Three Words: A Novella Collection

by Dale, Lindy

  “So, the lucky shoes are not as comfortable as you said,” Damon remarked, indicating the shoes in Lily’s left hand.

  “I think that cobbler did something to them when he was re-soling them,” Lily grinned.

  “But you’re okay to walk?”

  “Sure. My feet aren’t hurting at all. It’s just the blister from the shoes I had on at work today. They were new and they rubbed a bit. I can cope as long as we don’t hit a gravel road and there’s none of them between here and my place.”

  “That’s a pity.”

  “Why?”

  “I was going to use it as an excuse to put my arm around you.”

  Lily tried to hide the little glimmer of satisfaction that was sneaking onto her face. “I don’t mind if you do.”

  Damon let go of her hand and wound his arm around her bare shoulder. His fingers were soft against her skin and Lily began to think again what it might be like to kiss him, to have his fingers on other parts of her body. He really was such a nice man. Sensitive but not mushy, soft but still protective. He made her feel safe.

  “So you had a good time? Damon asked. “You liked the gifts?”

  “They were perfect. I’ve been meaning to thank you since you arrived but every time I was going to you threw me over in some crazy dance move. Where’d you learn to dance like that?”

  “Closet Dance Sport fan.”

  “Now, you’re just being silly.”

  Damon’s arm pulled her a little closer. It was amazing how well she fit in the crook.

  “It was compulsory in Year 9 and 10 so I figured I might as well do it properly. Never know when you might have a young lady to impress.”

  “You impressed me.”

  They reached the front door of Lily’s block of flats and Damon turned to face Lily. He took his hands in hers.

  “I really like you, Lily,” he whispered. “I’ve never met a girl like you.”

  “I like you too.”

  “That’s why this is so hard for me to say.”

  Lily looked up into his face. It was very somber. She hoped he wasn’t going to tell her he was married or something because she’d feel extremely cheated. And possibly angry enough to rearrange his nether regions. “What?”

  Damon swallowed. “I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m going home to Melbourne.”

  Now she was confused. She’d assumed the reason that she’d never met Damon before was because he’d just moved to Perth, not because he lived somewhere else and was here on a holiday. Shit, this couldn’t be happening. Not twice. She wasn’t going to lose two men because of distance.

  “Isn’t Perth your home?”

  “No. I’ve lived in Melbourne for the last five years. I have a house there and a dog ~ Digger.”

  “But no wife, right? No girlfriend?”

  There was no way she was dealing with that crap. If Damon was actually a sleazebag womaniser in disguise she was out. Now. She’d find someone else to kiss.

  “Shit no. I’d never do that. I feel bad enough as it is that I didn’t tell the whole truth from the beginning. I just didn’t expect to have these sorts of feelings. Not after two days. It’s mad. But I do, Lily. I have real feelings for you. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before.”

  Lily’s bottom lip began to quiver and she bit on it so hard she almost swore. Her head was swimming. How could this be true?

  “So, I’ll never see you again? After tonight, you’ll be back in Melbourne.”

  “I’m due at work on Monday.”

  “Oh.”

  “I was thinking something more colourful but ‘oh’ will do, I s’pose.”

  Lily unclipped the lock on her purse and began to rummage for her keys. “Well, I guess this is it, then. It’s been nice to meet you, Damon. Spending the last couple of days with you has been a real eye-opener, especially the last five minutes.”

  “Don’t be like that.”

  Suddenly, Lily felt angry. Deceived. He could have told her. Damn him, he must have known she’d fall for him. He could have told her. “What else do you expect me to say? I lost one boyfriend because he went to live in Sydney. I was hurt and lonely. Were you brain-dead when I told you that?”

  “I didn’t want to get involved with you either, you know.”

  Well, at least they knew where they stood. Lily glared at him.

  “Then why did you?”

  “Fuck.”

  Damon pushed his hands through his hair. He flopped down onto the staircase. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant I wasn’t prepared for this. I thought you were a pretty girl and we’d go out and have a couple of drinks. I wasn’t looking to fall in love. Not that I mind.”

