by Mel Campbell
‘In here,’ Michelle said impatiently. Rose followed the sound through a doorway into an open-plan living space. A row of floor-to-ceiling windows in front of her flooded the unfinished area with light. On her left was the kitchen area, dominated by a large stone island bench, while on the right Michelle stood pointing at a wall.
‘We’re putting our entertainment unit here,’ she said, gesturing at an unplastered area of wall. ‘And before we can do that, we need you to put in the storage.’
‘Did you want floating shelves, built-in cupboards, some kind of drawer arrangement, maybe even … uh …?’ she trailed off. Dave had just walked in behind Michelle and was giving Rose a smile that made her legs feel watery.
‘This is Rose,’ Michelle said. ‘She’s here to do the cupboards.’
‘Hi,’ he said, walking to her with his hand outstretched. ‘I don’t know if you remember me. We met briefly at the food truck?’
She looked down at her boots, a brownish stain still visible across the toe. ‘I think I still owe you a coffee.’
‘It’s a deal,’ he said, and she hoped her face wasn’t showing the way that made her feel.
‘I’ll bring my gumboots,’ Rose said.
‘Maybe you could do a few hours’ work before you start planning your break,’ Michelle said. ‘We’ve only got you here for a couple of days and there’s a lot of storage space I want put in.’
‘Yes, of course, sorry,’ Rose said, feeling her cheeks flush with shame. Then she looked at Dave, who gave her a wink.
‘There’s a lot of junk we’ve got stashed away here,’ he said.
Rose couldn’t help but glance down towards his crotch. Fortunately Dave was already turning to point back the way he’d come – and anyway, she was already blushing. ‘We don’t have cable here and they won’t let us have the internet, so I’ve been stocking up on DVDs,’ he said, pointing at a pile of plastic cases stacked against a wall. ‘We’re currently binge-watching that British home renovation show with all the accidents… Grim Designs?’
‘Oh, what season are you up to?’ Rose said excitedly, ignoring the stab to the heart she’d felt at his use of ‘we’. ‘I’m a massive fan.’
‘What was the last episode we saw?’ Dave said, turning to Michelle. ‘Was it the one with the historical toilet that fell into the moat?’
‘Oh, that’s a good one,’ Rose said, ‘that whole wall fell right into the moat on top of the pantless guy.’
‘I don’t know, Dave,’ Michelle said, ‘you’re the one who watches that show. I’m just in the same room.’
‘Michelle is more of an online person,’ Dave said.
‘And today I’m more of a “get work done” person,’ Michelle said. ‘So maybe we can start getting some work done.’
Rose and Dave looked at each and smiled, each realising the other was wearing the same contrite look, like naughty schoolchildren caught slacking off. Rose took out her measuring tape. ‘Sure thing,’ she said, and went to work.
Two hours later, Rose had a saw bench set up and was cutting lengths of wood for the shelves. Michelle had asked for a series of short floating shelves to be installed on either side of the entertainment unit, and after a quick trip to the supply depot she’d returned with a range of brackets and a number of planks of Tasmanian oak. Michelle had made it clear Rose’s job wasn’t to actually install the shelves, but to get everything in place so Michelle and Dave could be filmed putting them up later in the day. That was the last Rose had seen of Michelle; going by the noises coming from upstairs, she was knocking out a wall elsewhere in the house.
Dave had come in a couple of times to check out how things were going. He’d often ask a question about what she was up to, and at first she’d tried to brush him off, telling him that he didn’t need to know any of this stuff while she was around. But he’d been persistent, and gradually she’d realised that he was actually interested in what she was doing. Which was good, because having him just watching her working away in her tight-fitting Mansions in the Sky outfit was making her a lot more self-conscious than she liked.
‘So what’s next?’ he said when Rose had cut the final lengths of oak. ‘We put the shelves up?’
‘Not so fast,’ Rose said. ‘First I have to mark out where to put the brackets.’ She squatted down to rummage inside one of her tool cases. ‘Using this,’ she said as she found what she was after, straightening up with a small yellow device like a remote control in her hand.
