Three Words: A Novella Collection (24 page)

“
Got your keys?”

“
Check.”

“
Lippy?”

“
Check.”

“
Phone, perfume, cash?”

Lily peered
into her bag. She did a final twirl in front of the hall mirror,
tucked a stray hair back into the loose bun at her nape and swung
the front door open. For some weird reason, she was feeling edgy
but quite excited.

“
Triple check. Let’s go.”

*****

Lily had,
indeed danced, the night away. It had been brilliant fun, despite
the fact that she had acquired a new friend on her heel in the form
of a large blister and another in the form of a rather desperate
fellow who had chased her into the Ladies, scaled the door and
proposed to her, which would have been funny had she not been about
to pull her knickers down at the time. She’d laughed with her
friends, drank a truckload of wine and also managed to attract the
attention of two or three other single men, none of whom she’d date
in a pink fit ~ they didn’t seem to have that pull she’d felt with
Damon ~ but they were nice and friendly and good to dance with, the
sort of guys you’d keep as friends.

Not once had
she pondered over love lost. In fact, the only thoughts of love
she’d had were those involving a certain hot man who killed spiders
and hated scary movies. She wondered what he was doing. Was he
thinking about her?

After four
dances in a row, with all different partners eager to have her
phone number, Lily finally got back to her seat. She plonked down
and picked up her champagne, taking a sip. The alcohol-soaked
strawberry bobbing in the top of the glass touched her lips and she
scooped it up with her newly manicured finger, sucking it into her
mouth. Yum. Strawberries were Lily’s favourite fruit. It had been
Travis’s too. Or so he’d said.

Up on the
floor, Rebecca and Shaun were wound around each other in a romantic
dance. The other couples from their table were slow dancing too and
for a second, Lily slipped back into her previously pensive mood.
She stared up at the ceiling, smothered with thousands of helium
filled balloons that had long, scarlet strings dangling from them,
finished with cut out hearts. Wiping a tear, she gazed at the red
fairylights that adorned the walls and pillars. She admired the
tables; white cloths spread with rose petals and the gigantic heart
shaped, twig centrepieces.

That could
have been her and Travis up there, she thought, a little sadly. If
she hadn’t dumped him. Or had he dumped her? She’d never actually
figured that out. After their massive row, he’d just sort of
disappeared. Would she ever find love again? Now that she’d decided
she wasn’t so down on it, she really did want a boyfriend. Someone
to cherish. But even though she missed Travis at times like this,
she’d never want him back. It was a loneliness thing that was
all.

As Lily sat
watching, the music changed. The band began to play
Someone to
Watch Over Me.
Lily sat straighter, shaking her head at the
impossibility of it. It had to be a coincidence, right? Willie
Nelson couldn’t be playing twice in two days. But it was the same
song. God, how freaky. Then she had another thought. What if…?

She sat
straighter still. Her neck craned to the point of uncomfortable as
she scanned the room over the heads of the dancing couples. He was
here. She knew it.

“
Looking for someone?”

The deep,
slightly husky voice made her jump. “Damon!”

“
Dance? I believe this is one of your favourites?”

“
How did you do this?” Lily flapped her disbelieving arms
toward the band. She was so shocked she thought she was going to
fall off her chair. Luckily, Damon’s hand was there to steady
her.

“
I paid them an exorbitant amount of cash.”

“
And how did you get here?”

“
Taxi.”

Lily would
have thudded back to Earth on the sarcasm but her cloud was too
puffy for her to fall over the edge.

Damon took her
hand. He held her gaze in his own. He smiled the most disarmingly
cheeky and sexy smile Lily had ever seen on a man. Bugger how he’d
done it. He was here and, gosh, was he the best, most hottest man
on Earth or what?

“
Dance first, questions later. By my reckoning, this song’s
only got another two minutes. I don’t want to waste a second of
having you in my arms.”

Lily nodded
and stumbled to her feet, her blisters forgotten.

For the next
two minutes and thirty-four seconds, Lily was silent, a nigh on
impossible feat for the girl who’d always been in trouble for
talking during Silent Reading time at school and who only last week
had been given daggers for speaking in a staff meeting. Overawed,
surprised and deliciously excited were but a few of the emotions
that were surging through Lily’s body. She couldn’t describe the
others ~ she was too busy trying not to faint in Damon’s arms. And
the tingling was making her very wriggly.

