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She stared out the kitchen window, past the garden and up the hill a little way to where the grass met the forest. Taking the last bite of her banana, she decided a walk would do her good. Moving slowly, she took her time to change and put on her sneakers.

Once outside, she headed towards the trees and followed the path of moulded grass up the hill, and as she walked, she dragged her long brown hair into a ponytail. Reaching the entangled forest, she pulled back a vine that had grown over the entrance to the trail. Instantly, the sounds changed. She heard the hum of insects and the distant chatter of songbirds. Making her way over small knotted roots along the well-worn path, she contemplated her life.

At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Hazel had ended up exactly where she had started, back in Bells Bay with no home, no job, no partner and no direction. She had some savings she could lean into while she figured out her next move. Although she loved Bells Bay, the town was a bit of a backwater. It would always be home, but there was nothing here for her. Bells Bay was more of a temporary rest stop. She would take some downtime for a few weeks, or months, as her mother wanted her to stay for her exhibition.

Hazel wondered how this gap would appear on her resume. She could call it a well-earned break, but whatever she called it, it would still be a gap. And how to explain the firing? Perhaps she could say she’d returned home to help her mother with something? Maybe she could do some online marketing courses and update her skills. That would boost her resume, right?

Hazel huffed and let out a dramatic sigh. She lacked purpose without a job. As soon as she’d left Bells Bay, she’d had a job. She didn’t know who she was without employment. Hazel had worked at a clothing store during university, then received the offer of an internship with a very reputable marketing firm before settling there with a full-time position when she had graduated. She had been so infatuated with Tim when they first met and moving down to Sydney when he got transferred for work, hadn’t needed a second thought. Plus, she had assumed that finding a job in Sydney would be easy, but with the trip to the Maldives already booked, that had been harder than she had thought. She was ecstatic when Roger Klein Bedman had offered her a position in their marketing department. An international firm! She’d be able to travel the world and work overseas with a place like that on her resume.

But what a flop that had been. She tried to push the shame aside and focus on the positives. But the shame still ate away at her. She had never been fired before, and it was absolutely mortifying.

Her resume was filled with great recommendations and her portfolio of her marketing campaigns was filled to the brim. She had even won an award with her previous team for their last campaign on pineapples. Queensland Pineapples had engaged in a contract with her old firm, and the team had delivered print, television and social media ads that had seen pineapple sales skyrocket.

The fact she had been fired was so confusing. Hazel had racked her brain trying to justify the decision, but she couldn’t come up with any answers that involved her or her work ethic being at fault. Maybe it had nothing to do with her. She doubted she would ever figure it out.

Even though she was getting closer to believing the firing wasn’t a reflection on her, she still felt the shame. It was a very unpleasant emotion, and it was forcing Hazel to look inwards and doubt every aspect of herself. Perhaps she could have handled it better if it was one thing at a time. She certainly felt no shame about her relationship ending, and being homeless wasn’t great, but combined with losing her job, she had no choice but to feel immense shame about all three. Her self-confidence had suffered a serious knock, and it was going to take a lot of work and self-reflection to get it back. Finding a job would certainly help. In fact, Hazel was sure that it would probably solve all her problems.

A loud bird call startled her. Hazel had been so deep in thought she hadn’t noticed that she had stumbled off the trail. The forest seemed darker. The patches of sunlight filtering through the trees seemed dimmer. She looked around, but didn’t see anything familiar to take her back to the trail. Turning on her heels, she started to head back in the direction she had come, when she noticed the leaves of a poor shrub that she had trodden on earlier. Completely lost in thought, she hadn’t noticed she had nearly crushed an entire plant. Hazel bent down and tried to prop some of the drooping leaves back up, dispirited when they fell straight back down.

Sighing, she stood, studied the surrounding forest and continued on. Making her way through thick shrubs and over giant tree roots, she eventually spotted a sort of clearing. The forest had gone dark, as if a cloud had covered the sun, restricting the only light source. She turned around in the clearing a few times, finally stopping when she saw the tiny hint of a path. As she crossed the clearing to the path, the sun suddenly burst through the canopy and lit up the forest. Smiling, she stepped onto the trail. A few paces later, she was able to place her position.

