‘Honestly, you seem good at playing the game and everything like all the other cynical, ambitious young guys you get in journalism, but… That really was horrible in the pub, wasn’t it?’

‘Really horrible.’

‘I didn’t expect you… It was good that you tried to stop the chief from bullying him.’

He became truly embarrassed, and said, ‘But it was you; you’re the one who was trying to stop it.’

‘Well, maybe, but you did, too.’

‘Oh, hardly.’ And because his mind ran on: ‘I wonder how pissed off the chief is going to be.’

‘What, you think they won’t like you any more because you disagreed with them? They love you up. They’re always sitting next to you on the bus or inviting you to the pub or telling you their stories.’

Will didn’t want this now. ‘No, no…’

‘For real. I’ve been here a year and a half and when they notice me it’s only because they think I’m the wrong kind of person somehow. I sometimes think the chief only remembers he gave me a job when I try to book a holiday.’

Will’s grip on himself relaxed enough to let him say what he thought without editing it first: ‘It’s probably because you’re always doing that rabbit-in-headlights look.’ He popped his eyes wide and drew down the corners of his mouth. ‘They’re probably just thinking, “Whatever she’s scared of, I don’t want to know about it.”’

It could have gone either way, but Rosie laughed and the laughter was freeing. ‘It’s true. I did freak out a bit last night.’

‘A bit? You looked like you were going to pass out right off your chair.’ Rosie was still laughing. ‘But I would have freaked out, too. That must have been the most bollocks story ever printed. None of it stood up, none of it at all.’

‘I know! The blind woman who wasn’t blind!’ She covered her face with her hands. ‘Oh, that was bad! Oh, it was so bad. But still, I can’t believe I let it get to me like that. I was up all last night lying in bed worrying about it.’

Will let this reference to her bed go uncommented. ‘It’s amazing, isn’t it.’ He dared something: ‘How you think it’s just a place you go to work and all of a sudden it’s seeping up from your subconscious. I… I end up dreaming about Max or the chief quite a lot. Not as much as at first, but still – how sad is that?’

She laughed again, ‘Pretty sad. I do it too. All the time.’ Her mind flicked to the dandruff she’d developed and she couldn’t stop herself touching her hair just above her ear.