Page 78 of Here One Moment

“I’m not going to die in a workplace accident, I promise you.”

“You can’t promise me that. There was a story about a multistory crane collapse on a site last week. A man in his forties died. It could have been you. It could easily have been you.”

“That was not one of our sites, and you know, Neve, you could be hit by a bus yourself.”

“Well, if a psychic told me I was going to be hit by a bus, I’d avoid catching the bus!”

“Not if catching the bus was the only way to pay the mortgage!”

They seem to be in the middle of an argument. He tries to keep any emotion out of his voice. “This is all so—”

“You know what?” Neve interrupts. “If working for that woman ends up killing you, I will kill that manipulative, micromanaging bitch myself.”

Leo reels. Manipulative, micromanaging bitch? What the hell? He thought Neve and Lilith liked each other. All that admiring of each other’s hair at the office Christmas parties. He actually assumed Neve, as a woman, found Lilith even more inspirational than he does.

“What are you talking about, Neve?”

“Leo? Am I interrupting?”

And there she is, standing right in front of him. Lilith in her cream pantsuit and pearl earrings, frowning at a message on her phone.

“Have you heard about this drainage issue?”

She smiles. There is a minuscule fleck of red lipstick on one of her incisors.

Chapter 73

I have never really had a nickname before.

So it’s unfortunate that my first was “the Death Lady.”

I’m not keen on it.

It first made its appearance after the deaths of the elderly doctors.

That’s when Deathlady became a trending hashtag across multiple social media platforms.

Which leaves me lost for words.

Chapter 74

It’s late September. Spring in Sydney. Ethan is on the bus heading towork.

“Would you look at the color of that cherry blossom tree!” says the woman sitting next to him. She points through the window at the abundant froth of pale pink flowers.

“Beautiful,” says Ethan.

“But they never last long, do they?”

“No,” agrees Ethan, who has no idea how long cherry blossoms last.

He puts his AirPods in before the woman has the chance to point out more local flora.

Eleven days until his thirtieth birthday. It falls on a Monday, which is a shit day for a significant birthday. Especially if it’s my last.

These morbid thoughts are like pop-up ads and he can’t seem to access the right security software for his brain to stop them from appearing, even though he truly believes himself to still be unconcerned and skeptical.

Sometimes he catches himself hoping his “assault” will be quick, or that he at least gets one good punch in, although he still can’t imagine himself hitting someone.

---