‘Not too bad. The ceiling has been replaced and already it makes the place look ten times better. I’ve got big plans, but there’s no real rush,’ I said. Now that I wasn’t going to be reuniting with Adrian, my only concern was making sure I got the work done in a fair time for Wei and his sister. ‘The owners want it ready for the summer if possible. I’ve almost finished painting the bedrooms, the living room will be next, and I have tradies booked in after the school holidays to start on the kitchen and bathroom renovations. While they’re doing their thing, my next step will be stripping back the carpets and starting to revamp the original floorboards.’

‘You’re gunna do all that yourself?’

I nodded. ‘I’m actually a bit of a renovation junkie—self-taught over the years. When I was pregnant with Saxon, I stripped back all the old paint in his nursery and played with different paint effects.’ I didn’t mention this was because I’d been so paranoid and anxious after losing my first baby that I’d needed to do something to distract myself—that felt far too personal to share with a man I barely knew. ‘I made shelves and took up the carpet and polished the old floorboards. I enjoyed it so much that gradually I did the same with the rest of the house.’

‘Wow—that’s impressive.’

‘Not really,’ I said, a blush creeping up my neck. ‘You’ll be amazed what you can learn from magazines, and more recently DIY home reno videos on YouTube. It’s not only soccer skills, lip-synching videos and famous teen vloggers offering life wisdom on YouTube, you know. Initially I thought we were going to have to replace the window frames in the bedrooms, but I managed to bring them back to life myself.’

Dan smiled. ‘I stand by what I said—impressive. But how are you managing to fit everything in while also working at Brewed and on the newspaper?’

‘I’m just doing what I can when I can. Most of my writing and newspaper work I do at night, the cafe shifts were always during the day, and this week I’ve been getting up early and fitting in a few hours’ painting before doing anything else. It’s therapeutic. I’d actually been thinking it was time to redecorate my house again, but now … well, I’m not sure exactly what we’ll do with that in the long run, so this is the perfect outlet. Wei and Meili have basically given me free rein and it’s fun to be able to make decisions about paint colours and tiles, et cetera, without having to consult anyone else.’

‘There are indeed perks to being single,’ Dan said.