Dave pulled his pants up while Rose tugged her top down.

‘We’re definitely not doing that again,’ he said as she rearranged her shorts.

‘Aw, but you’re so good at it.’ She kissed him lingeringly, taking his bottom lip between her teeth. Her fingers traced his stubbled jawline: rough yet fine, like 180-grit sandpaper. ‘Really, really good at it.’

‘Thanks. But you know, I don’t mean we’re not going to do this again.’ His hand was still cupping her butt; he gave one cheek a squeeze. ‘But we can’t do it again here.’

She looked around. Yes, it was a toilet, one of the portaloos that had been installed out the back of the site office for the crew’s use. But it had done the job; Rose had already been mentally scheduling another visit for later in the day.

‘I’m serious,’ he said. ‘Every time I take too long doing something away from the cameras, they don’t let me do it again. Next time I need to use an outside toilet, they’ll find a reason to stop me.’

‘Shit.’

‘We’ve already used up that excuse.’

She kissed him again, her tongue insistent, their breaths seeming loud in the confined space. If they weren’t going to be able to do this again today, she was going to make the most of it. She’d tried to call Nicola last night and give her the news, but when she finally got through all she heard was Nicola shouting in the background while flapping white wings filled the screen. It sounded like Harippo-chan was attacking the laptop. Rose hadn’t called back.

‘There’ll be plenty of nooks and crannies in the house we can sneak off into, though,’ Dave said when they finally unlocked their lips. ‘I definitely haven’t finished with your nooks and crannies just yet.’

‘My crannies are all yours,’ she said, ‘and we can talk about the nooks when we get around to doing this on a real bed. But we’re not going to be able to sneak around your house.’

Dave’s face fell.

‘Leary caught me yesterday after you left. He said you’re not going to have time to sneak off the set, because after tomorrow’s judging the show goes to the next level. Which sounded a lot like they’ll be filming you in the house all day, every day.’

‘Oh shit,’ Dave said. ‘I knew at some point the producers would make us start putting everything together, but I thought we still had a week or two.’

‘Moss the Boss said next week is the start of the “down to earth” stage.’

‘Shitty shit,’ Dave said, shaking his head. ‘That’s the main construction stage. I’ll really have to lift my game now.’

‘If you’re doing construction we’ll get more time together on set,’ Rose said hopefully.

‘Only if you’re assigned to us,’ Dave said. ‘If you’re not I’ll never get to see you.’

‘Well, you’ll just have to win me every week,’ Rose said, and kissed him again.

‘We definitely do need more cupboards,’ Dave breathed into her neck. ‘Lots more cupboards. And shelves.’

‘So many shelves,’ Rose said, nipping his earlobe between her teeth. ‘So many cupboards.’

‘I’ve got to go,’ Dave said, pushing her away. ‘I really do have to go.’

‘I know you do,’ Rose said. ‘But I can’t let you go.’

‘That’s because I’m all exciting and new to you,’ he said, a new, darker tone to his voice. ‘Once you get to know me you’ll realise just how easy I am to push away.’

Rose shook her head. ‘Where’s this coming from? You know I can’t keep my hands off you.’

‘You’re amazing,’ he said. ‘I don’t deserve someone like you.’

‘I’m the judge of that,’ she said. ‘And I say you’re just what I deserve.’

Even though his hands lingered on her hips, he wouldn’t meet her eye. ‘You’re sweet, but I’ve done bad things. I haven’t always been the best guy.’

‘I don’t expect you to be perfect,’ Rose said, ‘but from what I’ve seen, you’re perfect for me.’

‘I doubt that.’ He pulled his hands away, clenching them into anxious balls.

‘Dave,’ she said, ‘even if you’d blown up a kindergarten – which I doubt, because I’ve seen how bad you are with tools – you’re a man who’s trying to better himself. You wouldn’t have wanted me to help you get better with tools if you weren’t.’

‘I’ve got a lot to learn,’ he said. ‘I used to think this kind of thing would just come naturally to me, that I could pick it up as I go along.’

‘A lot of people think that,’ Rose said, remembering any number of dates with men who assumed they could do what she did because they’d made a flower box in high-school woodwork class.

‘Not me. Not anymore.’

‘See? You want to learn.’

‘I need to learn. I need to be able to fix things.’ His voice was urgent.

‘You will,’ she said reassuringly. ‘You’re a fast learner.’

