As they made their way down to the beach towards the dogs, Rob spoke again: ‘You know, it’s stupid, but I was sort of afraid to see you yesterday. I felt like a teenager again, my heart going like mad. Scared of seeing you, scared of not. I almost ran out of the place. I think Penny was a little offended.’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Elle said, then took a deep breath. ‘But Rob, maybe your instinct wasn’t wrong. Perhaps we shouldn’t see each other, in that way. I’ve just come out of a . . . situation recently and in fact,’ she said, gaining confidence now the words were out, ‘I think we should keep our relationship strictly friendly from now on, for the sake of the work we’re doing here at the hotel.’

If she had been looking at Rob’s face, it might have told her something for a second, before he rearranged his features into a kind of pleasant mask. But Elle was looking out to sea, scared that if she looked at him, something inside her would snap and break, like dry grass underfoot.

‘Yes, you’re right,’ he agreed. ‘I was thinking along the same lines. There’s so much at play, we don’t want any additional complications on our hands. Best to keep things on the straight and narrow.’

‘Exactly,’ Elle said, wondering why her voice sounded so shaky and uncertain. ‘So, we’re agreed, then?’

‘Absolutely,’ said Rob.

‘Shake on it.’ Elle held her hand out, feeling a little like an idiot. Rob took it gently in his own. They shook hands and didn’t meet each others’ eyes for the remainder of the walk, even when the dogs frolicked in the sand, and urged them to do the same.

Eventually they made their way back towards the hotel in silence and it felt ten times longer than it should have. Elle was relieved to get back and ready to attack the second unpleasant, but necessary task of the day.

‘I could order in something,’ Mona from Handbags and Gladrags was saying. ‘One of my suppliers does beautiful Italian trouser suits. But we don’t have anything like that in stock at the moment.’

‘I need one today,’ Elle said, looking around the store’s pitiful selection of professional workwear. As usual, it was all floaty silks and wispy linens and nothing whatsoever that would work for a serious business meeting. Things were going from bad to worse.

‘We just don’t get much call for suits around here,’ said Mona ‘People don’t dress so conservatively. It is a beach town after all. Most people just like to look neat.’

‘Isn’t there anywhere else?’ Elle asked, a little irritated by the woman’s airy-fairy approach. Just because it was a beach town didn’t mean that everyone should dress like beach bums.