‘What’s that?’ Dave said. His interest in all this stuff really was sweet, Rose thought. He was the first contestant who seemed actually curious about the hands-on side of home renovation. He seemed to respect her skills, while everyone else just saw her as part of the scenery. It didn’t hurt that he was looking good in his tight T-shirt and tradie shorts, either.
‘It’s a stud finder,’ she said, and pointed it at him playfully as she turned it on. It let out a beep. ‘Looks like I found one.’
Immediately she realised she’d gone too far. But Dave just laughed and said, ‘I think it’s broken,’ taking it from her and shaking it against his ear. As he handed it back, his fingers brushed her hand and maybe she imagined that he let them linger just a little too long … but either way, she was blushing again, and she had to fight the urge to respond to his touch. He was a married man and his wife was upstairs – if she reacted, that would make what she was feeling between them real, and she wasn’t sure she wanted that. Not yet.
He was still smiling at her, but now she found that more annoying than adorable. Shouldn’t he be taking responsibility for this tension between them – whatever it was? He was the one with the wife; he was the one who should be shutting her down when she went over the line.
‘I’d better get back to it,’ she said, turning from him to her tool cases. ‘I’m pretty sure your wife already has me on a deadline.’
‘She definitely does have a plan in place,’ he said, as much to himself as to her. ‘Look, let me give you a hand,’ he said, more clearly this time. ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’
‘Well, maybe hand me that pencil,’ she said as she walked back over to the wall. ‘I just need to mark in where these brackets will go.’
‘How about here?’ he said, reaching past her to make a mark on the wall. He was very close to her – closer, maybe, than he’d been when he was touching her hand. He smelled like sawdust, which shouldn’t have surprised her, but suddenly it seemed the sexiest scent, and she closed her eyes for a second just to drink it in. She took a deep breath, held it, then opened her eyes. The wall in front of her was covered in marks: it looked like Dave had either been trying to create his own connect-the-dots puzzle or stab an especially frantic spider.
‘What the –?’ Rose said.
‘Sorry,’ Dave said quickly. ‘I was trying to work out where the shelves should go. I probably shouldn’t have done my working out on the wall.’
‘The idea is that I use the stud finder first to find where I can install the brackets. Then I install the brackets.’
‘Oh, right, sorry. Guess I was getting a bit ahead of myself.’
‘Maybe I should handle this part of things on my own. I’ll call you back when I’ve got everything marked out.’
‘Hang on,’ he said. ‘I really do want to help you. Just tell me what I can do.’
‘Really, I just think you should let me handle this.’
‘But I can help,’ he said, reaching down to pick up a drill from her tool case. ‘I can just …’ He pulled the trigger and the drill revved. Unfortunately the drill bit had worked loose in transit, and it spun violently out from the chuck, hitting the wall just next to Rose’s knee.
‘Shit,’ she said, bending down to inspect the damage. The bit had hit the wall side-on; she gave the spot a rub and the mark smoothed away. Still, if it had hit any harder it might have gouged ou
t some of the plaster.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Dave said, ‘this is all still new to me.’
‘It’s my fault,’ Rose said, ‘I should have taken the bit out.’ She looked at him, not saying anything more.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Dave said eventually, when the silence between them had reached full awkwardness.
‘I’ll let you know when I’m done.’
‘Great.’
‘Okay, so …’ she said when Dave showed no sign of leaving. ‘You know where to find me if you need me.’
‘Thank God,’ he said, ‘I’d be lost without –’
Michelle appeared in the doorway, one hand on the frame like she was about to launch herself across the room at Dave. ‘Stop wasting her time and yours,’ she said.
‘He was just giving me a hand,’ Rose said.
‘I know what kind of “a hand” my husband gives,’ Michelle said. ‘We’d be halfway finished if he wasn’t so “handy” around here.’