She continued on. Little spots of sunlight danced with the movements of the canopy leaves. As she walked, Hazel’s thoughts returned to her predicament. She groaned as she realised she wasn’t really sure what to do now. The shiny gleam of her life had disappeared. If she was truly honest with herself, she realised it had disappeared a while ago. Hazel was going through the motions, not really enjoying anything.

Perhaps this was the perfect opportunity to change her thinking and look at her situation from a different perspective. Now, she was free to decide exactly what she wanted. Without Tim, she could choose where she wanted to live, and she could apply for some amazing jobs all over Australia. She wasn’t tethered to anything. The situation was perfect for her to completely rewrite her future. Suddenly elated at the thought, Hazel began to smile. A proper smile. She hadn’t smiled like this for so long that her cheeks were beginning to hurt. Happy that she had found a silver lining to focus on, Hazel clapped her hands together. She listened to the sound as it echoed through the trees.

As Hazel approached the farmhouse garden, she was lost in all of her new ideas. She didn’t see him until they collided. Hazel stumbled backwards, jolted out of her deep thoughts and looked up at the obstacle that stood before her. He was tall, with dark blonde hair that was swept over to one side. Bright green eyes stared back at her. Hazel noticed the muscles in his arms rippling as he readjusted the timber planks he was carrying.

“Er, sorry about that,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, me too.” Hazel forced herself to rip her eyes away from his muscular arms. She looked up at his face and found herself equally mesmerised by his emerald green eyes.

They stared at each other, lost in some alternate universe. Without warning, a thought flashed across her mind, releasing her from the spell. Who the heck was this guy?

“Who are you?” she asked bluntly, her eyes narrowing.

The man gave her a small smile as if he were trying to reassure her. “I’m Sam Parker. I’m doing some work for Ms McCleod,” he answered back. “You must be Hazel?” He gave her a small smile.

Hazel nodded slowly, and they went back to staring at each other for another few moments.

Eventually Sam opened his mouth and spoke softly, “well, it’s nice to meet you. I’d best get back to it.” Sam paused before he abruptly brushed past her.

Hazel spun and watched him walk around the side of the house. Lost again in thoughts of a different kind, Hazel glared in the direction Sam went. She wasn’t sure how to feel about this extremely attractive stranger hanging around. The worst part was, he seemed nice.

“Hazel!” Molly’s sing-song voice carried through the air. Startled, Hazel turned to see her mother at the kitchen window. She hurried over to the house, as if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t.

“I see you met Sam,” her mother noted as Hazel closed the back door.

“What’s he working on?” she asked gruffly.

Molly gave her daughter a quizzical look. “He’s replacing some of the cladding on the side of the house. He’s also going to renovate the main bathroom upstairs. You’ll have to use the new one downstairs when he starts. He did such a lovely job in there, don’t you think?”

The newly renovated bathroom flashed across Hazel’s mind. It was only a small room, to accommodate the guest bedroom on the ground floor. The style was traditional, with white subway tiles lining the walls and classic tapware. Tiny grey penny rounds covered the floor.

“Mmm,” Hazel agreed. “Did you pick all the fixtures yourself?” She tried to sound normal as she spoke but wasn’t quite sure she pulled it off.

“Yes,” Molly replied. She eyed her daughter curiously. “Sam was great, though. He gave me lots of options that suited the style I wanted, so I just had to pick. Sam has really gone above and beyond. I hired him to replace the front verandah steps. Then I just kept finding more things for him to do, painting the house, renovating inside. I’ll ask him about doing the gardens soon. Apparently, he used to do landscape design as well. Very talented that one, and nice too.” Molly began to unpack the groceries she had bought. She took some apples out of a bag and placed them in the fruit bowl on the old laminate benchtop.

“I’d love for Sam to do the kitchen next. I’m sick of this horrible green bench.”