It was an emotional goodbye this time, quite the opposite to my stoic departure from Glasgow all those weeks before. Needless to say, there were tears on Sasha’s part, but even I found myself having to swallow a bit too hard as I waved her off.

By the time she left, Sasha was ready to face her mum. I’d made sure of that. And the best outcome of the weekend by far was that she loved Birmingham. My fingers remained firmly crossed that she’d follow through on this one and join me here soon.

‘Good morning, Alex.’ Emmanuel greets me with a broad smile as I dump my bag under my desk, pull out my chair and log on to my computer. ‘How was your weekend? I hope you had a lovely time with your friend.’

‘I did, thanks.’ I return her smile, making sure I don’t let any sign of my exhaustion leak through. ‘It was so great to see her. Thanks again for the time off at such late notice.’

‘Not at all. It’s your holiday time to use as you wish. I fully trust you to manage your own workload.’

‘Well, it was appreciated all the same.’

‘Speaking of your work… I’d like to have a catch-up with you this afternoon, if you have time?’

‘Sure.’ I quickly check my calendar. ‘I’ve nothing in my diary from three p.m. Does that suit?’

‘That’s perfect. We can go out for a coffee.’

As I add the meeting to my calendar and ping an invite across to Emmanuel, curiosity takes over. We had our fortnightly catch-up on Thursday last week. What could she want to talk to me about so soon after? My mind starts to tick over my project plan, wondering if there’s something I’ve missed. I really hope not. I’ve been meticulous in making sure that all bases are covered. Unless… My gaze moves across to Danielle’s desk, where she’s diligently poring through some data on an Excel spreadsheet. She senses my eyes on her, looks across and smiles in her false, expressionless way.

‘Everything OK, Alex?’ she asks.

Is it just me, or was there a bit of gloating mixed in with her usual sugar-coated acidity?

‘Everything’s great,’ I reply. ‘Did you have a good weekend?’

‘I did. Visited my parents in London – a weekend of shopping and shows. Funny actually, turns out John was in London too. We all ended up having afternoon tea together at my parents’ house in Kensington.’

‘How lovely. Who’s John? Is that your boyfriend?’

Danielle smirks, eyes returning to her screen. ‘Hardly. I mean John Chambers. Our chief exec.’

‘Right. How… lovely.’ I turn back to my own computer screen and start scrolling through my unread emails.

Danielle’s telling me this for a reason. It’s no secret that she likes to one-up me at every opportunity, but what if… No, surely not. I glance across at Emmanuel, who’s immersed in her own work. What if Danielle’s still not given me the full picture of the data for the project, and she’s sown a few seeds with the chief exec to suggest I’m not on it? Is she that vindictive? I want to answer my own question with ‘absolutely not – don’t be paranoid’. But I can’t. My reading of Danielle is that she’ll do anything, and take out anyone she needs to, in order to get what she wants.