‘Well, the shelves themselves are mostly done,’ Rose said. ‘I’ll have the potential spots for the brackets marked out and ready by lunch.’
‘That’s something, I guess,’ Michelle said.
Rose gave her a smile. ‘You can both come back then and we can finalise the placement.’
‘Right,’ Michelle nodded. ‘I want you to have a look at the hallway cupboard before lunch too. We’re going to want new shelving in there.’ She turned and left before Rose could reply.
‘Let me know if there’s anything I can do,’ Dave said. ‘Otherwise I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Wait,’ Rose said. She closed her eyes; was this a huge mistake? She could still smell him, and that made her decision easy. Maybe too easy. ‘Do you really want to give me a hand?’
She opened her eyes. He nodded. ‘I do.’
‘Okay, look. After they finish the afternoon filming you get an hour without cameras or mics for dinner, right? I’ll be in the supply depot, so meet me there and I’ll give you a few pointers on how to do this kind of thing right.’
His face lit up. Her heart melted just a little. ‘Don’t get too excited,’ she said, as much to herself as to him. ‘It’ll just be basic things. But if you really do want to be useful here, and not just a glorified home decorator, you’re going to have to do some work.’
He smiled. ‘I’m totally ready to get my hands dirty.’
And that was all she could think about for the rest of the day.
Much of that afternoon was spent filming Dave and Michelle ‘working’ on their new shelving, with Rose occasionally stepping in to fix things up in between takes. That gave her plenty of time to text Nicola with updates on the Dave situation. Rose wasn’t entirely sure her friend was taking it as seriously as she should have been: half her replies were just screenshots of Dave from previous episodes, with love hearts drawn around him or giant glowing arrows aimed at his crotch.
That wouldn’t have been a problem, except Dave kept glancing over at her and seeing her looking at her phone. She just knew he was going to come over and ask her what she was smirking at. She kept trying to think up some plausible excuse for her phone smiles in between fitting shelves, but nothing came to mind. Well, plenty came to mind, thanks largely to the screenshots of Dave’s butt that Nicola was constantly texting, but nothing she thought of could divert her attention from that surprisingly muscular pair of firmly curved cheeks.
When an assistant director finally announced they’d finished with the shelves and were going to break for dinner, Dave made a beeline for Rose but she was already heading for the door. ‘See you at the depot,’ she said, not looking back.
That may have been a little premature; she hadn’t cleared their after-work training session with anyone yet, and she had a nagging suspicion that it might be the kind of thing the producers would frown upon. Or worse, they might want to make it part of the show. Heading towards the site office, she saw Moss the Boss crossing the court from the footy players’ house. She called out; he stopped and waited for her to catch up.
‘So,’ she said, ‘I’ve been having a bit of trouble with Dave.’
‘Has he been trying to help out?’ Moss shook his head. ‘That man is all thumbs. Except for his actual thumbs, which are toes.’
‘He has, and I was thinking I could maybe give him a few basic lessons? Just so he’s not so clumsy?’
‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘That’s story-level shit. Usually that kind of thing would have to go past the producers.’
‘I don’t want to make a big deal out of it,’ she said. ‘It’s just that he really does seem to want to help out.’
Moss the Boss stopped, and Rose halted alongside him. ‘The last two story breakdowns I was given said that we were to show her as a competent go-getter and he’s a likable klutz who gets in her way,’ he said. ‘Which is boring as hell if you ask me, but they’re the chosen good guys for this season, so we’re to make the fights seem light-hearted and their mistakes have to be easily fixable. But as it stands Dave is coming across as too passive and annoying.’
‘This would totally fix that.’
‘If you could it would definitely make my job easier. Are you sure you want to spend your spare time teaching Mr Thumbs, though? A little knowledge can be dangerous.’
Rose nodded. ‘He’s already dangerous. He nearly stabbed me with a pencil and drilled my knee.’
‘Again? Shit. Okay, do what you can.’
‘I thought we could use the depot?’
