Laura glanced across at Mia too. She had now finished the call and was leaning back in the chair, laughing with Bryony Knight, who was peering over the top of Laura’s PC. Bryony was Laura’s account assistant and yet there she was, as if she had transferred her allegiances too.

‘I want to have my desk back, Harry.’ She turned back to her boss. ‘I don’t want to sit anywhere else.’ Laura hoped her words didn’t sound as childish as they suddenly felt.

‘Of course not.’ He waved a hand through the air. ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll have a word after the exec meeting this morning.’

Laura nodded and released a breath. ‘I can’t wait to take you through some things I’ve been thinking about,’ she said. ‘I have some great ideas.’

‘That’s what I love about you, Laura,’ he replied. ‘Your dedication.’ Harry gestured to the leather chair and she sat down, waiting for him to head to his own on the other side of his desk as she pulled her notebook out of her bag.

‘I want to talk to Coopers about the TV ad first thing, because I want to get that off the ground and hopefully start filming late summer. Honestly, I can’t wait to get stuck into this – I’ve done loads on it.’ She flapped her notebook in the air. ‘And I was thinking about sponsorship for their premium health-bar range too and …’ Laura paused. ‘What?’ she asked when she noticed the look on Harry’s face. His eyebrows were pinched into a point, frown lines dug into his forehead.

Harry ran a hand across the stubble that neatly covered his chin. He’d had his hair cut, she noticed. Maybe a little too short. It was a mixture of light and dark grey, and in places looked white in contrast to his black-rimmed glasses. He was in his early fifties and was easily still the most attractive man in the office.

He leaned back in his chair, the movement making it swivel gently to the side, and crossed a leg, flashing a bright-pink sock beneath his suit trousers. Then uncrossing it again, he shifted forward, steepling his hands on the desk in front of him. ‘The thing is, Laura, Coopers already commissioned the TV ads while you were away.’

‘Oh?’

‘They wanted to crack on with them.’

‘But they’d wanted to wait,’ she protested. ‘They said they were going to hold off until I was back. Who’s picked them up?’ she asked, thinking it was surely not Mia, though she already had the unnerving feeling that Mia was exactly who had been working on them.