Page 28 of Competing Against Thor

"I'm free if you are," he joked.

I nodded, knowing that there was nowhere I'd rather be than in the workshop creating, and this time, it also came with good company. It couldn't get much better than that.

Chapter 14

DAISY

The studio was eerily quiet without the other teams in, but they'd gone home about an hour ago, while Thor and I were still trying to get as far ahead of our sculpture as possible before it all started again tomorrow. As far as I knew, there was only one camera person still operating too, which made it feel a lot calmer and more intimate than it had in the past few weeks.

"How long have we got?" Thor asked.

"About an hour until we're kicked out," I responded. "Then just enough time to sleep."

"Just about," he responded. "I'm glad my hotel is only just around the corner."

"I didn't realise you were staying in a hotel."

"Seemed better than travelling every day."

"I suppose that depends on where you live." I headed over and set down a coffee for him, drinking my own in order to try and stay focused.

"In the god realm, normally."

"Right, of course, I should have thought of that."

"Not necessarily, plenty of gods live on Earth," he responded. "Are you ready to start attaching leaves?"

I nodded. "Should be."

He put the ladder in position, and gestured for me to head up it. I was a little nervous about this part, especially as it felt as if a lot could go wrong. I finished my coffee and climbed up.

Thor handed me one of the delicate leaves we'd made and I reached for the hammer that should be hanging on my belt, but it wasn't there. I groaned as I spotted it over on the drawing table.

"Here." Thor held out his own hammer to me.

"Are you sure I'm allowed to use this? Don't I have to be worthy or something?"

"No, that's just a story I told so that people would stop trying to steal my hammer. You'd be amazed how well it worked."

"Oh." I took it from him, my breathing hitching as our fingers touched. I tried my best to get my thoughts under control. Right now, we had a challenge to win, and that didn't involve getting distracted by my attraction to Thor.

I hammered the piece of metal into place, making sure that it was secure before handing his hammer back to him.

"What do you need next?" he asked.

"Blow torch, please."

He handed it over. I tried to focus the best I could on heating the metal leaf so I could twist it into the right shape. Maybe we could have just stuck it on and hoped that would be enough, but we both wanted it to be perfect, and in order to do that, we needed to put the time in.

We worked in comfortable almost-silence, only speaking when one of us needed something, and I could feel the whole sculpture starting to take shape. Several apples sat on one of the tables, ready to be added in the right places.

"Have we checked that the tree is tall enough?" I asked.

"It's taller than me," Thor pointed out.

"I don't know how tall you are," I said. "Hand me the tape measure?"

He passed it over and I hooked it over the top of the tree, running it down to the ground and checking it.