‘Yeah?’ she asks, and the way she sounds so hopeful makes Duke want to throw aside the table with his bare hands, right there and then, so that there’s nothing between them and he can take her and hold her and kiss her.

‘Yeah,’ he says, and she lets out a little oh.

‘So,’ she says, and her eyes dance like they’re trying to settle on something with a more concrete conclusion. ‘See you tonight? At the wrap party?’

‘It can’t come quick enough.’ Duke smiles, and he practically floats to set.

That morning Duke and Daphne shoot their last scenes, but by mid-afternoon they sit and look at what they need to get done before flying home for Christmas, and it feels insurmountable. The solution starts with: work through the night, work in the car to the airport, work on the flight, and don’t stop working right up until the deadline, being methodical, decisive, and where they need to, breaking off to divide and conquer instead of each having to co-sign every decision.

‘You’ve gotta trust me, and I’ve gotta trust you,’ Daphne says, as they look at the tasks they’ve yet to fulfil scrawled out on a piece of A4. After wrapping on set, they got back to the hotel as quickly as possible. The party downstairs has already started, everyone exited to get home and proud of the work they’ve done. The pair plan to go down for a toast shortly and then keep on.

‘That’s the easy part.’ Duke shrugs. ‘The hard part will be finding the sheer force of will to keep pushing through. I was not expecting this when I was budgeting my energy.’

‘I know.’ She laughs. ‘I mean, if we have to be roped into anything at least it’s this, right? If we pull this off, it could be the start of something really huge for us. It’s like how Reese did Wild and what, ten years later had a billion-dollar company?’

‘Okay, well when you put it like that …’

‘But let’s pop downstairs now? This is a good time to break?’

‘Great,’ Duke agrees. ‘Although I’ve heard there’s karaoke, so we might have done ourselves a favour by excusing ourselves.’

‘Yikes,’ Daphne says, and they head out.