‘Now, about that,’ he swallowed, nervously running a finger around the inside of his collar.

‘It looks like you’ve thought of everything,’ I said, raising my eyebrows. ‘There’s nothing left for me to do at all.’

‘Well, your father thought it was best to act as quickly as possible, what with the advertiser clamouring to start filming the ads, and I—’

‘You,’ I said, cutting him off, ‘thought you would take advantage of the fact that I wasn’t around and claim a rather substantial victory for yourself.’

His face began to turn an interesting shade of red.

‘Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that,’ he objected.

‘How would you put it then?’

I had spotted Lucy loitering in the doorway. Hearing my question, she backtracked and quietly closed the door. Chris opened and closed his mouth a couple of times like a fairground goldfish gasping for air in its plastic bag.

‘Come on, Chris, you’ll have to do better than that if you’re going to survive at Tyler PR,’ I said robustly. ‘You have to have an instant answer for everything, and the right one at that, if you want to continue impressing my father.’

‘I’m so sorry, Tess.’

‘Don’t apologize,’ I told him. ‘Never apologize. Mr Tyler would hate that.’

‘What?’

The poor chap looked as though he didn’t have a clue what was going on.

‘Oh, it’s all right,’ I said, deciding he had squirmed for long enough. ‘I’m congratulating you, Chris. On a job well done.’

‘What?’ he said again, looking more like a fish out of water than ever.

‘Hats off to you,’ I said, putting the paperwork back into its folder and holding it out for him to take. ‘You saw an opportunity and you took it.’

He didn’t say anything.

‘Had I been in your position, I would have done exactly the same. To tell you the truth, I probably would have been disappointed in you if you hadn’t.’

He still didn’t look as though he believed me.

‘Dad is going be promoting you in no time,’ I told him. ‘Just make sure the digital contract matches the paper one exactly. You know the system glitches occasionally and that’s the last thing we want, wouldn’t you agree?’

‘Yes,’ he finally said, his voice cracking before he cleared his throat. ‘I was planning to cross reference everything this morning. It’s the reason why I’ve come in so early.’

‘You’re not that early,’ I said pointing at the office clock. ‘You need to set your alarm a bit earlier if you really want to get the jump on me.’