Nodding approvingly at the cream-coloured ivory stone threaded with distinctive silver veins and flecks of gold, she glanced up at the space around her. It was what she would choose too, given the opportunity. Courtney truly did have great taste. Her curiosity piqued, Hannah then opened up another browser window to check the price.

‘Yikes,’ she gulped, eyes widening at the results. ‘Seems I’m more of a Formica girl …’

As if on cue, a loud knock sounded on the front door and she jumped off the stool, hurrying to answer. Seems the marble guys were early. Well, with any luck maybe that meant that they would also finish early and the remainder of this beautiful spring day would be her own.

‘Installation for Wilde?’ a workman in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt emblazoned with a company logo greeted her upon opening the door.

‘Sure, hi. I’m Hannah, the house-sitter.’

The man shrugged as if he could care less about who she was or why she was there. ‘Whatever. Got some papers to sign first.’ He shoved a clipboard at her and took a pen from behind his right ear, offering it to her.

Hannah cautiously took both items and bit her lip. ‘OK, but I need to verify that it’s correct first. Before I sign anything, I mean.’ Courtney had stressed that the stone pieces needed to be bookmarked, which from what Hannah could tell, basically meant that the markings of each piece were a perfect mirror image of each other. ‘Those are my instructions – from the owner,’ she said, trying to sound authoritative against the worker’s gruff demeanour.

He huffed, clearly annoyed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, then swept his arm behind him to the empty hallway. ‘You think I’m gonna drag a tonne of stone all the way up here just to drag it all back down if it’s the wrong stuff?’

Hannah grimaced. His voice was echoing down the hallway. The renovation work hadn’t even begun yet and already there was a racket!

‘Well,’ she said diplomatically, lowering her voice in the hope he’d take the hint, ‘I suppose it would be a bigger problem if you installed something that wasn’t quite what your customer ordered and then had to reinstall everything to make it right?’ she countered, trying to keep a neutral face. ‘That sounds like a very expensive mistake – not that I know much about marble installation. You’re the expert.’

The guy sighed heavily; he knew she was right. Verify first, or potentially double the work. ‘All right. All right. But you get where I’m comin’ from, yes?’

‘Of course, I do. And I’m just following orders. I need to check first before I sign for it. That’s all.’

In response, the worker rolled his eyes. ‘Lady, I’ve been doing this a long time—’