His fingers curl around mine and his grip on my hand tightens. I expect him to suddenly realise we’re holding hands and do the abruptly jumping up thing, but he doesn’t. ‘Fiona happened to mention you’d been in a relationship with someone who didn’t treat you right.’

‘Oh, she did, did she? I never said that. Her and Fergus have put two and two together and got a mince pie there.’

‘Have they?’ He looks up, forcing me to catch his eyes. His tongue wets his lips, and I have never wanted to cup someone’s face and kiss them so badly, no matter how impossible the angle. ‘Go on, your turn. Tell me about you.’

I groan, even though I’m kind of touched that he wants to know, and honestly, I’d listen to a three-hour seminar on the history of waiting rooms if it meant we didn’t have to move from this spot. ‘I got into a thing with my boss. It wasn’t even a relationship, not really, it was just nice to feel wanted again. It was nice to feel anything again, and he knew that. I was so lonely, and secret clandestine meetings with him gave me something in my life, no matter how pathetic. Everyone in the office knew what had happened to my parents and everyone treated me like I was fragile and liable to burst into tears at any moment.’

‘Yeah, that’s not like you at all.’

I snort even though he’s teasing me, grateful for the unexpected giggle.

‘No one knew what to say or how to act. If there was a joke in the office, no one would share it with me because people felt guilty for getting on with life, like treating me normally was somehow downplaying this monumentally awful thing that had happened. I felt like an outsider. Everyone was scared to talk to me because I was in a permanent state of being four seconds away from a complete emotional breakdown. I didn’t want to be there, but I knew I needed to keep busy. A couple of months later, Steve transferred in as the new head of department, and with hindsight, I can see that he wormed his way into everyone’s affections. He’d take everyone into his office individually and sit down for a cup of tea and a chat, and it seemed like a nice way of getting to know us, but looking back now, I can see that he was very cleverly finding out everything he could about everyone who worked there, their strengths and weaknesses, so he knew exactly what buttons to push when he needed to. He chose the women he knew were vulnerable. I can’t believe I didn’t see it at the time. He made each of us feel special and important, when all he really cared about was what he was going to get from us.’