A muffled ringing sound interrupted her before she could answer. It was my phone. My forbidden personal phone. I’d stuck it in my back pocket, meaning to lock it in the safe before Lenny arrived, then got distracted when I found another TV that popped out of the ceiling, and completely forgot it was there.

‘Gosh, I’m sorry,’ I said, jumping to my feet. ‘I shouldn’t have this with me, let me take it back to my cabin.’

‘Answer it if it’s important,’ Juliette said as if she didn’t care either way, already rooting through a big bowl of crisps. ‘Just be finished by the time your drink gets here or I’ll likely down them both.’

‘I’ll be two seconds,’ I promised, looking at the name on the screen, hitting accept and holding my breath.

‘You went to London?’ Stew barked.

I pulled the sleeve of my jumper down over my fingers, and looked over the side of the yacht into the water below.

‘Yes. But, funny story, it turned out the job included some travel so—’

‘I can’t believe you went to London without clearing it with me first,’ he cut in. ‘I thought we agreed we’d talk about it?’

‘We did, then you went to sleep,’ I reminded him. ‘And I told you I had to leave this morning, but you were gone when I woke up. When were we supposed to talk?’

‘Yeah, I went to do a favour for a friend.’

‘Bryony,’ I corrected. ‘You went to do a favour for Bryony.’

‘We talked about you taking jobs away,’ Stew said, ignoring my extremely salient point. I heard the familiar sounds of our kitchen in the background, the click of the kettle, the turn of the tap. ‘We agreed you weren’t going to travel.’

Closing my eyes, I pressed a hand against my forehead, hoping it might warm up my brain and release the right words, ones that would stop the argument before it started and make this all OK.

‘We did. but that was a long time ago and this was an amazing opportunity,’ I replied. It was very hard to be diplomatic and non-confrontational, when you were also really quite annoyed and also trying to maintain some semblance of professionalism in front of your new boss. I looked back over my shoulder and saw Juliette watching me from the settee, not even trying to pretend she wasn’t. ‘And this is very much a one-off, not a regular thing.’

‘You say that now,’ he grunted.

‘Stew, it’s been three years.’ I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. ‘I’m sure you can cope for a few days on your own without—’

‘Without what?’

I gripped the railing of the boat as I realized what I’d almost said, holding on so tightly, my knuckles turned white.