‘Obviously, I couldn’t talk to you about it,’ he said quickly. ‘Aside from all the confidentiality stuff, I wouldn’t have wanted to upset you.’

‘I don’t care about you not discussing it, Luke!’ I exclaimed. ‘You were right not to discuss it. I just can’t understand…’ I gestured towards the corridor and took a deep breath to calm myself. ‘I just can’t understand how it hasn’t affected your relationship with Ruby and, much more importantly, with him.’ I jabbed a forefinger towards Cameron’s empty desk.

‘Of course it affected how I felt – about both of them,’ he said, appearing confused. ‘How couldn’t it? I’ve just tried to be professional and not let it show. That’s what Alison recommended and I definitely think it was the right thing to do – especially when it was agreed by everyone to let it go as a misunderstanding.’

‘Do you honestly believe it was a misunderstanding?’ I asked, offering him one last opportunity to make his behaviour towards Cameron more explicable, if not more palatable, to me.

He looked at me uncertainly, his expression changing by the moment. It was clear that there was some sort of internal battle raging.

‘Look, if you want me to be completely honest with you, Edie,’ he said at last, ‘I don’t think it was a misunderstanding. I wasn’t there when it happened – or didn’t happen. I wasn’t a witness or anything, and neither was anyone else. As Alison said, it’s crucial to remember that,’ he added quickly. ‘But while you were away, I saw enough to…’ He shook his head. ‘I shouldn’t be saying any of this. It’s unhelpful and unprofessional conjecture. I don’t know what happened and I’m definitely not judging, or taking sides.’

His voice faded to a whisper and I blinked rapidly, uncertain whether to burst into tears or throw my pencil pot at him.

He slid his hands into his pockets and gazed at the floor. ‘I know I’m a dick sometimes, but I’m not stupid. I get how upsetting this is for you. Like I say, that’s part of why I didn’t talk to you about it – that and the fact that absolutely everybody would have killed me, and I really don’t want to lose this job.’ He smiled sadly. ‘But I’m glad she told you. I think that was brave of her and will have helped her a lot.’

I felt angry, disappointed tears beginning to well and, deciding that I’d better stem those before pelting him with pencils, I pushed back my chair and bent low, reaching into my bag for a tissue. It took only a matter of moments to fish one out, but by the time I sat up, Luke was turning to leave.