At that, emotion was finally detectable in his expression, and suffice to say that it wasn’t compassionate understanding. ‘As difficult as Friday night was for Kerry?’ he snapped.

I blinked rapidly. ‘I know. That was awful and I’m going to talk to her. I—’

‘Don’t talk to her,’ he said flatly. ‘You’ve upset her enough.’

I nodded. He was right. I should just leave Kerry to Giles. I should go back to Henleaze, explain things to him and then start looking on Rightmove. There were always flats to let in the Harbourside complex. I could be back there within a couple of weeks.

I looked at Cameron. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said quietly. ‘I know you’ve done nothing wrong. That’s probably the only important thing I actually have to say. Explaining everything would just be for my benefit. You’d still be pissed off – even more pissed off – so perhaps it’s best that you’re not very interested.’ I shrugged, feeling increasingly dazed and suddenly beyond tears. The latter was at least an upside, admittedly a rather bleak upside, but an upside nevertheless.

‘But even if I don’t go into the details, I do want you to understand that I am genuinely and unreservedly sorry,’ I continued, now on some sort of a grim, but surprisingly cathartic, roll and unable to shut up. ‘I made a huge mistake and I hope we can get past that – not right away, obviously. But I hope you can start enjoying working here in the meantime. Alison thinks you’re great. Everybody thinks you’re great, actually: Luke; Roger; Kerry. Even Giles, who doesn’t know you that well, is really impressed by your kindness and your plumbing. And I know you must be really angry with me and I’m not sure I could ever completely stop being angry with me if I were you, but I think you’re probably a much better person than I am.’

He looked up at me and I saw that he was back to not caring. My mistakes, my distress, my apology, my admiration for him, meant absolutely nothing.

But Kerry clearly meant a great deal. He cared deeply for her, more than he did about himself, in fact. It was the anger he felt on her behalf, not his own, which he couldn’t hide. It was a realisation which, at that moment, I found strangely comforting, and one which I decided I would pass on to Giles, so that he, in turn, could pass it on to Kerry. I was happy for her, and I just hoped that she cared as much for Cameron as he obviously did for her.

With a lengthening silence between us, I came to the unavoidable conclusion that our conversation, such as it had been, was at an end.

‘OK, then,’ I said, turning away. ‘See you tomorrow.’