At last, she
managed to settle and from a comfortable place where her head rest
on his shoulder she asked, “How did you get here?” again.

“
Told you,” Damon whispered in her ear. She could feel the
smirk on his lips. She knew he was pleased with himself to be able
to affect her this way. “Taxi.”

He bent his
mouth even closer to her ear. A rush of warm breath slid down her
neck. “I have to say, it was worth the effort. You look beautiful,
Lily. You might, in fact, be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever
seen. And the more I see you, the more I want to get to know
you.”

“
I feel like I’ve known you for years.”

“
Me too. So I s’pose I should confess.”

Lily could
feel herself tensing. Oh God, Rebecca ~even though she’d been
joking ~ had been right. Damon had some dark secret and it wasn’t
good.

“
What?”

“
Your shoes weren’t exactly lost.”

“
I don’t get it?” Honestly, she felt like such a dimwit but
really she didn’t get it.

“
They were on the bottom shelf where you couldn’t see them the
whole time. I just… well, from the moment you walked into the shop
I wanted to get to know you more and pretending to lose your shoes
was the only thing I could come up with on short
notice.”

“
That was pretty sneaky,” Lily chided, secretly pleased that a
man would go to such lengths to get a date.

“
I always planned on giving them back to you.”

Lily stood on
her tiptoes. She pecked Damon softly on the cheek. “I’m glad you
did. Though if you’d really lost my lucky shoes, I might have come
back to the shop and strangled you with a shoelace.”

They danced a
little longer, Damon’s strong body holding Lily tight as they made
their way around the floor and towards the front, near the stage.
The band, seemingly Damon’s new best friends, winked and nodded as
they danced by. They looked happy to have played their part in a
Valentine’s surprise.

“
So what changed?” Lily asked, at last. “When we discussed the
ball, you told me you were spending the evening with your
grandfather. I totally understood that. I didn’t expect you to give
up being with him for me.”

Damon shifted
against her and swung her in the opposite direction. “We went to
the cemetery. We went to dinner. Then we sat down to watch
something on ABC that Grandpa enjoys. I’d been sitting there for
about ten minutes when he told me to get my bum off the couch and
go do whatever it was that I’d rather be doing. He said my face was
~ and I quote ~ ‘longer than a wet week.’”

Thoughtfulness
was clearly a family trait.

The song ended
and was replaced by a more up-tempo number, but still one for
‘couples’ dancing. Damon was quite competent at the ballroom stuff.
But then Pinocchio’s moves would have been an improvement on the
woodenness Lily experienced with her last partner. His dancing had
sucked.

As Damon
guided Lily away from him and twirled her under his arm, he
remarked, “I put up a bit of a fight but Grandpa wouldn’t take no
for answer, the old bugger. He’s stubborn like that.”

“
I’m glad. Having you here is the perfect end to the perfect
day.”

“
I did it, then?”

“
What?”

Damon slid
Lily into a dip, his large hand balancing her in the small of her
back. His face was serious as he studied hers. “Gave you a
Valentine’s Day that restored your faith in love?”

Lily blinked
up at him. “My friend Rebecca thought you were a bit of a nut job
sending the Crunchie Bar and I think the words ‘geriatric’ and
‘loser’ were used in relation to the CD. Then I explained. She
wants to kiss you now, so you’d better watch out. She’s here
somewhere.”

“
Is she good looking?”

“
Don’t be smart. Besides, I already told her she’s not
allowed.”

“
Why?”

Damon pulled
Lily up. They were face to face. Her heart was pounding faster than
the time she’d almost met Justin Timberlake after his concert.

“
Because
I
want to kiss you,” she whispered.

Damon bent his
forehead to hers. It was like they were the only couple in the
entire ballroom and the music was the movie soundtrack. “I think
that can be arranged. Later.”

*****

Like
Cinderella, Lily found herself leaving the ball at midnight; only
she had her shoes in her hand and the handsome prince by her side.
After dropping Shaun and Rebecca at Rebecca’s flat, Lily decided
she might walk the rest of the way. It was a balmy evening and the
streets were, for some reason, abandoned. She could stroll along
and enjoy it.

Damon walked
along with her, holding her hand. Lily had the feeling that like
her, he was doing everything he could to prolong the moment when
they’d have to say goodnight.

“
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.”