“If it isn’t the one and only McSmelly! Didn’t think I’d see you here tonight.”
“Cody,” Will acknowledged him with a brief nod.
“And look at you, Kelli Crawford–still as stunning as ever. Trapped at the drink table with McSmelly are you? Don’t worry,” he winked, “Just pretend there’s a call you need to take and make a run for it. He’ll be none the wiser.” Cody chuckled and grabbed a drink from the table, swigging it down his throat in one gulp.
“Actually, I’m talking to Will here, so if you don’t mind?” I cocked my head to the side, gesturing for him to get the hell away from us.
“Huh.” His eyes widened and he crossed his arms. “Well, I know when I’m not wanted. Which isn’t often, by the way.” He winked and nudged Will sharply in the ribs. “I think I’ll go and see my lovely wife. After I’ve danced with my old flame, that is.” He shot a glance towards the gorgeous Lucy Montgomery and swaggered in her direction.
“Idiot,” I said.
“Yeah, some people never grow up,” Will remarked.
“Ah, Will?” I grasped his shoulder and turned his body around.
“Oh, don’t tell me, not again.”
“Yep, ‘fraid so.” I plucked a post-it note with Kick Me written on it from his back.
Will shook his head and sighed. Then he glanced at me. “Thanks for that.”
“No problem,” I said. “So, what do you do these days?”
“I’m in business,” he replied, taking his hands out of his pockets. “Actually, I’m an employee, but I help businesses. I’m a consultant to various corporations on management skills, start-up planning and techniques for boosting efficiency and productivity.” He nodded with pride. “I’d like to eventually run my own business, but for now I’m getting as much experience as possible.”
“Sounds like an important job to me. I might need your services one day,” I said, adding a subtle glint to my eye.
“Really? But I thought you were involved in modelling.”
“I am, but I won’t be forever. I’m thinking of starting up a homewares design company.” I smiled, the more I told people about this the more excitement surged within. “Except, I know nothing about business, I’m only good for the creative side, so I’ll need advice on all the other aspects of owning and running a business.”
“Then I’m your man,” he said and his face flushed to match my dress, no doubt realising the possible double meaning of his words.
“I’m sure you are,” I replied softly. “Do you have a business card?”
Will’s eyes lit up, his fingers diving into his shirt pocket. “Sure do. Didn’t think I’d need these tonight, so I’m glad I brought them.”
He handed me his card, which had the same photo that was on his Facebook profile and included his office address, phone number and email address. “Thanks,” I said, unclipping my evening bag and dropping the card inside, then closing the bag with a pop.
“Well, I wish you all the best with your idea, it sounds great to me. I remember you were always good with art at school.”
“You do?” He did?
“Yeah, remember that mural all the students had to contribute to on the brick wall outside the library? You painted that little worm reading a book and he had these big googly eyes.” Will’s fingers circled around his own eyes and I withheld a giggle at the memory of our night at the fun fair with his novelty sunglasses.
“Ah yes, the bookworm.” I nodded, then struck with an idea, I opened my bag and retrieved my phone.
“You’re not doing the ‘I’ve got to take this call’ thing that Cody suggested, are you?”
“Huh? Oh no, of course not! Sorry, I’m jotting down an idea for a product. Since deciding to start this business I’ve been getting ideas at the most inconvenient times and if I don’t note them down I’m scared I’ll forget!” I jabbed at the keyboard on my phone and hit the save button. “Done.”
“It’s okay, I understand. So what’s the idea?”
Wow, he really was interested in what I had to say and he hadn’t even looked at my chest. His eyes fixed on mine. Unlike Cody whose eyes had done the usual ‘Going Down’ elevator trip, getting stuck on the way back up at the seventh floor instead of tenth where my eyes were.
I leaned forward, enthusiasm overtaking my body. “Well, when you mentioned the bookworm, I got this image in my mind of a bookcase, but one that’s shaped like a worm, kind of long and curvy and you attach it to the wall and it has individual slots for each book, so it kind of looks like a domino effect, with the books following the curve of the design. Make sense?” Sensing a lack of oxygen from my verbal dump, I drew in a deep breath.
