I had a job to do, my greenhouse kit had arrived, and I wanted to build it, and Dad had said he would come round to help. It looked like it was going to be a warm sunny day, so I put a bikini on; I might as well get some sun at the same time.

I started opening the boxes and laid all the various bits and pieces out across the patio and the lawn, keeping a big space free where the greenhouse would eventually sit. I sat on my sun lounger and looked through the instruction pamphlet; I had all the tools I would need. The instructions said to start with the base, so I found those pieces and laid them out, then the fixings, and started to loosely connect everything together.

“Morning, Mica,” Dad said, startling me a little. I hadn’t heard him arrive, and I was bent over, back to the house, tightening up the base. I turned and rushed over to him and gave him a big Mica hug.

“Morning, Daddy. Thank you so much for helping. Some bits do need two people, one to tighten and one to hold. Is Mum okay?”

“Yes, baby, she is changing the beds and rearranging the kitchen cupboards. I do not know why she changes the spare bed; it is hardly ever used.”

“Sounds like you are well out of it then, Daddy.”

“Oh yes. Right, let me scan through the instructions and I’ll be with you.”

I carried on tightening the base whilst Dad read through the pamphlet.

“Looks straightforward, baby. You’ve done the base, so uprights next. Do you want to hold or fix?”

“I’ll hold Daddy, unless all the bending is a bit much for you.”

“No, baby, I shall be fine. Right, we need four of part G.”

I found the four corners, part G took one, and I stood at the back left corner. I held it in place, and Dad knelt in front of me and started tightening the fixing. As he looked up to see if the corner piece was vertical enough, I could feel his breath on my groin. Gosh.

Dad tightened, and I tentatively let go, and the post stood happily by itself. We repeated the process on the other three corners, each time Dad checked for verticality, I could feel his breath. He seemed to be breathing harder when we got to the last post.

“Braces next,” Dad said. I went and got the eight corner braces. Each went from about two-thirds of the way up the upright down to the base. I grabbed some fixings and loosely put the first one in place. Dad tightened the bottom, and then I tightened the top. After we had done a couple, Dad asked to change places, so I bent down in front of Dad and tightened the bottom fixing whilst Dad did the top. We now had the uprights and the braces.