Three Words: A Novella Collection (22 page)

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.