‘Anything on your mind?’ she asked drily.

‘Yeah.’ He screwed up his eyes, wrinkling his nose. ‘Yeah, there is actually. I’ve got a bloody complaint to deal with.’

‘Oh?’

‘One of the women in the office,’ he went on. ‘Harassment.’

Janie paused, midway through pouring beans into the coffee machine, and turned to look at the back of her husband’s head. ‘Harassment?’ she repeated.

He glanced over his shoulder. ‘Not me,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t me. Is that what you thought?’

Janie shook her head. ‘No. Of course not.’ Though the thought had been there, if only for a moment. She let out a small puff of breath and wondered why her husband had chosen a Saturday morning to bring it up with her, when it must have been playing on his mind through the week.

Harry continued to regard her curiously, until she looked away.

‘No,’ he said firmly, ‘it’s Mike Lewis.’

‘Mike’s harassing someone?’ Janie asked. ‘What’s he done?’

‘Supposedly done,’ Harry said, as if she of all people should know there were two sides to every story.

Yes, she had wanted to reply, but there’s no smoke without fire. She of all people knew that, too.

‘Anyway.’ Harry pulled himself up, as if he realised that he had sounded like an arse. ‘It’s nothing sexual, as far I’m aware. He’s simply treating this particular girl as if she’s’ – Harry waved an arm in the air as he searched for the right word – ‘I don’t know, not worthy of being there or something, apparently. Thing is, I have to do something about it now, don’t I?’

‘Woman,’ Janie corrected. ‘And yes. Of course you do.’

‘But it’s Mike. We all know what Mike’s like – he doesn’t mean anything by it. He’s just direct, old-school.’

‘Old-school? You mean he doesn’t know how to talk to women,’ she replied. ‘He’s rude,’ Janie went on. ‘I talk to him and he responds to you.’

‘He’s shy, awkward – I don’t know,’ Harry argued. ‘But he’s not a bully.’

‘So what’s she’s saying Mike’s actually done?’

Harry shrugged. ‘I thought it was all going to go away when Mia mentioned it earlier in the week,’ he started, making Janie clench that he could think that was the right outcome. ‘I’ve asked her to get the girl to write down some specifics, which it seems she now wants to talk about next week.’ He held up his phone as if it were evidence of the fact. ‘It all seems so bloody vague to me.’ He bowed his head in his hands, then ruffled them through his hair. ‘I think I’ll go and have a shower. This is the last thing I need right now.’