‘Morning, both,’ he replied, walking to his desk and banging his silver flask down onto it.

‘Hello,’ I said. ‘How was the weekend? Get up to anything interesting?’

He removed his coat and scarf, hung them up on the black metallic hat stand behind his desk and sat down. ‘Oh, this ’n’ that,’ he said, with his usual gruff good humour. ‘This ’n’ that.’

‘Nope, sorry, Rog,’ said Luke, shaking his head. ‘Edie needs more information than that this morning. She’s info hungry. She’s already interrogated me, it’s your turn next, and then Cameron’s when he gets in. Isn’t that right, Edie?’

I continued to unpack my things, without looking up. ‘Yes, I’m in nosey mode, Roger.’

‘Oh… well… I…’ Roger cleared his throat. ‘I don’t rightly know that I… that I have any very interesting information to impart, as such, Edie. But I did, amongst other things, enjoy a bracing walk with a friend and then we ate a lunch of ham, egg and chips and chicken salad respectively,’ he added in a rush before, clearly embarrassed and several light years out of his comfort zone, turning to face his drawing board.

I looked at Luke who in turn looked at Roger and then back at me, his eyes widening slightly. He took a breath as if about to say something, but I shook my head and put a finger to my lips. He nodded acceptingly and picked up his coffee and we sat in bemused silence until Cameron arrived just moments later.

‘Morning,’ he said.

Luke and I said, ‘Hi.’ Roger silently raised a hand, keeping his back resolutely turned to the room.

Cameron frowned and looked questioningly at me. I mouthed, ‘Not sure,’ and Luke offered him a shrug.

Cameron tried again. ‘Good weekend, everyone?’

We all looked at Roger, who gave a thumbs-up, without turning round.

‘Well, I met up with uni friends,’ I said, ‘in Hungerford. We had a really nice time.’

‘And I was at a birthday party,’ said Luke. ‘Probably best not to go into details – not that I can remember many. But Cameron,’ he continued, with a side-long glance in my direction, ‘whatever were you up to?’

Cameron, who had by now settled himself at his desk, switched on his screen. ‘I was at a wedding in Stratford.’

Luke looked at me. ‘With whom?’ he mouthed, jerking his head towards Cameron.

I rolled my eyes. ‘How lovely,’ I said. ‘A winter wedding.’

Luke made a chicken gesture and I was just reaching for a Post-it note to scrunch up and throw at him when Ruby walked in.

‘Morning, everyone!’ she said brightly, casually removing her sunglasses and bright yellow coat and striding across the office. It was as though she had never been away.