  Love? Had he actually had the gall to say the ‘L’ word at a time like this?

  Sitting down beside him, Lily put her hands between her knees. She was cold. And drained. Her perfect day was in tatters. She wanted to go to bed and forget all about Valentine’s Day and that she’d ever met Damon. She wanted to get out before she was hurt again.

  Damon reached over and put his hand on her knee. The tell-tale flicker of attraction sparked and she cursed him. God, she wanted to smack him, right about now.

  “Lily?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  She could see it in his eyes. “I know.”

  She stood up, keys in hand and went inside.

  Chapter 9

  Two weeks later, Lily was standing in the middle of the office with Rebecca and Jordy. It was twenty-four hours before the descent of the Sci-Fi nerds on Perth and the colleagues were knee deep in gift bags for the ‘Out of this World’ dinner guests. The office was barely visible under the stack of purple sparkled tablecloths and star shaped bunting. A pile of nametags the size of the Tardis had been knocked inadvertently to the floor by Marisa and she was scrambling to pick them up ~ knickers so close to being seen it wasn’t funny ~ before Magnus came out of his office. Jordy had just finished swearing his head off at the quality of the model UFO’s that Rebecca had ordered when Lily declared she’d had enough of anything Sci-Fi, the rest could wait, it was time for lunch.

  “No, no,” Jordy cried, a little too emphatically. “We can’t stop now. We’ve only got the autographed photos and the DVD’s to put in. Let’s get this done. You don’t want Magnus on our backs, do you?”

  Lily heaved a deep sigh. “Do we have to? If I don’t get some food into me I’m going to fall into one of those bags and you’ll hand me out as a freebie.”

  Jordy glanced at his watch and gave her a stern look. “Five more minutes.”

  “God. Al-right,” Lily muttered, wishing she’d called in sick that day. Filling gift bags was not her domain. She was not an intern. And she was not in the mood.

  Picking up a pile of autographed William Shatner photos ~ done on the laser printer, no doubt, and airbrushed to make William look like he had in 1973 ~ Lily began to toss them into the bags at the side of Jordy’s desk. She’d been like a pizza without cheese since the incident with Damon outside her flat. Flat and empty. She’d hoped he might at least phone when he got back to Melbourne, but it seemed her dismissal of him had been final. She was never going to see him again. Which was for the best. Long distance romances never worked.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Jordy screamed, calling her attention to the fact that she had shoved three of the same photo into the same bag. “Get a grip Lily. I don’t have time to redo your incompetence.”

  He snatched the photos from her and handed her the curling ribbon. “Go and tie that lot of bags off so nothing falls out. You’re making a complete balls-up of this.”

  Lily stared at the roll of ribbon in her hand. She could think of better things to do with it and one of them involved Jordy’s throat. She made a face at him behind his back and began to cut lengths of ribbon.

  “And re-enter the stratosphere while you’re at it,” he nagged. “If we don’t get this right, Magnus is going to
blow a gasket.”

  At that moment, a tall man wearing a long earth-coloured cape and a set of pointy Hobbit ears pushed open the glass doors of the office. His face was nearly as long as his body, which was as thin as a piece of spaghetti and he bore a remarkable resemblance to her boss, Magnus, despite the fact that he was clearly lost from the set of a Peter Jackson movie.

  Lily looked over at him, confused. Surely, The Hobbit wasn’t Sci-Fi was it? Wouldn’t that fall under the fantasy genre? And what the hell was that weirdo doing in their office dressed like that in the middle of the day?

  She was just about to put down her curling ribbon and ask him when the man swivelled in a circle, pulling a guitar from beneath his cape. He began to walk around the office, strumming softly.

  How bizarre.

  Lily tilted her head to peer beneath the folds of his long beard. It was Magnus. Was he totally bonkers? Had he finally taken one too many herbal supplements and lost the plot?

  Then another crazy thing happened. Jordy pulled a second guitar from under his desk and joined in. Rebecca and Marisa had whipped tambourines from beneath the mess to keep the beat as the men began play a vaguely familiar tune. The receptionist began to sing a harmony.

