Come-to-bed Parmigiana

One day back in early 2017, I turned up to work late, sleepless, an incoherent babbling wreck chewed up by an 18-month landmark court trial and with bright copper dye fading from my wiry, tousled mania of hair. I left my walking stick in the lobby and limped in to work ... to find a hand thrust towards me in a polite gesture of welcome, a smile, a curt hello. She introduced herself. I apologised seven times for my lateness and my pulled-from-a-car-wreck appearance. She was firm and professi