At lunchtime, Piper walked up to Fulham Palace Road and bought a prawn and avocado baked potato to eat at her desk while she checked her social media.

The photo Matt had taken had more likes and comments than any photo Piper had ever posted before. At first she was worried that it had been picked up by some dickhead again, posted to Reddit with ‘This is what a fat feminist looks like’ or some shit. But no. It had been regrammed by a super popular BoPo blogger and featured in the Instagram story of another site Piper loved.

And for once the comments were almost entirely positive, calling her smoking hot and admiring her confidence. She felt confident just looking at the photo. She loved it. She was going to have to buy Matt a bottle of wine or something. Maybe cook him dinner.

When she opened her emails, she found she had a message from a journalist writing a piece about body positivity who wanted to interview her in person, along with a photoshoot, plus a couple of emails from brands offering her stuff to review. She’d done a bit of work with brands over the years, but the emails were from better-known companies than she’d worked with before. She made a note to get back to them as soon as she could after work. She also needed to check her PR page and make sure her terms were up to date.

After lunch, she found she had an all caps ‘urgent’ email about the girl band name. The list now included The Muffin Tops, Scratch That Itch, Play Nice, The Sugar Mice.

‘The Sugar Mice?’ Piper said out loud.

‘I know, right?’ someone said from further down the office.

It's a Girl Thing, The Crush, Sux, The Vacations, Eleven.

‘These are all terrible,’ Piper muttered, deleting the email.

She opened Facebook, intending to grab Rob’s address for the padded envelope in her in-tray with the CD and card ready to send, but instead typed: I’m going to be home this weekend. Are you around? Want to get a coffee? I could give you the thing instead of sending it.

Once the message was sent, she shut Facebook down to ensure she didn’t spend the rest of the afternoon refreshing the page.

John had left some dictation tapes in her in-tray and after she’d finished the second tape, she headed to the kitchen to make a tea and instead found three of the A&R guys, including Lee, gathered over someone’s phone, snorting with laughter.

‘What’s up?’ she said on her way past.

Instead of showing her whatever pointless video they’d been watching or saying, as the newest one, Angus, had once, ‘Sorry, it’s porn,’ they all just stopped, perfectly still, like gazelles in a nature documentary hearing a lion approach.

‘What?’ Piper said, but as soon as the word was out of her mouth she knew exactly what. She took a deep breath. ‘LADbible?’

Angus’s eyes were wide. ‘You know about it?’

She shrugged. ‘Yeah. I thought the cleavage one was funny.’

She flipped the kettle on and leaned against the kitchen doorway. ‘What’s the big deal though? It’s like these fools have never seen a woman before.’

Her heart was actually racing, but other than that she felt oddly calm. Because really, what did the picture represent apart from a fat woman having fun at a party? How was that notable?

‘You look good,’ Angus said, his voice coming out slightly squeaky. ‘Nice… dress.’

Piper laughed. ‘Thanks. It was my school reunion. Good night.’

Angus and the other guy, Phil, wandered back to their offices. Only Lee stayed behind.

‘Do you, um, want to go out again? Some time?’ he asked, glancing around again, his voice low.

Piper suddenly realised something. She blinked at him. ‘Did we go to The Dove because you were embarrassed to be seen with me?’

‘What?’ he said. ‘No!’ His cheeks had gone pink.

‘And you’re asking me out again now, but whispering?’

He shook his head. ‘I think you’re hot and—’

‘And we had nothing in common,’ Piper said. ‘We had an evening of awkward conversation and then an even more awkward attempt at a kiss and I really have no interest in a repeat. Thank you.’

The kettle boiled and she poured the water into the mug. When she’d finished making the tea, Lee had gone. She stayed in the kitchen while she drank her tea, thinking about how when she was a teen she would have regarded what had happened with Lee as her worst nightmare. And how now it barely mattered to her at all. Matt was right – she’d changed more than she’d let herself believe.

When she got back to her desk, there was a message from Rob: How about I cook you dinner instead?