‘Great, actually,’ she replied, removing her sunglasses and smiling broadly. ‘I felt like I got a lot of things sorted, and,’ she added quietly, ‘thanks for Friday night. I know I crashed the mood a bit, but it was such a relief to share…’ her eyes flickered momentarily towards Cameron, ‘everything with you. I felt like I’d been hiding something from you and I hated that.’

‘Absolutely,’ I said.

‘Oh, but how about you?’ She lowered her voice to a whisper, her expression suddenly serious. ‘Any more texts from Jason?’

Deciding not to dent her mood by telling her that, yes, I’d had two on Sunday evening, which I had ignored, the first reminiscing about the old days and the second asking me how my weekend had been, I shook my head. ‘Nothing.’

She smiled again, seeming satisfied. ‘Good. Because you can do without that.’

I nodded and turned to see Alison, pressing her shoulder against the glass door of the office and pushing it open. ‘Good morning,’ she said, sounding a little breathless and struggling to manage a leather tote, a laptop case, two poster tubes and a Marks and Spencer carrier bag. I made to stand up, but Roger got there first.

‘Unload,’ he said, striding towards her.

Saying nothing, she handed him the M&S bag before turning her left shoulder towards him. He slid the tote down her arm and then, carrying both it and the plastic bag, followed her into her office.

I lowered myself back into my chair, switched on my desktop and then ignored it, looking around instead at my work colleagues. Luke was frowning in concentration while still tapping away furiously at his keyboard; Cameron was sitting in profile to me, a stylus pressed thoughtfully against his stubbly chin as he studied a tablet on the desk in front of him; and behind the glass walls of her office, Alison was nodding slowly, while Roger spoke, addressing the floor, hands in pockets. Neither her expression, nor his, gave any hint as to the subject matter, but I could tell it wasn’t cheery chit-chat about the weekend just gone, and as Alison glanced briefly in my direction, I had a horrible feeling that I myself had just featured in the solemn topic under discussion.

Fighting an increasing and completely unfamiliar sense of workplace isolation, I turned at last to Ruby, suddenly finding myself envying her escape from Alison Gerrard Ltd, and wondering whether I shouldn’t perhaps grab a shovel and start digging a tunnel myself.

She looked up at me questioningly. ‘All good, Edie?’

Unable to reply immediately, I nodded rapidly, hoisting my mouth up into a smile. ‘Yes,’ I managed after a moment, as inner Edie’s lower lip trembled and she considered bursting into tears, ‘everything’s great.’

Chapter 6