“Sounds fantastic! You could simply call it The Bookworm.”
“I could. Oh, and it would look great attached to a wall beside a staircase, it could slant upwards along with the stairs.”
“Well, I’d buy one, definitely,” Will said with a smile.
I smiled back and tucked a non-existent strand of hair behind my ear. “So, are you married? Have any kids?”
“Nope. Not at this stage, but I’d like to.”
“Me too.”
“You would?” His eyebrows rose. “I didn’t pick you as the marriage and kids type. Guess I was wrong.”
“There’s a lot about me that would surprise you, Will.”
“Yeah? Like what?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.
“Um …” I looked at the crumpled post-it note in my hand and smiled. “Do you have a pen?”
“Do I ever,” Will replied, his fingers diving into his shirt pocket again. “Red, blue, or black?”
“Surprise me.” I smiled.
He handed me a red pen. “To match your dress.”
I leaned on the drinks table and placed a cross through the c and the k at the end of the work Kick, replacing them with ss. Then I stuck the post-it note that now read, Kiss Me, on the left side of my chest, slightly lower in position than my nametag and waited patiently for Will’s reaction.
His eyes practically popped from their sockets, resembling the bookworm I’d painted in the school mural. “Are you serious?”
“I’ve never been more serious in all my life.”
He stood frozen to the spot for a moment, then laughed. “Ha ha, nice try. This is some kind of joke right? I bet Cody put you up to it and any minute he’ll pop out of the woodwork with a camera and yell, ‘Ha! Gotcha!’, and then he’ll—”
I lurched forwards and pressed my lips urgently to his, my hands sliding behind his neck and down across his jaw line. When I finally pulled back, he was frozen in another position; lips protruding, eyes in blissful shock, his body about ready to slide to the floor like a lump of rapidly melting ice.
“Holy moly,” he whispered.
I chuckled, then drew him in for another kiss, realising that after the whole adventure that was my fiftieth birthday, Will and I had not kissed. Not once. He’d tried of course, but never struck gold and when I finally wanted to kiss him, he went off to have a shower and left me laying on the bed a tingling pile of desire until I was launched back in time. I was glad though. This was meant to be our first kiss. Not in the future, but here, at the beginning, where it all started.
We smiled at each other as we came up for air and I gestured to the dance floor. “You don’t like robot dancing by any chance do you?”
Will grabbed my shoulders. “Do I ever! I’m like The King of robot dancing!” He led me towards the dance floor. “And that’s not just because it’s the only style of dance I know.” He winked, his eyes telling me it most certainly was.
A crowd gathered in a circle around us, clapping and cheering, except for Cody who stood on the sidelines shaking his head in utter disbelief. When the song ended and slow music took over, he pulled me close to him. “You’ve got me under your spell, Kelli Crawford,” he whispered.
“Then let’s make some magic,” I replied, leaning my head towards his and relishing the soft, warm touch o
f his lips again.
As we swayed in time to the music, he brought his lips to my ear and whispered, “Never in a million years would I have dreamed that Kelli Crawford would waltz into my school reunion and ravish me.”
“It just goes to show, you never know what the future has in store for you,” I replied, even though I was privy to some of it.
“That’s right,” he said. “Do you ever wish you could jump ahead in time and see what your future’s going to be like?”
“Well, it could be … interesting, but nah, I’d rather stay exactly where I am and let life lead the way.”
“Yeah, me too. Life is for living, is it not? If you’re too focused on the future you forget to have fun in the moment.” Will pulled back, putting a stop to our slow dance. “Speaking of fun, the annual fun fair’s on in the city all month. Being Saturday night it should be open till late.” His eyes twinkled. “What do you say we skip this joint and go have some real fun?”
A smile crawled onto my lips and I clasped my hand in his, eyeing the exit. “Hell, yeah!”
Chapter 21
Twenty Five Years Later
“Mothers and daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers.”
