‘Then why the hell did you?’ Nate snapped when she told him.

‘Because he’s my boss, Nate,’ she cried. ‘He asked me to, he told me he needed to talk about work, and I don’t know – you know what Harry’s like, he’s persuasive. I didn’t have a choice.’

‘You do have a choice,’ he snapped. ‘And you chose him over me. You know how I feel, Laura; you knew I’d be pissed off, and yet you still went out with him.’

‘I didn’t go out with him – stop saying it like it was anything more than work, when you know it wasn’t.’

‘Do I?’

‘God, Nate, yes,’ she cried again. ‘Don’t even go there.’

He looked away, having the decency, she thought, to look admonished. ‘You really don’t see it, do you, Laura?’ he said.

‘See what? What are you getting at?’ She grabbed his arm and swung him round. ‘What are you saying, Nate?’

‘Why do you actually think Harry wants to go out for a drink with you? It isn’t to talk about work.’

‘Oh my God, are you serious? Did you really just say that?’

‘Laura, I trust you – you know I do,’ he said. ‘But I don’t trust him one bit.’

‘Nate, he has never so much as tried anything on with me.’

‘But you know he would, if you gave him the chance,’ he said. ‘Don’t you?’

Laura shook her head. ‘I’m not having this conversation.’

‘Then how about the one where you’re still prioritising work over me and Bobby,’ he said.

Laura slumped on the sofa next to him. ‘Nate, don’t make me feel bad about this. I don’t know what else to do. I have work I need to do. I can’t walk away from it, it’s too important.’

‘And you think this isn’t?’ he said, waving an arm around him.

‘No, that’s not what I’m saying. You don’t understand,’ she replied. ‘Ever since I walked back in and found that Mia had taken over my job—’

‘Oh, please,’ Nate interrupted, hanging his head in his hands. ‘Please don’t bring Mia into this again.’

Laura pulled back, annoyed. It was true: Nate didn’t understand, but he wasn’t trying to.

‘I know you’re busy, I know you want to prove you can do it all – I get that,’ he went on. ‘But something’s got to give, and at the moment all that’s giving is me and Bobby. This isn’t fair, Laura. Not to me or to Bobby. I am shattered. I am so tired, and I don’t mind doing any of it, but sometimes I want to see you in an evening, to remind me that I’ve got something to look forward to.’

Laura noticed the wetness in his eyes before he swiftly wiped a hand over them.