‘Actually, Mia,’ he said, confirming her fears. ‘And I have to say she’s doing a great job …’ Harry trailed off awkwardly when he noticed the shock on her face. ‘Like I say, Laura, you were right to recruit her. It was a good call. She reminds me of you, you know – five years ago, when you came here. You both have the same go-getter attitude.’ Harry smiled, but it slid away quickly.

‘I didn’t recruit her,’ she said. ‘I hired her. Temporarily. She was only a replacement because …’ Laura waved a hand through the air. ‘She doesn’t have that much experience,’ she went on in disbelief, fragments of Mia’s interview coming back to her. It was one of the reasons she had taken Mia on: because she wasn’t a threat, she was just good enough to keep the job ticking over.

Mia had seemed nothing like Laura in the interview. She didn’t have the ambition or the desire for achievement that Laura had always shown. If anything, Laura had worried that Mia was a little too casual about her plans for the future, because she was clearly happy hopping from one temping post to another. She had wondered if Mia might not even hold out the six months needed, because frequently members of the Coopers team changed their minds at the last minute, demanded that Laura work weekends to turn around creatives. Laura thrived on that but she wasn’t sure Mia would, and yet she had taken the chance on her because in every other way Mia was exactly what she was looking for. All Laura needed was someone who would keep her job going, with no aspirations to get their hands on it.

Not like Patrick. Laura’s colleague, another account director, had made no attempt to hide his desire to take over Coopers, and Laura had worried that if he did, she might never get it back.

‘I’m sorry, Laura, I’m sure that isn’t the news you wanted to hear.’

‘No … well …’ she stammered. ‘I mean, I’m just surprised they didn’t wait for me to come back.’ She glanced over to where Mia was now standing beside her desk, one arm leaning casually on the top of the computer screen as she spoke with a woman Laura had never set eyes on before. ‘She seems to have made herself at home,’ she muttered.

Harry pulled back in his seat. ‘Laura, Coopers wanted to go ahead, and so of course that’s what we did. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is.’

Laura nodded, her eyes stinging with the unexpected pressure of tears. God, surely she wasn’t going to start crying? She inhaled a tight breath, bit down on her lip and mentally tried to pull herself together. So this wasn’t what she expected, but it wasn’t irretrievable. ‘Right, well, I’ll need to have a chat with Mia.’

‘You will.’