Three Words: A Novella Collection (21 page)

“
What? Like now?” Lily was dumbstruck. It wasn’t that she
didn’t want to have a drink with him, more that she was so shocked
at that fact he was calling her. God, where the bloody hell was
that verbal-diarrhoea filled voice ~ the smooth conversationalist
tone she used with the clients ~ when she needed it?

“
I know it’s short notice but seeing as how we seem to have
misplaced your shoes it’s the least I can do to repay
you.”

“
Okay. That sounds nice. Thank you.”

“
You’re not busy, then?”

“
Not unless you call a date with my T.V. busy.”

“
I like a girl who doesn’t feel the need to deny the fact that
she stays at home watching mindless trash on the box instead of
having a social life.”

“
Come Dine With Me Australia
is not mindless trash,”
Lily retorted, laughing. “It’s far superior to
Pawn
Stars
.”

“
God forbid, I should keep you from that gem. I suppose you
watch those wedding shows too, do you?”

Lily didn’t
have the courage to tell him she’d given them up cold turkey after
Travis had gone. She’d sound completely pathetic. “Where shall we
meet?”

“
Come by the shop. I know a place not far from
here.”

Heart pounding
like the drum machine on a Robbie Williams song, Lily laid the
phone back in the cradle. She was going on a date. With Damon, the
hot cobbler guy. Even in their completely-off-the-radar absent
state those red pumps were definitely lucky. Definitely.

*****

Fifteen
minutes later, Lily and Damon were perched opposite each other at a
bar table in a one-room bar down the lane from his shop. After
establishing that he was not some weirdo and had in fact got her
phone number off the docket for the repairs to her shoes, they’d
been overtaken by a moment of mutual awkwardness, the kind where
you want to be with someone but because you don’t know them, have
no idea what to say when that moment comes.

It had been a
masterful effort, requiring supreme balance and simultaneous
tip-toe walking, for Lily to arrive at the bar in one piece.
Hundred-year-old cobblestones were not engineered to be walked on
whilst wearing shoes that high with heels that thin. She’d almost
rolled her ankle and on one occasion had had to grab Damon’s arm
for support. Well, sort of. She probably could have gone it alone
but if you had a wall of finely toned male flesh beside you it
seemed a sin not to take advantage of it, right? And it’d only been
the merest brush. Just enough to confirm the fact that she
seriously wanted to see what was underneath his shirt.

“
Drink?” Damon asked, leaning forward on his stool. “Even
though I‘m not sure you’ll be able to walk back along that alley if
I let you have alcohol.”

“
Vodka tonic. And I’ll be perfectly capable if I remove my
shoes. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“
Too bad. I was kinda looking forward to carrying
you.”

Lily felt a
rush of warmth envelope her. Was he flirting? It had been so long
since she’d been toyed with like that she’d almost forgotten the
rush it caused. Watching as he shouldered his way through the
Thursday night crowd to the bar, she tried to recall the last time.
Even at the inception of her relationship with Travis she’d never
felt a heady rush like this. And she’d thought him to be
the
one
.

Over at the
bar, Lily could see Damon’s wide shoulders, standing out in the
crowd like a beacon in that pink shirt. He’d found someone he knew
and was chatting while he waited for their drinks. He was even
handsomer in profile than front on, if that was possible. Lily had
never considered profiles to be hot before but the plane of his
jaw, the angle of his cheek. If she could just touch it. Good God,
she was turning into some sort of drooly pervert. Next she’d be
asking to sniff his underwear of something.

A tumbler
filled with iced liquid, a straw and lemon slice appeared in front
of her as she considered this idea.

“
For the lady,” Damon said.

“
Thanks.” Lily took a sip. Woah, that was strong. A couple
more of these and he
would
be carrying her.

“
Penny for them?”

“
Huh?”

“
What’s on your mind? You were off in a daze just
then.”

Flames of
embarrassment lit Lily’s cheeks. She couldn’t tell him she was
daydreaming about kissing him, could she?
Nooooo
. Definitely
not. “You know. Just stuff. Boring stuff.”

“
Didn’t look boring. You were grinning like you’d just been
told you’d won lotto.”

“
I wish.”

It’d be easier
to explain than ‘I want to get into your pants’.

Damon took a
chug of his beer. He smacked his deliciously pink lips together and
Lily suddenly realised that she’d never noticed a man’s lips before
either. Not Travis’s. Nobody’s. Like a mute, she stared across the
space at him, her eyes glued to his mouth. Her heart thumped in her
chest, her knees quivered under the table. She felt like she had on
the one and only occasion she’d been conned into taking Ecstasy.
Instantly loved-up. It was weird. Especially seeing that she was as
sober as a judge.

“
You okay, Lily?” Damon was looking at her, a curious
expression on his face.

“
Fine. Yeah. Great. Thanks,” she smiled.

“
So, tell me about these foibles of yours.”

Lily
spluttered into her drink, only barely containing herself long
enough to stop it from ending up all over him, “Did you just say
‘foibles’?”

The last time
she’d heard that had been when her Grandad Alf had been alive and
it’d been a word from the dark ages then. Where had this guy come
from?

“
I did. It was either that or ‘phobias’ and as far as I know
you only have one of those. Foibles could describe your fear as
well as the ‘lucky shoe’ thing.”

“
Spiders are my only phobia. I found myself the recipient of a
spider-covered doona when I awoke one morning at the tender age of
ten. According to my dad, who tried to dispose of them without
scaring the bejesus out of me, they’d come in to avoid the
heat.”

“
And they were on your bed? While you were in it?”

