I opened my eyes, experiencing a microscopic surge of hope that I might have been just a tiny bit justified in believing Cameron to be a bastard. Admittedly, it was a hope which didn’t do me a huge amount of credit, but if he could be proved to be at all sexist or misogynistic, then that might at least slightly alleviate the enormous burden of being completely and utterly in the wrong, under which I was currently being crushed.

‘He brought the project with him from his last practice. It’s only a small build,’ said Luke. ‘Barely a build at all, really.’

‘That’s OK,’ I said, not caring about the value of the project for which Cameron was accepting payment in kind. It was the principle that mattered.

‘It’s for a Bristol client. She lives in Henleaze, actually,’ continued Luke. ‘Single mum – a widow – big house, tiny income. On a very tight budget basically, but still wanted to pay for everything. So Cameron doesn’t charge her his going rate and he makes up any shortfall to the business for work carried out in office hours. He’s covering part of the build-costs too. The client doesn’t know anything about that, though. We invoice both her and Cameron for the practice costs and, when work starts, the contractors will invoice the practice, and then those costs will be split between Cameron and the client. It was all agreed with Alison when she offered him the job. Not sure that there’s any sex involved – although I guess there might be. They’re certainly very close… Edie? God, Edie, you’re just looking worse and worse.’

It was at that point that I decided to stop grubbily scraping around for any mitigating circumstance which might even partly excuse my behaviour towards Cameron. The man was clearly a saint.

‘I’m not going back to the office,’ I said hoarsely. ‘Can you tell Alison that I’m classically sick? Please don’t say anything to her, or Roger, or Cameron about any of this.’

For a moment, he looked like he was about to argue but then, instead, simply nodded. ‘Shall I sort a cab?’ he asked.

‘No, thanks. You stay and finish your lunch.’ I pointed at his untouched wrap. ‘I’m going to walk for a bit and then catch a bus. And Luke,’ I added, standing up, ‘I’m so sorry for, you know, thinking that you…’ I wobbled to a halt and decided against a second attempt at the sentence.

He waved a hand. ‘Hey! I’m a renowned dick. Anything is believable!’

I smiled and walked around to his side of the table, bending low to give him a hug.