Three Words: A Novella Collection Read online

  Or had she?

  Lily hopped down from her stool and grabbed her handbag from the table before she could open her mouth to put her other foot in. A huge smile lit up her face. “Point me in the direction of the potato cakes.”

  Chapter 5

  It had gotten colder since they’d come out of Snapper’s, either that or the effects of the alcohol were beginning to wear off and she was noticing it. Sitting on a bench, in the park across the road, Lily munched on a salted potato cake, the kind with the thick greasy batter. The very best kind as far as she was concerned. Every now and then she paused to suck the salt from her fingers, before diving in to take another bite. If this was heaven, she was officially in it.

  Next to her, Damon had practically inhaled two pieces of fish and was now working his way through the pile of chips that lay on the paper resting between their legs. Lily watched the tiny muscles in his jaw flexing as he chewed and felt oddly aroused. It had to be the booze. She couldn’t be getting turned on by a man eating, could she? Beneath the fish and chip paper, she pinched herself in an attempt to sober up.

  “So, this is fun,” Damon said, mouth full of food.

  “Great chips. I’ve never been there before. I hope I can remember the way back in daylight.”

  “I hope you can get yourself there without injuring a limb. Seriously, those shoes must break all kinds of health and safety regulations. How do you walk in them?”

  Lily pointed her toe out and after swallowing her bite, swivelled her foot from side to side, admiring the leopard print pumps. “They’re not that high and believe it or not, they’re really very comfortable.”

  “About as comfortable as being put in thumb screws I’d imagine. I don’t get the allure. Why do girls like shoes like that so much? What’s wrong with a sneaker? Or a loafer? Or those shoes that look like the ones dancers wear?”

  “Ballet flats. They’re boring. That’s what’s wrong with them. And I don’t wear high shoes all the time but I like to at work. My work clothes are so conservative, the only place I can be a bit individual is with my shoes.”

  A burst of cool air swirled around them and Lily shivered. Without a word, Damon lifted his arms and took off the lightweight jumper he wore over his t-shirt. He wrapped it around Lily’s shoulders. The sleeves dangled in her lap.

  “Better?”

  “Much. Thanks.”

  “Tell me more about you, Lily. Where do you live?” Damon asked, leaning over to wipe his greasy fingers on the grass. He obviously cared about his clothes and didn’t want to ruin them with oil. She liked that.

  “Not far. In a flat in Kent Street. One of those old buildings.”

  “Is it nice? I often wondered what they were like inside.”

  Through the darkness, Lily turned to check out his face. Was he angling? God, she hoped not. She wasn’t so drunk that she was up for a one-night stand and she wasn’t the root and run type, anyway. Never had been.

  “It has tonnes of exposed brick and beams. Massive windows. Sort of a vintage-ish modern, I guess.”

  “Sounds cool. And you live alone?”

  He was off again, asking these personal questions and she, for some strange reason felt compelled to answer them. If it had been any other guy she would have told him to piss off but the tone of Damon’s voice when he asked made her believe he was interested. He wasn’t being nosy.

  “I do now. My ex-boyfriend, Travis, got a promotion in Sydney three months ago.”

  “That’s too bad. You okay with that?” Rolling the empty chip packet into a ball he went for a three pointer at the bin a few metres away.

  “Nice shot,” Lily grinned.

  Damon sat back down. His body grazed the side of Lily’s. She could feel the heat of him as he slid his arm along the back of the bench and let it rest loosely on her shoulder. His fingers toyed with the hair at her nape. He didn’t look at her but it felt strangely intimate all the same.

  “Travis wanted me to go with him but my life’s here and he wouldn’t compromise. In the end, we split up. I realised that if I wasn’t prepared to move to be with him, maybe I didn’t love him as much as I thought.”

  Damon nodded.

  “So now, I live alone. I’m finding I don’t mind it so much. I don’t have to watch the inane sport channel and the toilet seat’s never left up. Plus, I can always find the scissors and sticky tape.”

  “You don’t get lonely?”