‘I’m definitely motivated. When I signed on for this, they said they were going to help me get started, but they’ve done nothing. I’ve just been bungling around, like a joke. I reckon the producers think it’s better TV if I don’t know what I’m doing.’

She hadn’t realised how important this was to him. ‘Dave, what’s wrong?’ Rose took his face in her hands. ‘All this dark talk about trying to fix what you broke in the past is getting creepy.’

He sighed. ‘I don’t want to be creepy.’

‘Then tell me what happened.’

Dave opened the portaloo door and looked around behind him. ‘It’s nothing,’ he said, backing out.

He hurried off. Rose waited a few seconds, then a few seconds more. Usually she’d give him at least a minute’s head start to make sure the coast was clear, but she wasn’t going to let him leave on that note. She stepped out of the portaloo and looked around. Dave was disappearing around the corner of the site office, heading back to his house. She hurried after him, patting herself down as she went, making sure everything was back where it should be. Two more months of clutching at stray moments whenever they could didn’t seem so amazing now, but already she knew the second she was near Dave it’d take everything she had not to reach out and grab him. They’d just have to make the most of every second they had.

Dave was hurriedly striding around the back of the houses; Rose took the shorter but more public route along the court. If anyone stopped her, hustling to get back to work was all the excuse she’d need; Leary hadn’t been kidding around when he said the show was about to pick up the pace. Most of her morning had been spent in front of a camera helping Michelle install a range of hallway shelves. Michelle had even toned down the bitchiness a bit; Rose figured she was saving her quality zingers for when the pressure was really on.

Rose didn’t quite run up the path to Dave’s front door, but she was definitely a woman in a hurry. Which was lucky, because she was still a good ten metres from the front door when it opened and a grumpy-looking Leary stepped outside.

‘The clock’s ticking,’ he said. He literally pointed at his watch when he said it; Rose didn’t think people still wore watches now that everyone had phones.

‘Sorry,’ she said, remembering her cover story. ‘I was out at the depot trying to find some decent brackets. The only ones in the house were from Bad Bart – uh, I mean Bartletts.’

‘They are our main sponsor,’ Leary said, leaving the door open behind him as he came down the path towards her. ‘I guess they expect us to actually use what they’re giving us once in a while.’

Rose wasn’t sure if this was meant to be a joke or not – the Bad Bart’s brackets were lucky to support the weight of a shelf, let alone a shelf with something on it. But before she could react, Leary was past her and heading towards the site office.

‘See ya,’ Rose said to herself as he strode away. At least he hadn’t wanted to know where she’d been. And if Michelle wanted to know what she’d been up to, Rose could say she’d been talking to Leary, and it wouldn’t even be a lie. Win-win, she thought.

Michelle was in one of the front rooms, which was bare except for an oversized couch covered with cushions. Well, it was usually covered with cushions; for some reason today they were all on the floor. ‘Oh, that husband of mine,’ Michelle said, running a hand over the back of her neck to tidy up a few stray strands of hair. ‘He worked out all these savings to boost our cushion budget so we could get twice as many, but now we’ve got nowhere to put them all.’

The cushions looked fine to Rose, but she was no expert. Michelle suddenly dropped to her knees and started grabbing the cushions, throwing them back onto the couch. ‘They won’t even stay on the silly couch,’ Michelle said. ‘I’m constantly having to pick them up off the floor.’

‘Do you need me to help here?’ Rose said, ‘Because I thought I could start work on putting together the frame for the guest bedroom’s built-in wardrobes.’

‘I’ll need you back here soon,’ Michelle said, still on her knees, ‘I haven’t finished the hall shelves yet.’

‘Of course,’ Rose said, backing out of the room. She could hear Dave chatting to the camera crew in the kitchen; when she walked in she saw they were filming him fitting a kickboard under one of the cabinets Rose had installed a day or two earlier. It was brushed aluminium, so nothing to do with her; presumably one of the other tradies had brought it over from the depot.

A PA hurried over to Rose as she stood in the kitchen doorway, and urgently waved her away. Rose walked a few steps back down the hall, with the PA close behind.

‘I just wanted to have a word with Dave,’ Rose said.

‘Dave’s going to be installing boards all afternoon,’ the PA said. ‘Is it anything urgent?’

‘No,’ Rose said after a moment. ‘No, I guess it can wait.’

The PA looked down at the runsheet on her clipboard. ‘We’ll be needing you to work with Michelle for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe run it past her?’

Rose turned on her heel to get back to work.

Yeah, she thought as she walked back down the hall. Probably not.