Rosie had to admit that he did look a bit shifty.

‘And the amazing thing is,’ said Will, ‘he’s a complete cretin as well. The way he got caught was he started putting them online. How dumb can you be?’

Jeremy thought it was endearing that they were still interested in what the stories revealed about the world outside the newsroom. Maybe, he thought with unexpected cheerfulness, it wasn’t so bad being a grunt again after all, lolling around chatting while the bosses did the worrying. He rolled his chair to the side so he could see past his screen, and said, ‘It’s a thing that doctors do, take pictures. That story’s been popping up every few months for as long as I’ve been here. There are forums where they swap them.’

It wasn’t Jeremy whom Will wanted to speak to. ‘Yes, that’s what it says.’

‘There was one a few years ago who had it going so well that he got the patients, once they’d gone home, to send him more naked pictures for check-ups.’

Will laughed and Rosie shuddered again. ‘I just think it makes you never want to go to the doctor again. I can’t believe people in positions of trust behave like that.’ Saying something earnest made her defensive, and she made as if to carry on working.

‘But you wouldn’t undress just because someone told you to, would you?’ said Will, flirtatiously.

She paused to let that dissipate. ‘Surely the point is that these are sick people. They’re desperate. That’s why it’s so sick to exploit them.’

‘Yes,’ said Will, ‘it’s terrible. Especially when people are at their most vulnerable.’

‘Exactly.’

The conversation seemed to have come to a close, so Will went back to editing his story. He’d wanted to make her laugh and somehow it had turned sour. Frustrated, he checked the style guide for whether ‘underway’ was one word or two. Two: ‘under way’. He wanted to tell her about something he’d heard, though he couldn’t work out how to introduce it: that the news conference was nicknamed the Vagina Monologue, because only the Editor spoke and he called everyone a cunt.

But she probably wouldn’t even like that. She could be so difficult. And it wasn’t as if that were justified by her being especially attractive. Her hair was short and boyish, but bulged on top like a mushroom. Her limbs were narrow, her ribcage bony. She jerked her head about like a small animal and picked at the bean salads she sensibly brought from home. He wouldn’t be surprised if she’d had an eating disorder at some point.