  “Life isn’t always about being part of a couple. I have other interests.”

  “Such as?”

  “Yoga. I do yoga with my girlfriends on Wednesday nights. And cooking. I’ve become a bit obsessed since I did this cooking school in Bali last year. I used to be such a crap cook until I discovered Indonesian cuisine. I could live on Nasi Goreng and Laksa and any sort of satay I can lay my hands on, basically. Yum.”

  “You can cook that stuff? Impressive.”

  “Almost as impressive as my cross stitching and recorder playing skills.”

  Damon chuckled. “Jesus, did you have to learn that thing at school too? My mother used to go apeshit if I played it in the house. I had to practise in the freezing cold on the verandah. It’s a wonder my balls are still attached to my body.”

  “Poor baby,” Lily soothed. Her hand snuck onto his knee, giving it a motherly pat. Then, as if it had sprouted a brain of its own and had no intention of returning from whence it came, Lily watched appalled as her hand began to rub. She didn’t know how it happened.

  Shiiittt. Just how drunk was she? One minute her hand was safely between her thighs with the other one and the next it was feeling the muscles in Damon’s leg. What the hell must he be thinking?

  “You’re very forward, Lily Appleby,” Damon said quietly, looking down at his knee.

  So that was what he was thinking.

  “You started it,” she whispered back, tilting her head in the direction of his hand that was still playing around in the hair at her neck.

  “So if I said I wanted to kiss you, what would your answer be?”

  “I’d say, I hardly know you.”

  “But we got drunk together. We ate fish and chips.” He shuffled slightly on the seat, swivelling his body to face hers. He looked into her eyes.

  Oh God, she was going to have an orgasm if he kept that up.

  “I do that with my friends every Friday night. Sorry,” she teased.

  Damon moved closer. His lips were almost on hers. “Bet you don’t sit this close though,” he murmured.

  Lily gazed into his eyes. Her voice sounded as if she were drugged. “I dunno. We get up to some pretty wild stuff, my friends and I.”

  On the other side of the park, a Willie Nelson tribute act had begun to play. The area was cordoned off so that only the paying audience could see but the music was still beautiful as it lilted through the trees.

  “The Stardust album is one of my all time favourites,” Lily said, tilting her ear to the music. “When I was a little girl, I used to dance around the lounge room with my grandma while she played it. That’s how I learnt to slow dance. I always meant to buy a copy but I never did.”

  “It’s good to have memories like that. It’s one of the reasons I came home. I know Grandpa won’t be around much longer. I wanted to spend some days with him. Have a laugh.”

  “I’ll always remember Gran dancing and her cheese scones. They were the best.”

  Damon stood up.

  “Would you like to dance now?”

  He was clearly more plastered than he’d let on. Dancing? In a park?

  “For real?”

  He stared down at her, never breaking her gaze for a second. His face appeared stern but she could tell it was an act. A very funny act. He looked like something out of an Austen novel with one hand behind his back and the other outstretched toward her. “You insult me, madam. Of course, I mean now.”

  Just drunk enough to be able to participate in the act without feeling like a complete idiot, Lily put her hand in his
. “Why thank you, kind sir.”

  They began to dance, well shuffle really ~ there was grass and they were trashed ~ but after a while they sank into a comfortable rhythm that saw Damon bend his head so that it was a little closer to Lily’s.

  “You like dancing then?” he whispered.

  “What girl doesn’t? Why?”

  “Thinking aloud. That’s all. Tell me more about the Valentine’s thing.”

  “My friend Rebecca organised a table and she bought tickets for me and Travis but obviously I won’t be going with him. I don’t want to go at all, now. Looking at an empty chair next to mine is a kind of depressing thought.”

  “But if you had someone to share the experience with you’d be happy? If you don’t mind me saying, you seem pretty cut up about the whole thing.”

  Lily could feel her eyes misting over. She buried her face in Damon’s shirt. “I… I guess I had high hopes. So many dreams. Then something like that happens and it makes you wonder if romance and love are even real.”