  Lily blinked and put down the scissors in case she stabbed herself. Why were the all behaving like such idiots? This had to be a dream. God, had she had an aneurism and died? Was that it?

  As she watched the scene unfold before her, the office doors swung on their hinges a second time and in came …. Damon?

  What the?

  Walking towards her, he began to sing the lyrics which Lily now recognised as the Plain White T’s song ~ ‘1 2 3 4’.

  And the whole office was joining in the chorus like they were in some happy-clappy hippy commune and Magnus was the cult leader. They were singing about three words and only one thing to say and loving people. They were repeating that cute little chorus line over and over.

  Lily’s mouth fell open. A goofy smile spread over her face. This was like that episode of Modern Family where the gay couple had done the flash mob.

  Oh. My. God.

  She was in a musical flash mob. All around her the entire office had burst into song. Damon was on his knees before her like a fool singing into a wireless microphone. The sounds of his out-of-tune warbling were reverberating through the office sound system. This was insane. Embarrassing. Fabulous. And, oh so sweet.

  The performance ended as abruptly as it had begun. Magnus drifted into his office, cape flowing behind him, and began to bark orders. Jordy put the guitar under his desk and began to toss DVD’s into the gift bags.

  Lily looked over to Rebecca but she and Marisa were both now scrambling on the floor for the name tags, ignoring her.

  It was like it had never happened. But it had. Damon was standing in front of her and the goofy smile was on his face.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi,” Lily said, unsure where this was going and too frightened to move in case something else popped out of the stationery cupboard. “Um, what was that all about?”

  “I missed you and I wanted to show you how much I care. I know you were hurt by what happened.”

  “Yeeessss.”

  “I wanted to make it up to you.”

  “So you engaged the services of my entire office to help you?” Lily still couldn’t believe her boss had been serenading her, whilst wearing a Hobbit outfit.

  “That was my idea,” Jordy chimed in. It’s a wonder his ears weren’t disfigured from all the eavesdropping he did. “I always wanted to be in a flash mob and you’ve been so pathetic over the last few weeks I thought it might cheer you up.”

  This was mental. Jordy hated her. He was always being a knob. Why would he suddenly want to be nice? And how had he and Damon gotten together on this?

  “Damon rang the office looking for you,” Jordy explained. “Quite a few times, actually.” He looked pointedly at Damon. “But you were always out or at lunch. We got to talking and that was when I came up with the idea. I might have to use it again. Can you imagine it at a wedding? Or a twenty-first? Awesome.”

  “But you hate me, Jordy.”

  Jordy’s face softened. “No, I don’t.”

  “Then why’re you always on my case?”

  Jordy flapped his hands. “I was just jealous of how good you are at your job. I thought if I made myself look ultra-efficient, like you, Magnus would notice me.”

  “So why the change of heart?””

  “I got an attack of the guilts. That mopey face of yours made me feel so awful and it hit me that maybe if I tried to be nicer to you, you might reciprocate like you do with everyone else. The flash mob thing was my way to say sorry. ”

  Lily leant over and kissed his cheek. Wonders would never cease. She’d always thought herself a good judge of character. She’d definitely read Jordy wrong.

  She turned back to Damon. “I still don’t understand why you’re here.”

  “I want to go out with you. I want you to be my girlfriend.”

  There was that tingle. It started in Lily’s toes and worked its way through her body, like her veins were being infused with sherbet.

  “But you live in Melbourne.”

  “I’ve thought about you every day since I went home. I’ve dreamt about you every night. I was going to change Digger’s name to ‘Lily’ but he didn’t like it.”

  “You live in Melbourne.”

  Damon smiled. “Not anymore. I applied for a transfer. As of next week, I’ll be living in Perth again. I’m just here for a couple of days to sort out accommodation.”

  “Permanently?” Lily knew she wasn’t contributing a great deal to this conversation but, hey, she was still absorbing the fact that Jordy thought she was more Superwoman than ditsy moron.

