It was early morning, maybe a bit past six. Filmy blankets of mist still wandered in the low sky, shrouding everything down below it in damp layers of cold. Everest wrapped her white terry robe tighter around her body and shut the curtain. Then she turned away from the window and leaned against the wall beside it.She covered a yawn and eyed the four-poster bed. Going back to sleep would be a good thing right now, but she had made up her mind to start working today. Her days of lazying about were over.After that trip to the market a few days ago, she had barely stepped out of the house. With the gardening equipment she had found in a metal box in the barn, she had worked on her front garden, discovering her very green fingers. Then she had been to the big bookshop cum library in town just yesterday afternoon. Bored and having all day on her hands, she had wandered her front yard as though looking over her garden when Mrs Casss's rusty old truck Lassie pulled up at her front gate.Th

It was afternoon before Everest knew it. She had spent all day on her laptop sketching and then working on the foundation of two houses. Now the inertia had worked a kink into her shoulder.She pushed to her feet from the desk and massaged her shoulder blades, working her neck from side to side. She closed her laptop to put it to sleep and walked toward the dressing table.She bent to inspect her fatigued face in the mirror. Her black curls were packed into a puffy bun on the top of her head, and now perspiration clung to her hairline.She stood and examined her pink dress shirt and tight black leather shorts. Maybe she could go out.The sheet of perspiration in her hairline trickled down her right temple. A cold shower should probably be in order first. Everest had started toeing off her sneakers when she remembered the lake and how it'd be a perfect place to have a cold afternoon bath. Besides, the shower was likely to be too hot at this time of the day anyway.While slipping off t

"Girl, you never said how long you'll be staying."Everest exhaled and shrugged, glancing over at Leesa. "I don't know yet. Maybe about a month or so. Maybe I'll be extending my rent when it expires."Khessica gasped. She swiped madly away at her overgrown jet-black bangs. "You're kidding," she declared. "Girls, don't just sit there and watch her make crazy decisions." Khessica glowered at the other four faces in the video call - including Everest's.Jinny was busy spooning large portions of green ice cream into her mouth. Her pregnancy had given her a strange craving for freezing cold and soft food. She set down the large striped tub with a roll of her eyes. "Our girl is being a bonafide cosmopolitan bitch," she said to Khessica. "I support you, woman," she said to Everest, picking up her ice cream again.Elise groaned. "Why do we have to argue about when Evie's returning?" She stabbed at her pink glasses and tsked. "No offence, babe, but you're as stubborn as a fucking mule. You don

To her disappointment, it was way dark when Everest woke up. What had meant to be a short nap had spun into a long sleep. She groaned when she checked the time to be nine o'clock in the night.Great. Now she'd have trouble going back to sleep later.Her stomach moaned as she got up from the bed and she rubbed at her flat tummy. Her plan to cook up a nice meal on waking up was gone with the evening wind now and she'd had nothing but a bowl of cereal in the morning and a quarter dozen of cakes in the afternoon.Everest then realized her skin was steaming from the heat that had refused to depart with the afternoon. She found herself wishing the small house had air conditioning. Making a mental note to mention it to Mrs Casss, she headed to the kitchen to get a bite of a cupcake.She had planned to muster up the trekking courage to go into town tomorrow and buy a bunch of flavoured frostings to add to the remaining. And if she wasn't able to summon the courage she was going to have them l

Mentor's jaws were starting to hurt slightly from holding them together with so much force. The neighbour's question had him worked up on the inside and he didn't like it one bit. He looked away at the lush sea of grass that spilt out beneath them and breathed deep. How was it her business? Just because she had made his daughter's hair didn't give her the right to ask him personal stuff. He looked back at the tabletop in front of him with a frown. Was she one of those interlopers that felt entitled to everybody's lives?"Oh my God." He heard her say with a soft gasp.That caught his attention and he looked up. There was a frisson of fear lodged in her coffee-brown eyes. She was penitent, knowing she had gone overboard there.She looked down and away and touched a hand to her forehead tiredly. "I'm so sorry. That was so stupid of me. I shouldn't have asked that question. I shouldn't have. . ."With a start that made his heart start to sprint, he realized he must have shown his annoya