– Author Unknown
“Wake up, Kelli, wake up!” I inched my eyes open to find Will shaking me gently. “Guess what? We’re grandparents! Diora had a baby girl!”
I shot up to a sitting position. “Oh my God! A granddaughter? Oh, I’m so happy!” I flung my legs over the side of the bed and stood quickly, resting my hand on the bedside table momentarily to regain my balance. “How’s the baby, is she okay? Is Diora okay?”
“They’re both fine, although apparently Jason’s wand has been snapped to bits,” he chuckled.
“What’s her name?” I asked, eagerly rummaging through my wardrobe and pulling out a random pair of pants and a shirt.
“They wouldn’t say, said they wanted to introduce her to us properly,” Will replied.
“Oh, okay.” I imagined the baby holding out her tiny hand and saying ‘Nice to officially meet you, Grandma’, and then shook the absurdity from my mind. “I can’t wait to see her!”
“Me neither, but you better come and have breakfast first, don’t want you collapsing with low blood sugar at the hospital,” Will said. “Although, you couldn’t get a more convenient place, if that were to happen.”
I whipped him playfully with my trousers before stepping into them and wiggling them up and over my hips. “I’ll just get ready first, see you in the kitchen soon.”
Will wandered out, pinching his e-pad and pulling the virtual strand to his ear. “Hi Mum, it’s me. She had a baby girl … I know! … yep … okay, so …” his voice trailed off.
I flicked on the light in the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Squirting a blob of moisturiser onto my hands I massaged it into my cheeks, circling the laughter lines that had deepened after many a fun night watching comedy movies with Will. Then I let the lotion glide over my forehead, seeping into the furrows that had developed from hours and hours of concentration hunched over my designing desk. I dabbed my ring finger in the jar of eye cream and patted the lines framing my eyes which had cried at the birth of my two children, then pressed lip gloss into the lips that had kissed many a sore knee after a fall at the park, and lips that had poured forth my love for Will onto lips of his own. As the moisturiser sunk into my thirsty skin, I rubbed lotion on the arms that had rocked babies to sleep and embraced my husband. I lifted my shirt to nourish the loose but resilient skin on my abdomen that had long ago stretched with the promise of new life, and adjusted the straps on my bra, supporting the breasts that had fed my two children.
My body was a living reminder of my wonderful life. It had done amazing, beautiful things and there was no way in the world I’d prefer to look like a twenty-something perfect beauty with a body untouched by life. Of course, I still valued my appearance, but as I dusted my face with mineral foundation I knew that if I chose not to bother anymore, it wouldn’t make any difference. My family would still be here, my friends would still love me and my business would still be the award-winning empire that it was.
I flicked the light off as I strode confidently from the bathroom and entered the kitchen where Ryan and Ben were sitting at the counter stuffing their mouths with cake. “You call that breakfast?” I asked.
Ryan shrugged, his cheeks bulging. “It’s got protein, carbohydrates and a little … okay, a lot of fat, but it’s still a balanced meal, right?” He flashed a hopeful smile and Ben nodded.
“Definitely. And it’s sooo good!” Ben shoved another mouthful towards his parted lips.
“Yeah, Elaine outdid herself with this one, didn’t she?” I pressed my finger into the frosting on Ryan’s piece of cake and licked it from my finger.
“Hey!” He slapped my wrist. “But yeah, this is the best one she’s done so far. I thought the lotus cake she made for my twenty-first was something, but now she’s raised the bar.” He lifted his hand to show a level above head-height.
“And didn’t she and Peter look great last night?” Will asked, placing a plate of yolkless eggs and steamed spinach in front of me.
“They did indeed. A very cute, albeit, spooky couple.” I swallowed a piece of egg, remembering Elaine’s floaty ghost costume and her husband’s skeleton outfit. Apparently he had to wear some kind of support band underneath to hide his beer belly, Elaine revealed and we had a quiet chuckle about it while he’d been busy chatting to Will in the Bliss Garden last night.
