She had only met Laura twice: once for the interview and then a week later for her handover. The very next day Laura had had her baby, four weeks early. But Mia remembered her well. Her handover was nothing more than a brief run-through of what accounts she would be looking after and the key points of contact, and Mia quickly deduced that Laura didn’t answer any questions she didn’t want to. She hadn’t idled in gossip, had barely looked at Mia as she pulled up information on her computer screen, passed numerous booklets about the companies that she represented, churned out figures, told Mia not to worry about anything that was too far off in the future. Making it clear, Mia presumed, that she wouldn’t need to know, because she wouldn’t be here once Laura was back.

Mia had tried to take a different tack with her and had asked her about the baby. Did Laura know what she was having?

‘A boy. Now this account is unusual in that …’

Mia couldn’t even remember what was unusual about it; she wasn’t listening particularly. She had only wanted to press Laura more about the child. ‘It must be very exciting,’ she persisted, ‘getting the nursery sorted, buying the clothes.’

Laura’s responses were curt. She made it seem as if she was pretty pissed off that she was having to take six months out of her job, as if the whole pregnancy was just one big inconvenience. She had rubbed her stomach, a frown shadowing her face – not that dissimilar to the one she wore now. But by then Mia had already decided Laura was worrying over something, because she’d had the same feeling in the interview, covering the same questions, like why was Mia only looking for a short-term placement? Was she happy this was only for six months?

Laura, she thought, did not want to let her job go, and so Mia had assured her it was what she was after; that she would be moving on, out of the area. To be fair, she hadn’t been totally lying. Because she would have liked to be moving on, even when she knew deep down that it was highly unlikely.

‘And you can definitely start at such short notice?’ Laura had asked in the interview, telling Mia that she wanted her in five days’ time.

‘Of course,’ Mia had told her, without skipping a beat. She would do whatever was needed.