Dog entered the basement below Gordon’s feet, where his two paddleboards, Malibu, foamie, mini Mal and surf ski were stashed on the damp sandy slab. An honour system, Gordon thought with a grimace. Now Dog’s sun-creamed face appeared at the top of the internal stairs, his smile powered by the renewable energy of discovering that his boards had not been broken into small pieces. ‘Master of the house! Coffee up?’

Dog pulled himself up on the last banister post, but before Gordon could warn him the wooden newel came off in his hands. Dog shrugged, made to screw it back into place, but then tossed it to Gordon, who stared at it for a moment before dropping it in his board shorts pocket, another job for the list.

‘Don’t know how long you can keep squatting in this death trap,’ Dog said, bending towards the kitchen as if climbing a mountain, exaggerating the subtle uphill slope of the living room floor just as he had affected not to feel the three flights from the beach.

Gordon filled the electric jug.

‘Macchiato, champ.’ Dog nodded at the gleaming La Marzocco espresso machine against the kitchen’s back wall.

Gordon switched on the jug and placed a tin of instant beside it.

‘Lou gone out?’ Dog said with sad eyes.

‘Early start for everyone.’

Among other initiatives, Gordon’s goddaughter had bought the commercial Italian machine on Afterpay and begun popping out cafe-quality coffees to the amazement of all comers. But Lou was the only one who knew how to use the La Marzocco, so its hours of operation were limited.

Gordon and Dog tested the theory about a watched jug.

‘So,’ Dog said, ‘all on ya tod.’

‘All on me tod.’

Gordon moved to the painted open shelf, still stocked with the mismatched crockery that had been there when he moved in six months earlier, alongside an indecently expensive handcrafted ceramic tea-and-coffee set imported from Kyoto. Gordon stared dumbly at the Japanese cups, and felt Dog staring too. They knew exactly what was what, the pair of them. Gordon reached for a cracked Big W mug and set it in front of Dog’s sun-spotted hands, alongside the tin of instant.