Jim was her mum’s cousin, so not strictly speaking Jasmine’s uncle, but that was what she had called him since toddlerhood. He and Mum had always been close, but not exactly in each other’s lives all the time. Nobody was in Jim’s life, in fact, largely down to him letting it become consumed by work. His police career had contributed greatly to the break-up of his marriage, and when he got maudlin after a few whiskies, he would confess to having failed his wife and in particular his three kids by always being busy at work when he should have been there for them. He was a grandfather now, five times over, and had vowed to make himself more available to help out looking after the young ones, but the demands of running a one-man business had him breaking his promises all over again.

It was therefore a double-edged attempt to do the right thing that had led him to employ Jasmine. He knew she needed a job and he deeply wanted to help out in his cousin Beth’s absence. If he could train her up, he explained, then once she got the stabilisers off, it would free him up more often to see his family.

It was an honourable sentiment, Jasmine thought, and a far more convincing way of selling the job to her than his claim that an out-of-work actress with no experience was just what his business was lacking.

‘Delta Seven. Look, I’ve just had a very important call about another job. I’m no use on this one with the subject giving me that funny. Can I leave this in your capable hands?’

Oh God, please, no, no.

‘Yes yes.’

She remembered the things she had told herself when Jim first took her on, barely a couple of months back. He had explained that this wasn’t a Saturday job for pocket money, and required commitment. He knew she was hoping to find work in acting but assured her that once she was trained up, it would be a good fallback when she was ‘resting’. He was smart that way: he wasn’t asking her to choose, not offering a ‘real’ job to help her get over her silly ideas.

It would do to tide her over, she decided. It was money in her pocket, and it was just for now. It was better than bar work: it paid more, and it involved a kind of acting. Valuable experience as well, good for the CV. Yeah: all the things every would-be actor probably told themselves when they started the job they ended up doing for life.

She wondered whether this fear – that before she knew it she’d be thirty and still doing this job ‘just for now’ – was what was causing her to screw up. Subconsciously, did she want to fail so that Jim would take the choice out of her hands?