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Adam smiles as he walks in, but Tim’s expression changes. He seems taken aback and a bit flustered.

‘So, uh, remember, this isn’t a date, okay? You’re looking after my kids. Just keep it PG,’ he says awkwardly.

‘We’re not teenagers,’ I point out with a chuckle.

Angie just rolls her eyes.

‘The kids have eaten, and Emily has had her bath, so you just need to get Jake to have one and then you can put them to bed.’

‘Wait, I have to get him to have a bath?’ I check.

‘Yeah, he’s a bit freaked out by baths, but just stick him in there, make sure he doesn’t drown, get him out. Easy. We’ll be back late. Thanks again!’

Angie hooks her arm with Tim’s and drags him out of the door.

‘Well…’ I start, stopping to laugh.

‘How hard can it be?’ Adam says optimistically.

‘I guess we’ll find out,’ I reply.

Of course, when it is finally time to give Jake his bath, it’s so much worse than I expected it to be. He – ironically – flails around like a fish out of water the second he feels a drop of water on his foot.

Why did I sign up for this? Even with the two of us in here, we aren’t up to the job.

He doesn’t stop for a second, splashing, complaining – and you can’t reason with little kids. You can’t make them understand that the easier they make it, the sooner it will be over.

When a little baby shampoo gets in his eyes, Jake screams like a banshee. He reaches out, grabs the shower head that is connected to the bath, and fires it point blank at both of us.

Do you know what, I think we’re all about as clean as we’re going to get. We’re definitely soaking. I think we’ll leave it at that.

It’s a relief when we finally put him to bed. Remind me never to babysit for anyone ever again, please.

‘That was… an experience,’ I say, finally exhaling, after probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

Adam chuckles.

‘You handled it like a pro,’ he tells me. ‘And don’t worry, the bathroom will dry itself eventually.’

‘I just can’t believe there was so much splashing,’ I say. ‘Like… how does one small boy make so much mess?’

‘When he got hold of the shower head, I knew it was over,’ Adam replies. ‘We look like we got stuck in the middle of the causeway when the tide came in.’

I can’t help but laugh.

Standing on the landing, we both start peeling off our soaking-wet clothes. I get down to my cropped vest top while Adam strips down to his shirt. Thankfully we’re not too bad from the waist down.

‘I’m sure Angie won’t mind if we throw these in the dryer,’ I tell him.

‘Can we throw you in the dryer?’ he jokes, reaching to push a strand of my soggy hair behind my ear.

As he does, our bodies naturally move closer, slowly but surely, until we’re just about touching.

Then the doorbell rings.

‘That’ll be the pizza,’ Adam says, pulling back. ‘I’ll go get it.’

I puff air from my cheeks before heading downstairs after him.