On her way to work, Minnie bought fresh coffees for the whole team. She could ill afford it, but she thought everyone might need a morale boost. She’d woken at 2 a.m. feeling groggy and confused, then celebrated the end of her birthday by making an enormous Spanish omelette out of a suspect array of ingredients she’d found in her fridge. The early hours of the morning had been spent listening to music and cleaning, while Lucky eyed her suspiciously from his warm perch on top of the fridge.

Now it was the second of January – her favourite day of the year; the day furthest from her birthday. So, despite everything that had happened yesterday, she couldn’t help walking into work with a bounce in her step. Greg had tried to call her already this morning. She hadn’t answered; she’d been on the bus and couldn’t bring herself to let an argument ruin her buoyant mood. Greg could be pretty uncommunicative when it suited him. If he was mid-flow with an article, she might not hear from him for days. Perhaps it would be good for him to get a taste of her being less available.

‘I got coffees,’ she called, as she swung through the door and the old-fashioned bell above chimed.

‘Oh, you beauty,’ said Alan, taking one out of her hands.

‘Alan, thank you for hosting us on New Year’s Eve, we both had a lovely time.’

‘Endlessly welcome,’ Alan said with a bow.

Alan was their delivery driver. He was a tall, wiry man in his fifties, with a mouth that constantly twitched. He had pale sallow skin and wide feline eyes with large heavy lids. He made Minnie think of an eighteenth-century poet battling a tortured soul. Alan used to captain boats for a living, but an accident with an anchor had turned him into a self-proclaimed ‘land lubber’. No one knew what the accident had entailed, or what exactly he had injured – he didn’t like to talk about it.

‘Did you get any non-dairy?’ asked Fleur, turning her head sharply.

‘No, sorry, only cow cappuccinos,’ Minnie grimaced.

Fleur sighed, but reached out a hand for one nonetheless. Fleur manned the phone. She was twenty-two and prone to food fads. Today was day two of Veganuary. Fleur had an elegant long neck and white-blonde hair. Like a beautiful, haughty swan, you got the feeling she might hiss at you if you got too close.