‘Did you feel annoyed that your time was cut short with anyone?’

Again, his eyes remain on the photographs.

Darcy finds her eyes falling on them too. She could easily point out five ‘wifeys’ that were specifically cast as legitimate love interests, but in previous seasons the suitor usually spotted them a mile away. Normally it’s her job to insist that the catty girls are kept around for a few weeks and to kick off the dullest. But this feels very different from the previous seasons she’s worked on.

‘Ty?’ she prods again. It’s already been a long day and she knows there’s a schedule they need to stick to.

He stands abruptly, his chair scraping across the floor. ‘It’s too much. I don’t know.’ He runs his hands through his hair then drags them down over his face. He turns away to the window. ‘What if I choose the wrong person?’

Darcy’s partly relieved to see him freaking out. Freaking out is heaps better than not caring at all and this kind of reaction is common. It’s her job to stay composed, to make this very unusual situation feel normal. She channels her best calming voice. ‘Ty, let me get you some water.’ She moves to the fully stocked bar fridge and grabs a bottle from one of their sponsors. ‘I’ll sit down with you and we’ll go through every girl, okay?’

At first he doesn’t move, just stands still, almost like a statue, except his index finger scratches back and forth against his thumb.

Darcy’s heart accelerates a little. All this silence feels like she’s standing on the edge of a cliff. ‘Ty?’

Finally he says, ‘Okay.’

‘What are they saying?’ Darcy says, rushing into the office and plonking her stuff down on her desk after an unsatisfying amount of sleep. The first episode went to air last night less than twenty-four hours after it was filmed. Producing an episode of The One in such a short time is always chaotic, but Darcy has learned to thrive on the adrenaline.

Drew had missed most the show because of footy training but from what he saw he said it looked tops. After that phone call she’d messaged with friends for hours about what they thought of the new season and then she couldn’t help but trawl the internet for articles as they were posted online. By the time she finally fell asleep it was almost time for her alarm to go off.

She flicks her computer on and while she waits for it to boot, leans over Mel’s shoulder who is reading through The One forum to see what the latest comments are.

‘Claire from Manly says Ty is the hottest suitor we’ve ever had,’ Mel reads from the screen. ‘But Olivia from Yass thinks he’s too quiet and wishes he had a bit more of a public profile.’