They sat in silence for a few minutes. Jodie watched Flynn spread butter thickly on his toast and lace his coffee with three sugars. How he maintained his physique eating like that she didn’t know. He was wearing the same charcoal-grey suit he’d worn the day before, the shirt a shade lighter, and a tie with a yellow-and-grey pattern. ‘You look good first thing in the morning,’ she said, sitting back with her coffee between her hands.

It made him laugh. ‘I aim to please.’ He brushed crumbs from his tie. ‘In my job, you have to look smart otherwise customers… and your competitors… will think you’re not doing well.’

She hadn’t thought about that. ‘Easier for me, I pull on one of my selection of navy uniforms, tie back my hair, and off I go.’

‘Much easier,’ he said, raising his wrist to check his watch. ‘I must go. Good luck with your union today, I’ll try to ring you later in between meetings but if I don’t get the opportunity I’ll be back tonight and you can tell me everything, okay?’

‘That’s fine,’ Jodie said, getting to her feet. ‘If the union says it’s okay I’ll be busy job-hunting anyway.’ She reached a hand to brush a crumb from the front of his jacket. ‘It will be nice to be able to look forward to seeing you tonight.’

Flynn pulled her into a hug. She felt the strength of his lean body and soaked some of it up to keep her going for the day.

‘Stay strong,’ he said, and with a final kiss, he opened the door and left.

She waved until he rounded the corner and disappeared from view then shut the door and went back to the kitchen. Her eyes were gritty from tiredness but she knew she’d not be able to sleep until after she’d spoken to the union so she sat and poured the remaining coffee into her mug. It was only eight fifteen and it was unlikely they started work before nine.

Taking her coffee through to the sitting room, she switched on the TV and sat back to watch the breakfast programmes without any real interest, losing focus after only a few minutes. She switched channels, found a rerun of Friends that probably had been funny the first or second time she’d seen it several years before but now didn’t as much as make her smile. Irritated, she switched off the TV.

Trying to fill in the time, she had a long shower, washed her hair and blow-dried it rather than tying it up wet as she usually did. By the time she was done it was almost nine and she ran downstairs and picked up her phone to dial the number she’d saved.

It was answered almost immediately. When Jodie gave her name, she was told she’d been allocated a representative.