‘I’m looking forward to it, and to talking shop with Ron,’ I smiled, leaning back into the sofa and stretching out my legs as the bubbles began to work their magic on my moving-in-day muscle fatigue. ‘And to seeing Stella scale a wall. I really hope she’s there.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t worry,’ said Kerry, refilling her own glass and raising it towards me in a brief salute before necking half of it, ‘because even if she isn’t, something else’ll kick off. It always does.’

Chapter 10

I hadn’t been stretching the truth too much when I told Kerry that everything at work was fine. Because the fact of the matter was that very nearly everything had been fine in the weeks following Ruby’s departure, with most things continuing just as before. Luke’s sarcasm and hair were still firmly in place, Roger was still the dry-stone-wall voice of rock-solid reason and Alison still toiled, and intermittently enquired after our well-being, with her habitual lack of visible emotion.

The only obvious changes to the office environment were, therefore, Ruby and Cameron; Ruby because she simply wasn’t there and Cameron because he was increasingly relaxed and upbeat.

I had detected the first whiff of change on the very first Monday after Ruby left, when I had walked past his desk on my way to lunch and caught him quietly humming ‘Mr Brightside’ as he sat, phone pressed to his ear, waiting for someone to pick up. He had stopped abruptly as I crossed his field of vision, but I had heard the humming start up again as I headed out of the office and into the corridor.

Just over two months post-Ruby and the character change was no longer a whiff but an unmistakeable stench. The tense, taciturn, shirt-strangled hulk in the corner was no more, having been replaced by an occasional T-shirt wearer, who oozed bonhomie and walked with a relaxed spring in his step. Of course, the transformation could have been attributable simply to settling in and having proved his worth. But personally, I had no doubt whatsoever that the rapid shift in his demeanour had more to do with relief at the departure of Ruby, his thorn-in-the-side accuser.

Luke and Roger seemed more than willing to take his altered work persona at face value, and I tried not to resent them for that, making a conscious effort to divorce my relationship with them – and with Alison – from their relationship with him. After all, Cameron was, on the surface, a supportive and amiable team player, and I was desperate to give Luke and Roger the benefit of the doubt that they knew nothing of how he had behaved towards Ruby.