  His hand wound round her waist. His fingers stroked the fabric at her ribs. “That’s too bad. But maybe this is the time to make a few new dreams.”

  “I used to love Valentine’s Day, you know. And not because of the presents, just because of the sentiment. Just because it was nice to feel like someone loved you who wasn’t your mum.”

  “And now?”

  “It’s pretty meaningless. I feel nothing, like I’m dead inside.”

  “If it was in my power, I’d give you the perfect day, Lily. Make you believe in love again.” Damon pulled her a little closer to him and laid his cheek against the side of her head. The warmth from his body seeped into her, keeping the chill of the night away as they swayed from side to side.

  From somewhere, in her haze, Lily could hear Damon humming along with the music. Then the chorus came and he began to whisper the lyrics, something about love being new and being in his arms, Lily was unsure because she was so mesmerised by the perfection of the whole situation. How had this happened? Where had this man come from? This was not some drunken make-out dance. This was the real thing. It was perfect. And very romantic.

  Chapter 6

  “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Rebecca burst into the office bearing a huge red card, appropriately heart-shaped, and a little ceramic heart man for Lily’s desk. He was holding a sign that said “I Love You!” and wearing a white suit painted in scarlet roses.

  “For you,” she declared, handing the gift over.

  Lily pulled herself up. God, she was hung over. If only she hadn’t had that last shot or three. She felt like death but it was worth it for the night she’d had. Damon was brilliant. There was no other word to describe him. Being with him was almost enough to make her change her mind about love.

  “Geez. You look like shit. What’d you get up to last night?”

  As she took the trinket Rebecca had bought and handed over one of her own with a kiss and hug, Lily relayed the evening’s events. She omitted nothing. Not even the fact that she’d fallen flat on her face on the grass while leaving the park. Thank God, she could blame the heels or being drunk or something. It’d been mortifying times ten.

  “I’ve had three Berroccas already and I ate bacon and eggs for breakfast but I still feel like crap.”

  “You two must have had a wow of a time.”

  “It was fun.”

  Rebecca perched herself on the side of Lily’s desk. “All ready for the big night then? Got your dress out?”

  Lily gave her a look. “I was lucky to get myself out of bed, let alone worry about a dress.”

  “Can’t remember the last time I was that hung over.”

  “If you could wring me out I’d fill a tequila bottle.”

  “And this Damon? He was drunk too?”

  “As a skunk. He made me dance with him on the grass at Centennial Park.”

  Rebecca looked at her friend. “I’m not even going to ask what you were doing in Centennial Park in the middle of the night.”

  “Listening to the Willie Nelson tribute act, actually. And dancing.”

  Rebecca’s face melted. “That is so romantic. Did you ask him to the ball? He sounds like an absolute honey.”

  “We talked about it. He’s already made plans though. He can’t come.”

  “What? Valentine Plans?”

  “No. With his grandad. Damon’s been helping out in the shop for a few weeks while his grandad’s been poorly. He’d already promised him they’d go out for a nice dinner after they visit his grandma’s grave. It’s the anniversary of her death.”

  “And they can’t go during the day?”

  “No. Damon’s looking after The Cobbler Shop so his grandad can rest.”

  Was that a tear forming in her friend’s eye?

  “Awww. That’s so sweet. He sounds like such a nice guy. Nobody would mind giving up Valentine’s Day for something as thoughtful as that. If only Shaun was that sensitive.”

  Lily bent into her purse, pulling out a sleeve of headache tablets and popping two from the plastic. “It was a nice change. Crap, my head’s thumping. Come on; let’s get a coffee to wash these down. And maybe a sugar hit from the vending machine. I don’t think I can face the Sci-Fi people without it.”

  As the girls walked down the corridor, a man wearing a delivery uniform came towards them from the other direction. He had two bunches of roses in his arms and another smaller red-wrapped parcel. Lily turned toward the vending machine, her focus on choosing the exact right chocolate to conquer her hangover. It was difficult to decide which would be the better choice ~ the one with the greatest amount of sugar or the one she was most likely to keep inside her stomach. Her headache had now turned to nausea.