“
All twenty three of them. I screamed blue murder.”

“
No wonder they scare the crap out of you. I didn’t picture
you as being one of those girlie types who did the spider thing for
attention.”

There was that
warm feeling again. Lily took a glug of her vodka. She was going to
have to be careful or she might find herself falling for this
guy.

“
What about you Damon? Any secret fears?” She raised a
questioning eyebrow.

“
Not as such. I’m not overly keen on broad beans, though. They
taste like dog turds.”

“
I’ll take your word for it.”

“
I don’t like clowns much, either. Steven King did a real job
on me. Couldn’t sleep with the light off for a week, much to my
former girlfriend’s dismay.”

“
If it’s any consolation I thought that movie was scary,
too.”

“
I haven’t even seen the movie,” Damon confessed. “I was so
freaked after I read the book, I refused. My mates reckoned I’d
gone soft.”

Lily watched
his face. He was so genuine and quite vulnerable now that he was
talking about his fears. It was nice. Unusual for a man, but nice.
And somehow refreshing. Plus he read books. Most of the guys she
knew, even the professional ones, wouldn’t be seen dead with a
‘book’ in their hands. It’d be as traumatic as Leonardo Di Caprio
driving a non-electric car.

“
So we won’t be going to
Ashton’s Circus
anytime
soon?”

“
No way.”

“
Horror movie marathon?”

“
I think that’s been and gone, but no. Not unless I have you
there to hold my hand.”

That was
sweet. Though she prayed he hadn’t thought she was angling for a
repeat date. ‘Cause she wasn’t.

“
I’d be useless if the movie had spiders in it.”

“
Yeah. Guess we’ll have to be drinking buddies, then.
Refill?”

Lily looked at
her glass. That had disappeared awfully quickly. It was as if
talking to Damon had made the hours disappear or something. They’d
gone from being awkward to comfortable in a matter of minutes. Like
the oldest of friends.

Lily was
amazed. She’d never shared banter like this with Travis. He’d
always been so serious about everything. Humour was something you
went to see at a pre-arranged comedy night, not something you
engaged in. And come to think of it, it had taken ages after they
started going out before she’d felt this comfortable. If she were
any more comfortable she’d be slipping into her yoga pants and
piling her hair on top of her head like she did in the privacy of
her own home.

She hopped
down from her stool, keen to let the comparisons end there.

“
My shout,” she said, “Same again?”

Damon held out
his empty schooner. “Twist my arm.”

Four drinks
and three
Blow Jobs
later ~ as in the shot variety not the
pornographic sex act ~ Lily and Damon were still at their table.
The late afternoon had morphed into Thursday evening and the work
crowd had disappeared, being replaced by the take-me-home-and-do-me
and skinny jeans crowd. Boys were eyeing off girls over the necks
of their beers and girls were laughing and flicking their hair a
little too obviously.

With the crowd
thickening, Damon had moved from opposite Lily to sitting on a
ninety-degree angle. At least, that’s what Lily thought the angle
was. Her head was beginning to feel the effects of those shooters.
Alcohol on an empty stomach could do that. So could the pressure of
Damon’s knee touching hers. Every now and then she’d feel it and
just as she’d be about to smile he’d look at her awkwardly and move
it away. He felt it to. She knew he did.

“
I think I’m a bit pissed,” Damon remarked.

So the graze
of his hand over her forearm when they’d talked about their
childhoods had been an accident? She’d misread the flirty comments?
Oh God, she wanted him to like her. She really wanted him to like
her. Even more than she wanted Jordy to accidently eat gluten after
he’d informed her he was intolerant. It wasn’t that she wanted
Jordy to be sick, just a little uncomfortable so he’d stay off work
for a day or so.

“
I’m legless,” she replied, with a titter to prove it. “I only
ate half my lunch.”

“
Is that a hint?”

“
What for?”

She was so
drunk she had no idea what they’d even been talking about.

“
Dinner.”

“
Oh no, shit no. Of course, not. If I wanted to have dinner
with you I’d just say so.”

“
That’s nice to know.”

Now she’d
offended him. He thought she didn’t like him.

“
Please, I… I didn’t mean it like ‘I wouldn’t want to have
dinner with you’ ... in the future. I’d love to. But I was merely
saying I wasn’t fishing. You know, for this to continue into
dinner. I was stating a fact.”

“
The fact being you had no lunch, which in turn made you
legless and that’s why you’re raving like a woman who forgot to
take her medication?”

“
Exactly.”

“
Not that you wouldn’t grab a takeaway with me?”

“
Right.”

“
Glad we got that sorted.” He drained his drink.

“
I’m a straight down the line type of girl, Damon. I want what
I want. I say what I mean. It’s like… it’s like going to that
stupid dance tomorrow night. I don’t want to go, I told Rebecca
that and she wouldn’t listen. Not that I can’t understand why she
did it ~ she thought she was being supportive, back on the horse
and all that, but I think she misplaced her memory of how it feels.
And it wasn’t because I don’t have a boyfriend. I simply can’t
stand the thought of all those sicky-make-me-throw-up couples,
that’s all!”

Damon was
squinting at her in confusion. “What the hell are you GOING on
about?”

“
The Valentine’s Ball. Why? What were you talking
about?”

“
Stopping by the chip shop on the way home to get a bit of
grease to soak up this alcohol. I wasn’t asking you to marry me.
I’m fanging for some food, that’s all.”

Lily bit her
lip.

Oooppps
. Now she’d done it.

“
Oh.”

“
So, do you want to?”

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.