‘So, do you feel fifty, Mum? Now that the excitement from the party has worn off?” Ryan asked.
Not as much as the first time. It had been much easier to gradually climb the ladder of age, as opposed to having it rudely shoved in front of me like an overpowering perfumed cardboard strip from a department store sales person. “I don’t know, I just feel … like me.” I smiled and wolfed down the rest of my breakfast, before standing and taking it to the instant dishwasher chute. “Oh, I’ll have to call Dad. Tell him he’s a great grandfather,” I said, raising my finger like a light bulb in the air.
“No need. Already called him. He’s going to meet us there,” my always efficient, totally organised husband said, then his e-pad rang. “William McSnelly speaking,” he said. “Yes, hello Mr Turrow.”
Ooh! Mr Turrow! I hope he’s—
“You are? Well that’s fantastic, we’re very pleased to have you as one of our valued clients.” Will flashed a winning smile at me.
Yes! Good thing I’d had twenty five years to perfect my presentation, he practically felt like an old friend by the time he turned up at head office yesterday.
Will told Mr Turrow what the next steps would be, scheduled a video meeting for Monday, then ended the call, his arms scooping me up in the air with excitement. “KC Interiors is going global, baby!”
“Woohoo!” I exclaimed, as Ryan and Ben clapped their congratulations.
“Now,” he said, placing my feet back on the floor. “Are you ready to meet your grandchild?”
“Am I ready?” I replied. “I’ve been waiting for this day my whole life.”
Fifteen minutes later we were driving through the city. “Oh, bugger! I forgot to get flowers for Diora. Will, honey, can you pull into the shopping centre so I can get a nice bunch from Franco the Florist?” I turned my head towards Will who was driving, with Ryan and Ben in the backseat, a large teddy bear in a tartan jacket wedged between them.
“The hospital has a flower shop, we can just get some there,” he replied, his eyes on the road.
“Will, our daughter has just had her first child and you want to express our love for her with a shoddy bunch of carnations?” I said, a hand on my hip. “Franco will make up a beautiful piece of art for our darling daughter. I’m not prepared to go second best on this.”
Will laughed in defeat and pulled into the shopping centre car park, which was packed full. “There are no spots left, I’ll have to hover over
here while you duck in and get them, okay?”
“Yep,” I said, getting out of the car.
“But don’t take too long,” he called out after me.
I waved my understanding and scooted into the refreshing cool of the centre. I did want to get a quality bunch of flowers, that was no lie, but there was something else I wanted to do—and no, I wasn’t about to run off and have a Better Than Sex facial if that’s what you’re thinking. I made my way to the New Age shop and entered, spying Liliana and Rosie in the booths. The one person waiting in line was ushered towards one of the other psychics and I took her place, resurrecting the queue.
I alternated impatiently from one foot to the other, until Liliana glanced with curious eyes in my direction. She excused herself from her client and walked out from behind the booth towards me. “Do I know you, dear?”
“Um … maybe,” I replied. “But I wanted to give you some of these.” I handed her a pile of business cards for FastForwardExperiences.com and on reading them her eyes bulged up at me.
“I’ve seen this website before, it’s fascinating! Is this actually your site?” she asked and I nodded. “Oh wow, thank you. What a wonderful thing it is that you’re doing, spreading the awareness of this phenomenon.” She held tightly onto the cards. “Wait, does this mean that you’ve experienced a … fast forward?” She leaned close to me in an attempt to keep our conversation private.
I chewed on my bottom lip.
“You have, haven’t you? I can tell!”
Yep, one should never attempt to hide something from a gifted psychic. I nodded.
“Is your experience listed on the site?” she asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“Wait, don’t tell me! Give me a minute …” She closed her eyes, then opened them, flashing a cheeky grin. “Did you use the alias ‘Grumpy’, by any chance?”
I nodded, as an unstoppable smile crashed onto my face.
“Your story is amazing!” Liliana exclaimed, grasping both of my hands in hers. “But how did you know to give these cards to me? Did we actually meet … in your fast forward?”
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