The One & Three Others

By Diane Lee

The One

When Tom Marshall knocks on Paton McLean's door, she's sure he is the one for her. Hiring him as a gardener and then a handyman, she keeps him around long enough for their relationship to develop into something more than friendship.

Tom has other ideas about their future, however, and struggles to come to terms with Paton's certainty that they are meant to be together. It is only in one final karmic twist that Tom realises he's made the wrong decision...

That Damn Lift

After a corporate takeover that results in new management and his demotion, Ross is biding his time until he retires. Unfit and unhappy that the lift in the building has been out of order for longer than necessary, he decides to confront his new boss, Ernestine, a cold woman brought in to manage staff layoffs.

Desperate to make Ernestine understand that the lift is a symbol of change (and not for the better), he commits an act of defiance that both redeems and costs him...

Must Have Hair

Monique, approaching forty and desperate to be a wife and mother, is looking for love in all the wrong places. Adam, an unassuming artist, has been in love with her for three years.

Knowing that time is running out to make his move, Adam decides to share his feelings with Monique... but how can she reconcile the balding artist with the man of her dreams?

Office Ink

Office romances start innocently enough: an email here, a coffee there...

Caitlin Mills has had a crush on Mitchell Cooper, her handsome co-worker, for what seems like forever.

When Mitch breaks up with his girlfriend and asks Cait out to a music festival, she is thrilled. Hoping that this will be the start of something wonderful, Cait shares the details with Georgia Gallo, her colleague and friend. Georgia, and Caitlin's boss, Alec Smart, have other ideas about this budding romance, and Cait discovers that her relationship with Mitch is not quite as it seems.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diane Lee
• Release date: Apr 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9798215895214

Diane Lee

Diane Lee is the author of the Love & Other Stuff series and Queen Bee at Delicious Publishing.A former English teacher, she now works part-time in corporate learning and development. Diane has a Master of Arts in a Communication Management and has been employed in various public relations and marketing communication roles over the years. She is grateful for this experience, because it means the business side of publishing isn’t at all scary.Her main claims to fame are serendipitously touching Benedict Cumberbatch at OzComicCon in 2014 and making Markus Zusak--author of The Book Thief--guffaw at his book signing.She lives in Adelaide, South Australia with her daughter and cat.

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Copyright © 2024 Diane Lee

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher other than the use of brief quotations in book reviews. If you have acquired this book without buying it or without the author's permission, please respect her hard work and purchase a copy.

First printed 2016 by Delicious Publishing, Adelaide South Australia.

www.deliciouspublishing.com.au

The One

A scarred fig tree, branches naked and the flaxen, strappy leaves of bulbs growing wild around its base, mark winter. Camellia bushes, flushed pink with blooms, line an old rendered wall, crumbling now with age. Struggling, the sun warms through threatening clouds and weakly lights the bleached slabs of cracked cement blocks that stretch into a footpath that snakes, disappearing, toward the back door of a large old house. This garden is one of the last remaining in the city and is an unofficial tourist attraction; the house is on the government’s Architectural Curiosity List (Relics of The Early 21st Century).

It is an old building, one that has gone through many changes. Built originally as a gentleman’s bungalow, then turned into maisonettes and later an office, it is now a refurbished retirement home. The limestone walls, once a chalky-white, are now flecked charcoal and green with mould and lichen. A clear expanse of windows reflects the garden, mirroring back the sun.

Inside the day-room, a wall-screen is turned on, blaring out the jagged sound of an advertisement, before returning to the soothing, rhythm of an old 1990s movie. The room is peppered with the elderly. Some slump huddled together in hover-chairs, parked neatly in front of the wall-screen, others perch on ergo-stools, talking animatedly, papery blue-veined hands busy playing vintage Game Boys and Nintendos. Still others are lost in their timeless worlds, ear buds plugged into vintage smart phones and tablets, providing relief from the drudgery of the present. Several small droids dot the room, efficiently overseeing the various needs of the inhabitants of the day-room.

One frail old man sits some distance from the others, and ignoring protocol, has chosen an old, leather junk-chair over the ergo-stool, positioning it in front of the window facing the garden. He sits quietly, gazing out at the old fig tree, hypnotised by the wintry landscape. His hair is a powdery gray, thinning in patches. His once handsome face is marred by liver spots, mouth frayed at the corners. He grips the arms of his chair, knuckles white and strained, as if preparing for a wild ride.

Outside, in the hall leading to the day room, the laughter of children rises to meet the blare of the wall-screen, as families come to visit with their elderly relatives. They are fetched and hovered or walked away to other parts of the house, and despite the cold and impending rain, outside to the garden. The children’s laughter disturbs the old man and rouses him briefly from his garden gaze; he utters a small, heartfelt sigh.

A human nurse approaches the man tentatively and gently asks: ‘Are you all right, Mr Marshall?’ When he doesn’t reply, she slides a nearby lapcoosh onto the old man’s thin legs, then reaches out to pat his hand.

‘No visitors today, then? Tell you what, I’ll be your visitor. I can sit with you awhile.’

The nurse pulls up a hover-chair, and places herself next to him. They both take in the garden, now ghost-like from the misty rain masking the sun. Surprising her, the old man’s voice, proud and strong asks: ‘What do you want to do that for?’

She hesitates before replying kindly: ‘It’s my job, Mr Marshall.’

The old man turns away from the nurse, his attention back to the outside world. And as the rain falls in opaque sheets onto the muddy grass, he gently escapes into sleep, where he dreams the wishing dreams of a sad, lonely man.

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As soon as she opened the door, Paton knew. He stood, body blocking the door frame. He was tall; his long limbs lean, his hair a dirty blond,