eleven

I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to have sex with someone you work with, and I’m pleased and relieved to say that I never have. But Marianne and I came close once, we really did. Not, as is so often rumored to happen, at an overnight corporate event in a hotel. No, we just fell for each other when we first met and started a personal relationship, before deciding that it was not a wise way for two executives at the same company to behave.  I know other people do it, but that’s for them to decide. We went as far as planning a holiday to Mauritius together and then cancelled it.

I’m telling you these private details because they were still relevant to our working relationship four years later. We had both been new to the company at the time and neither of us was married back then. Helen and I had not even met. Without any commitments at the time to other partners, Marianne and I could have legitimately gone the whole way, even gotten...