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Focusing back on her furniture, Hannah sighed. ‘No, that’s silly. Now that I’ve seen it in its full glory’ – she paused for effect and motioned towards the cheap and boring flatpack – ‘I don’t even want it. I do really like the dressing table, though, my aunt bought it for me. So, can we can grab that, maybe?’

‘Sure thing. Where are your tools? I’ll take the mirror section off; it’ll go in the back easier that way.’

‘Erm, I’ve only got an Allen key and a hammer.’ She pushed awkwardly past him and picked up her bundle of fresh clothes from the bed. ‘I’ll have a quick shower and change, then I’ll help you. I’ll be ten minutes max.’

‘Take your time, I’m in no rush. Where’s the Allen key?’ he asked, relentless in his pursuit of helping her.

‘Bottom kitchen drawer. But honestly, I won’t be long. Make yourself a coffee instead.’

She ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her, which seemed mean-spirited considering Caleb had been nothing but generous since meeting her. Which she might have thought odd, but she remembered him once spending an hour trying to climb a tree to get her backpack out of it. The fact that his friends had been the ones to throw it up there in the first place had been easily forgiven by her at the time – probably a little too easily.

After all, she didn’t actually know him any better than she had then. Plus, he didn’t recognise her, even after she’d shown him her signed contract with her full name on it.

After a quick shower, using a liberal helping of Becky’s fancy passionfruit shower gel and body lotion, she changed into her fresh clothes. After paying half the girls’ rent for the last couple of months, she thought she deserved few squirts of Passion Crème.

She’d only been in the bathroom for ten minutes, but the dressing table was already split into two sections by the time she came out. The pieces were waiting beside her chest of drawers with the rest of her things. She shoved her toiletries and dirty clothes into her squeaky case before joining Caleb in the kitchen. He was sipping a cup of coffee and leaning against the counter as if he hadn’t been working like a devil. There were even a couple of sturdy shopping bags open on the counter beside him.

‘Thought you could stick your kitchen stuff in these.’

‘Great.’ She pointed at a black bin bag on the floor beside him that had several wooden planks sticking out of it. ‘What’s that?’

Caleb grinned as if he’d performed a magic trick. ‘The slats of your bed and a couple of essential screws. They might get to keep your bed. But when they try to use it, it’s going to fall apart. Thought we could shove those bits in the apartment bins before we leave. It can be your fuck you note.’

The laughter exploded from her with a loud snort, and she covered her mouth with her hand. ‘Oh my God! That’s brilliant! Evil, but brilliant!’

With a sly smile, he took a sip of his coffee before adding, ‘That’s tame. We could be really bad and hide an open can of tuna in the air con. I bet it would take them ages to work out where the smell was coming from.’

‘Genius! But honestly, I think sabotaging the bed is enough.’ She began to pack up her crockery and kitchen supplies.

‘What do you want to do about that?’ he asked, pointing at the swirling bedlinen.

‘Leave it. I don’t want it. Besides, I think she put bleach in the washing machine.’

Caleb raised his brows and then shook his head. ‘How old are they again?’

Guilt momentarily clouded her delight. ‘Only twenty-one. Came here after uni for a gap yarrr!’ She put on a posh accent to garble the word ‘year’ – she’d always done it out of habit, but realised Caleb might not get the reference. Frowning, she shrugged. ‘I’m probably being a bit mean. They’re young, probably have no idea what they’re doing, and I should have known better than to move in with people ten years younger than me. We don’t want the same things in life.’ Her stomach soured as she realised she’d heard those exact same words from Patrick. ‘We don’t want the same things in life, darlin’.’

Caleb sipped his coffee thoughtfully. ‘Would you have behaved like them at twenty-one?’

Shaking her head firmly, she answered honestly, ‘I’m sure I would have been a thoughtless dick in other ways. But no, I wouldn’t have behaved like them.’

‘Then don’t feel bad.’ He poured out the rest of his coffee in the sink and gave it a quick scrub before placing the mug carefully in the bag – he must have noticed that all of hers were the striped mugs while she was packing. He was very observant. For goodness’ sake! Was she really getting hot and heavy for a man because he was handy with an Allen key and a scrubbing brush?

‘I’ll take the furniture down while you finish up,’ he said, grabbing the lower section of the dressing table.

Hannah made quick work of packing up the rest of her stuff. Caleb was practically running back and forth with her furniture and suitcases. She didn’t want to hold him up any longer than necessary – the man was a whirlwind. But before leaving, she took the time to write a quick note. She was about to leave the note on the counter when she thought better of it and put it on top of her mattress with her key instead.

This isn’t working.

Good luck with your next housemate.

Hannah

Chapter Seven

The next day, Caleb knocked on the door of Hannah’s aunt’s house and waited impatiently for Hannah to answer. She’d thanked and apologised to him more than once for interrupting his plans. He didn’t care; if anything, Caleb welcomed the disruption – he had always thrived on chaos and change. In a way, the unexpected was far more familiar territory for him.

The area Hannah’s aunt lived in was almost an hour from Sydney Harbour, so he could understand why Hannah had preferred the more exciting central location of her previous flat.