It was no surprise that to her left the display boards had been refreshed with new creatives that she’d not seen before, but it didn’t stop her heart sinking. Six months ago more than half of them had been her own work, and now she didn’t recognise any of them, bar one in the bottom corner, which had won her and the company a prize.

She told herself she could do this as she started walking across the office, willing at least one person to look up and acknowledge her, so she’d be able to break the silence. It was Henrietta James who appeared first, out of the toilets, stopping short when she saw Laura.

Henrietta’s face broke into a wide smile and she glanced briefly in the direction of Laura’s desk, before turning to her and declaring loudly, ‘You’re back!’

‘I am,’ Laura replied, following the woman’s gaze towards where her desk should be, but still she couldn’t see it from where they stood.

‘Gosh!’ Henrietta declared. ‘I can’t believe how quickly six months have flown.’

‘I know,’ Laura said as the woman continued to smile at her. She liked Henrietta well enough; she’d always done a good job and worked hard, even though there’d been many times when Laura had squirmed, irritated, as she’d waited for Henrietta to finish a conversation about her weekend with someone, before returning to her desk to complete the work Laura needed urgently. Laura had needed to pull her up on it a couple of times.

‘So how are you finding life as a mum?’ Henrietta was asking. ‘Is he sleeping through?’

‘He was,’ Laura said, ‘but recently not so much.’ She smiled to convey it wasn’t really an issue, though it had been taking its toll on her and Nate.

‘And how was it leaving him this morning?’ Henrietta went on, diving straight for the jugular.

‘Oh, it was fine,’ Laura said, though as Henrietta’s eyebrows rose, she wondered if this was the right thing to say. Maybe she was supposed to open up now with the women in the office. She and Henrietta were both mothers, after all. Should she tell her the truth: that leaving Bobby that morning was the hardest thing she had ever done?

But baring her soul didn’t sit well, so instead Laura said, ‘Well, I should get to my desk.’

Henrietta nodded and stepped aside, and Laura saw the disbelief in her eyes that she had managed to cut her off so quickly. Her thoughts immediately turned to Nate and she decided to call him in a bit. She had a pang of longing, stronger than she would ever have expected. She straightened her back and started to walk towards Harry’s office and the place where, hopefully, her desk still sat.