  “Hi girls,” the deliveryman said. “I’m looking for ….” He consulted his clipboard. “Rebecca Watson.”

  Rebecca clapped her hands. “Oh that’s me. It’s me. Oh goody.”

  The man handed her the more stunning of the two bouquets. The bunch of deep red and just-blooming roses was wider than Rebecca’s chest. And that was saying something.

  “Oh my God, they’re gorgeous,” she squealed, her face appearing over the top to peer at the card. “Shaun is such a darling. I told him not to waste all that money on flowers. But God, I love them, I love them.”

  The man looked at her as if he’d already heard that statement quite a few times that morning and was well and truly O.V.E.R gushing women.

  “Can you tell me where I might find….” Again he checked the list. “Uh, Lily Appleby?”

  “Did you say, Lily Appleby?” Lily asked, convinced there had to be some kind of mistake. Nobody was supposed to send her a Valentine. She was single. Partnerless. Devoid of a man.

  “Yep. Know where she is?”

  “She’s me.”

  The man handed over the small red package. “Looks like someone loves ya! Enjoy your day, girls.”

  He took back his clipboard and sauntered down the corridor with the remaining bunch of flowers.

  Lily and Rebecca stared at the package in Lily’s hands. It was long ~ about 20 centimetres to be truthful ~ and oblong shaped. Lily’s lips twisted as she turned it in her hands.

  “What is it?” Rebecca squealed, clearly still suffering the exciting effects of the delivery of a gi-normous bunch of flowers.

  “How would I know?”

  “Who’s it from, then?”

  Lily flipped the card over. “It says, ‘Sweets for the sweet. From your Valentine.”

  “Travis?” Rebecca asked.

  “The only thing he’d be sending me is a knife to slit my own wrists.”

  Rebecca gave a nod of confirmation. “Yeah. Right, of course.”

  They stared at the package for a minute more. Could it be jewellery? It looked like a bracelet box. Or maybe a pen? Though anyone who bought a pen for their valentine was seriously tapped in the head.

  “Can you just open it, please,” Rebecca said at last.

  “I was t
rying to suss it out first.”

  “Well, there’s only one way to do that. Open the damn thing and do it quick. Jordy’s on the loose.”

  And indeed he was. His cowhide loafers were practically sprinting along the corridor. His face looked as agonised as if he actually had eaten gluten and Lily hadn’t dreamt it.

  Lily’s fingers trembled on the wrapping. The gift would give away the giver, wouldn’t it? Surely it wouldn’t be Travis. Because if it was, she had no idea what she was going to say. She flicked the last piece of tape away.

  A small glint of gold escaped from the wrapping.

  “A Crunchie Bar? Seriously?” Rebecca looked appalled.

  On top of the bar was another note.

  A little bird told me you might be in need of a sugar fix this morning.

  Have the best Valentine’s Day ever.

  X

  “It’s a freakin’ Crunchie, Lil’,” Rebecca said, still clearly unable to believe that such a thing would be an appropriate gift.

  “I know. And I’m going to eat it, right now!”

  Lily grinned from ear to ear. Her heart felt warm. In his drunken stupor, Damon had obviously been listening to every word she’d said last night. He’d remembered that Crunchies were her favourite chocolate and that after bacon and eggs, she craved it when she was under the weather. He’d sympathised with her feelings of loss over Travis and told her it might be time to make some new ones. Now he was beginning that for her. What a man. This was the perfect gift and the perfect pick-me-up.

  *****

  At eleven o’clock that morning, as the girls were washing their coffee mugs and preparing to face the last round of calls to the Sci-Fi people another stranger walked through the door. He bore an electronic clipboard in his left hand and a box in his right. It was small, flat and square about the same size as a box of chocolates. He stood in the open doorway like he was the most recognised man in the country after Hugh Jackman. Curious, Lily and Rebecca hung their mugs on the hooks and approached him.

  “Can we help you?” Rebecca asked.