Free Practically Perfect by Katie Fforde Page B

took up the square of plasterboard, and laid the boards in place. She didn’t mean actually to do it, she just wanted to work out where they fitted and whether they were all there, but by the time the light was gone and she couldn’t work any more, a good half of them were down.
    ‘The hard part is going to be the sanding,’ Anna told Caroline as she ate her cheese on toast, feeding the dog the crusts in a way not approved of in the Greyhound Trust handbook. ‘The machine is bloody heavy. I’ll have to ask Chloe to get it from the hire shop for me. It’s really hard work. Like putting down the floorboards. Goodness, I need a bath!’ But although Chloe was very generous with her hot water, Anna didn’t like to presume and just brushed her teeth and washed her feet.
    ‘Now if I’d washed my hair as well,’ she told Caroline, who was developing her listening skills, ‘I’d really feel clean.’
    On Thursday, Anna got Chloe to drop her off at the hire shop while she went to Waitrose, and then pick her up afterwards . It took two hefty men to get the machine into the back of Chloe’s car but Anna was confident she and Chloe would manage to get it out again, and down the lane.
    ‘We can always get someone to help,’ said Chloe as they drove off.
    ‘We won’t need it. Laura and I discovered there’s nothing two really determined women can’t do if they set their minds to it.’
    ‘Huh,’ grunted Chloe, not as averse to borrowing muscle if required as Anna seemed to be. ‘And put our backs out doing it.’
    In fact, they got the machine along to Anna’s house without too much difficulty.
    ‘Are you sure you’ll manage that beast?’ asked Chloe.
    ‘Of course!’ Anna laughed. ‘You go and make your melba toast or whatever. I’ll be fine.’
    ‘Darling, melba toast is so seventies! But if you’re sure you can manage, I’ll go. It’s not the cooking that takes the time, it’s the cleaning up.’
    The machine was incredibly heavy to use, but seeing the dirt of ages being whirred away was hugely satisfying. Caroline hated it, and Anna put her bed in the little garden so she’d avoid the worst of the dust. Luckily it was a sunny, relatively warm day, and she needn’t be out there for long.
    ‘I don’t think you’d like wearing a mask, would you, sweetie?’ Anna said to Caroline, stroking her silky ears. ‘Although you should have one really.’
    Thursday passed. Anna was absorbed in getting her floor perfect, and it was only when she heard Mike, or so she presumed, arriving home next door that she realised another bath opportunity had slipped by. She couldn’t ask now.
    ‘Still,’ said Anna brightly to Caroline. Her hands and arms were still vibrating from the sander, although she had finished a while ago. ‘It’ll be better to have one tomorrow, after the boys have had theirs, then I’ll be really clean. Chloe and Mike won’t feel so intruded upon then.’
    Caroline listened to this with an expression that said her mistress was a complete idiot, but utterly adorable. Anna was quite happy with this opinion.
    To Anna’s eternal gratitude, on Friday morning, Chloe, Mike and the children took the sander back to the shop. They collected it while Anna was out with Caroline and although sad that she’d missed an opportunity to meet Mike before the dinner she was very relieved to get the machine out of her tiny house.
    When she’d settled Caroline she got out her own domestic sander and started on the edges.
    The day passed happily, and after the electric sander could do no more, Anna got out sandpaper and a block. She couldn’t stop. Every pass made the floor look more beautiful.
    Eventually the signature tune of the
Archers
penetrated her obsession. ‘Oh my God! It’s after seven o’clock! The dinner party! Oh, Caroline, I’ve done it now. No bath. No time. And I haven’t even thought about what to wear!’
    Anna, feeling like an expectant father, boiled a large saucepan of water on her