The conversation with his father was the first in several years. He had done the honourable thing when Gaia was born – rang his parents to inform them they were grandparents. His brother Edward would have a child with his new girlfriend Beatrice a year or so afterwards, but for now this was a new thing, his parents becoming grandparents. Gaia was their first grandchild. When Tom had called his mother to inform her that Aurelia was pregnant, she’d drawn breath and murmured, ‘Let us hope it’s a boy. Your father will want to continue the Faraday name.’ It had taken a few months to swallow that down, and he hated himself for the way his heart – just for a moment – sank when the sonographer declared they were having a girl.

‘That’s amazing,’ Aurelia had said, a tear sliding down her cheek. ‘A little girl, Tom. Our little girl.’

Nonetheless, he had gritted his teeth and steeled himself for another unbearably tactless comment when he called home shortly after Gaia was born. His father answered, and Tom was horrified to find himself breaking down as he spoke.

‘Dad? I’m a father. Aurelia … we have a little girl. We’ve named her Gaia Rose Faraday.’

His father had cleared his throat and said, ‘Jolly good.’ There was a long pause, during which Tom covered the mouthpiece of the phone and wept. Then: ‘Shall I pass you on to your mother?’

Ten words in as many years. Ten words in response to the most important moment of Tom’s life. Still, he felt warmed by the tone of his father’s voice, and nobody could say that the conversation hadn’t gone well, relatively speaking. But when he called his father in the aftermath of Basecamp to ask for a loan, he should have known better.

‘How much?’ his father demanded.

‘I need two hundred and seventy thousand by Friday,’ Tom said. He made to mention it was to pay salaries, but thought better of it. He knew what his father would say to that.

‘And will you be paying interest?’

Tom felt his fists clench. ‘If you wish.’

‘I see. And shall we make this arrangement – this loan, as you say – via solicitors or would you be agreeable to signing something electronically?’

‘Email’s fine,’ Tom said stiffly. Even after all this time, his father’s approach to parenthood never failed to incur the most abject disappointment.

‘All right,’ his father said, wearily. ‘I’ll send a contract through this evening. I presume your mother has your current email?’

Tom nodded at the phone. He’d had the same email address for a decade by then, not that his father knew that.

‘Once I receive the signed counterpart I’ll have my accountant organize a transfer. Agreed?’

‘Agreed.’