As she neared it, Laura felt instant relief to see it in the same place it had always been – until she realised someone was sitting at it. Someone with a bright-pink pencil pot and a Gucci handbag, a grey cardigan slung over the back of Laura’s chair and, for some reason, Christmas paper-chains still hanging over the top of the computer screen, even though it was the third week of March.

Even before the woman at her desk slowly turned round, Laura knew it was Mia Anderson, the person she had hastily recruited to cover her maternity leave. Her thoughts flitted back to the interview and how Mia had nodded, answering Laura’s quick-fire questions, so grateful to be given the opportunity to step into her shoes for a few months.

And yet the woman sitting in front of her today had clearly made herself at home, and while Laura should probably have expected Mia still to be here, she hadn’t thought for one minute she’d find Mia sitting in her seat like it was her own.

Chapter Two

Laura stepped forward as Mia turned round, smiling and gesturing to her ear and the earpiece stuck in it as she carried on chatting. ‘Of course, that’s totally fine,’ she said to whoever was on the other end of the phone, her eyes still on Laura as a sheepish grin hung off her lips. ‘Yep, it’s really no problem, I can get on that straight away.’ She raised her eyes dramatically as if the whole conversation was nothing more than amusing, while Laura stood stupidly beside her own desk and waited for Mia to finish. Eventually Mia turned her back to Laura and flipped open a notebook, riffling through until she got to a blank page.

Laura hot-stepped from one foot to the other, her handbag weighing heavily on her left shoulder, her jacket now making her too hot. She didn’t dare look about her, as she could already sense that people must be watching and there was no sign of Mia finishing her phone conversation.

She glanced around at a few vacant desks, considering whether to drop her things onto one of them. But no, this was her desk, and Mia was at it. Laura’s notepads and pens were presumably still in its drawers, and her files must surely be stacked in the lower cabinet. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so painfully embarrassed at work, and she was still dithering behind Mia when Harry’s voice boomed across the floor, so loudly that even Mia looked up from her call.

Usually Laura wanted the ground to swallow her when he did so, but in that moment she was grateful for her boss coming to her rescue, giving her something to distract her from Mia’s conversation.