience. So I was intrigued as to how you’d achieved all of this without that. But clearly I was mistakenly assuming that social media holds all truths.’ She had no idea where this shit was coming from but he seemed to be buying it.