‘Too public. Try one of the supply trucks.’ He unclipped a key ring from his belt, pulled one of the keys off, and handed it to Rose. ‘If the other contestants see you giving private tuition they’ll crack the shits, and if the producers hear about it they’ll either put a stop to it or make it a whole segment. And just quietly, you really don’t want that kind of attention.’
‘Definitely not. Low profile all the way. Thanks.’
‘Just keep him away from the pencils,’ Moss said, walking up the path to the site office. ‘I predict a serious injury in that man’s future.’
Rose turned and hurried towards the depot, where Dave was waiting for her. When she arrived, he was bending over beside a stack of pine planks. Several of the planks had been knocked onto the floor like pick-up sticks, and from the guilty look on Dave’s face, Rose thought she knew who was responsible.
She opened her mouth, then realised that her planned comment – something along the lines of ‘I thought you’d be better at handling wood’ – would set the wrong tone. It was bad enough that they’d spent so much time flirting up a storm. She didn’t want to go down that path twice in one day.
Dave looked up as she approached. ‘I was hoping to impress you with my wood handling skills,’ he said ruefully.
‘For now, leave the wood handling to me,’ she said, and then realised what she’d said a moment too late. ‘Oh – I … I didn’t mean …’
‘Mean what?’ Dave said; but the twinkle in his eye told her he knew exactly what she meant.
The tone had been set, but Rose was determined to keep things professional. ‘Maybe after this morning, we should start with drilling,’ she said.
Oh no – that was sexy too. ‘No … maybe that’s too much.’ She was getting flustered. ‘Perhaps we should start from the start: polishing, rubbing, buffing …’
Dave was looking at her with mild puzzlement as she rattled through a list of basic carpentry skills. ‘Look – forget it. Let’s go to the truck and see if there’s anything you are good at.’
He raised an eyebrow suggestively at this.
‘We can’t just do this where anyone can see.’
Dave raised his other eyebrow.
‘If the producers see me teaching you the basics, they’ll want to make it part of the show.’
‘Oh,’ Dave said, slightly disappointed.
‘I get you now. Where are we going, then?’
Rose looked down at the key in her hand, which was attached to a tag labelled ‘Truck 3’. She glanced up at the trucks parked outside the depot. ‘Let’s go,’ she said.
For the next hour, Rose showed Dave the kind of basics she’d picked up on her first day as an apprentice: how to hold a hammer; how to fit a bit to a drill; how to cut through wood with a handsaw. She showed him how to take measurements, which was more complicated than Dave had thought; and she showed him a spirit level and explained how it worked. He was a fast learner. It was just obvious that no one had bothered trying to teach him before now. She even gave the stud finder another try, and they both laughed at that.
The time flew by. Rose was amazed how much she was enjoying this. It wasn’t just that she was in such close proximity to the guy she was attracted to, or that he had a playful, teasing sense of humour; she was also enjoying the chance to share her knowledge. Dave was constantly asking questions, and sure, most of them were pretty basic, but it felt strangely intimate to have someone actually listen to her and take in what she was saying.
They finished up with the hand-sawing lesson. Rose put a length of two-by-four on the sawhorse, and sawed into one side until she’d created a deep groove for Dave to follow. ‘Your turn,’ she said, stepping aside and leaving the saw still embedded in the cut.
Dave put too much effort into the downward stroke. The blade of the saw bent alarmingly. ‘Not so hard,’ Rose said.
He tried again. This time the saw caught in the grain of the wood as Dave was trying to pull it out. The blade skipped and jerked out of his hand. ‘Let me show you,’ Rose said.
Automatically she moved to stand behind Dave, putting her hand over his on the saw handle. Slowly she pulled the saw back, then put her weight behind the downward stroke, leaning in to Dave’s back as she pushed the saw smoothly forward. The blade bit deeply into the wood.
‘See? It’s a rocking motion,’ she said. She repeated the movement, pulling the saw back and then pushing it forward. ‘Like that. You’ve got to ease it in.’