‘He’s fine,’ I said. ‘He’s just taken Anthony for a walk. You might see him later.’

He nodded, but knowing exactly what Giles’s feelings were towards him, he looked neither hopeful of, nor happy at, the prospect. It was Jason’s ability to read people that made him such an expert manipulator and liar; something I was now always very careful to bear in mind.

However, when it came to our current shared person of interest – Ruby – I could see no reason for him to lie, either about the fact that she had pursued him or that he had slept with her. The latter in particular was something which in the past he would have worked hard to keep tightly under wraps. What’s more, the suggestion that Ruby was ruthless and self-serving was now entirely believable to me in a way it simply wouldn’t have been three months earlier.

‘So how are you?’ I began. ‘I don’t think I managed to ask you that last week.’

‘I’m OK,’ he said. ‘Work is fine and the rest…’ He picked up his coffee. ‘The rest will take time. The therapy is painful and slow-going, but I haven’t tried to shag my therapist yet, so, you know,’ he shrugged, ‘small steps.’

I didn’t reply.

‘Too soon?’ he asked.

‘Never would be too soon.’

‘You’re right,’ he said, addressing the quiet response to his mug as he replaced it on the table in front of him. ‘I just thought I’d see if a bit of black humour might improve our relationship, because saying sorry to you doesn’t seem to. But maybe I just haven’t said it enough.’ He paused, looking up at me. ‘I’m sorry, Edie. So, so, so sorry. In the past, I’ve apologised because I wanted forgiveness from you. But now, I don’t expect it and I don’t need it. All I need is for you to believe that I am sorry. Don’t forgive me. I wouldn’t forgive me.’ He paused for a second time. ‘Just believe me.’

‘I’ll think about it,’ I said.

‘Thank you. Oh and my therapist is a bloke by the way. So those steps I was talking about: really tiny.’

I smiled in spite of myself and saw him relax a little.

‘But how are you?’ he asked. ‘Or is that a stupid question after I ruined your week? Go me,’ he said, punching the air weakly with his fist and adding a feeble, ‘Yay’.

‘To be fair, it wasn’t going great, even before your intervention.’

‘No?’

‘I’ve had some problems with a work colleague.’

His eyes widened slightly. ‘That doesn’t sound like you. Which one?’

‘New guy, you don’t know him. It was my fault, not his.’

‘Is this the big guy Ruby mentioned? Joined four or five months ago?’