  “It’s for six months to begin with. There’s a possibility I can extend it after that. Look, I know this is sudden and I know you probably think I’m some psycho you should stay away from, coming in here like this and saying I’ve quit my job for you but I’m not, Lily. I love you. I want to be with you. Can we give it a go? Are you willing to try for six months and see what happens?”

  And that was the million-dollar question. Could she be with Damon knowing that in six months, he might be gone again? Could she willingly allow herself the possibility of getting hurt again?

  “I can’t make any promises about what will happen down the line,” he said, moving closer to her. “We might even hate each other in six months. I have some fairly annoying habits.”

  “Like breaking into song at the oddest moments.”

  “That was for you.” He wound his arms around her.

  “Your singing needs a bit of work, by the way. Especially if you intend on serenading me again.”

  “Is that a ‘yes’?”

  Lily tilted her face to his. Her lips parted to meet his and she kissed him. The tingle from her toes rushed into her mouth like an explosion of champagne bubbles.

  “Yes.”

  Damon kissed her back. This time it was deeper and slightly more pornographic, until she pushed him away, remembering that they were in the office and there were thirteen other people present.

  “You might want to start working on next Valentine’s Day now,” she whispered. “You’ve set the bar so high, I don’t think you’ll be able to top it.”

  Damon laughed. “Will a King Sized Crunchie do?”

  THE END

  Mistletoe & Bastards

  (Bastard Tales Book 3)

  Chapter 1

  If there’s one thing that drives me to drink about Christmas, it’s over the top friends who believe the entire world should feel the way they do in regards to the festive season. And right at that moment three of them were sitting across the table, doing their best to make me gag into my lunch.

  “Five sleeps till Christmas,” Kirby chirruped, her blonde waves bouncing with enthusiasm as she addressed us. “Are we, like, getting together or what?”

  I stared a
t my ditzy friend, feeling my body sag in despair at the very thought of having to sit and play nice over a Christmas-themed tablecloth. I was sure we’d put a veto on mentioning the C word in my presence. Had she forgotten?

  “Time’s running out,” Kirby continued, “and I sooo want to do that Secret Santa thing. Plus, I have a totally cute Christmas dress to wear. It has jingle bells sewn around the hem. It’s, like, red— of course — with fur trim on the collar.”

  Fur? In summer? I groaned inwardly. Honestly, when Kirby started gushing over ‘cute this’ and ‘divine that,’ I questioned our friendship — especially if said gushing occurred in the same sentence as ‘themed apparel’. Sane people didn’t do Christmas wear in public unless it was hidden away as underwear and even that was stretching the friendship. Yes, I could cope with the odd tree shaped brooch or some ridiculous light-up Santa-shaped earrings but a whole outfit with bells?

  Give me strength.

  Kirby looked questioningly across the table at me. “Mel?”

  I took a long slow sip of my coffee and tried to temper the words that were about to fall from my mouth. Kirby was such a darling — despite making me mental most of the time — I couldn’t hurt her feelings. Not about this anyway. Her opinion on most other things was always open to being put right. Especially when she spoke about One Direction or 5 Seconds of Summer. We weren’t exactly teenagers.

  “Do we have to?” I asked. “I’d be just as happy with a bottle of red and some nibbles. It’ll still be a catch-up. Secret Santa is for children.”

  Kirby put down her double decaf frappuccino. Her eyes grew so big I thought her eyelash extensions might pop off. Across the table, Sasha and Millie appeared equally flabbergasted. Sasha had stopped mid-bite of her sandwich and was looking at me like I’d declared I was going to streak down Hay Street if the Western Force didn’t win the Super 15 next year and Millie was shaking her head and tutting. These were my friends, and they all loved Christmas. To say one didn’t wish to be involved in the hoo-ha was tantamount to treason. Especially where Kirby was concerned. Next to shopping and knowing the brand name of every piece of clothing on the planet, Christmas was Kirby’s favourite hobby — if a holiday could be classed as a hobby. She had an entire shelf in her linen cupboard filled with decorations that only appeared once a year. Mine, conversely, was filled with wine. And that got used on a daily basis, especially when people started talking about Christmas.