Rini is a 36-year-old garden designer. She has been best friends with Mimi and Martha since primary school. The other girls joined their group during their time at university. She has a degree in communications (journalism) but discovered quite quickly into her first assignment that she was in the wrong profession. So she took hold of all of her courage and retrained as a garden designer, which in hindsight, she realized, she should have done from the start. Her parents divorced when she was a small child. She is very close to her father, a retired service man turned police officer. Her mother owns a fashion boutique on the Gold Coast and the two women aren’t very close. Rini has no siblings. She lives in a dilapidated old attic flat on Oak Lane in Alfredton, a fictional suburb of Melbourne where our story is set.

Mimi is a 37-year-old print journalist who works for a prominent satirical Melbournian newspaper and magazine respectively called “The Daily Dross” and “The Weekly Dross”. There she works as both lead journalist on the daily and deputy editor on the magazine. Mimi got divorced 3 years ago and has recently moved into her first own home – a lovely, spacious flat in a converted warehouse in Linden Avenue, Alfredton.

Martha is a 36-year-old print journalist who is the only non-medical professional in a family of doctors, and they never let her forget it. She did journalism mostly because it was all her friends’ passion, but Martha really loves to cook. She would like nothing better than to get on one of the top- reality TV cooking shows, try her luck and see where in the food industry that could take her. That or open a bookshop. Martha has a younger sister and an older brother. She got divorced 5 years ago and it really broke her spirit, because she had had her heart set on having a large family of her own.

Lotti is Mimi’s younger sister. She is a 29-year-old vet who loves her work with a passion. She wouldn’t ever want to do anything other than work with animals. She works in a large inner city vet clinic, close to her flat in Elm Parade, Alfredton. She has always tagged along with Mimi, so Mimi’s friends quickly became her friends. She has had a succession of short romances but is now looking for a steady boyfriend.

At 42 Lily is the oldest of the group of friends, but she hides it well, evidenced in her often astonishing lack of maturity. Lily is a TV journalist and anchor woman with NTV 5 in Melbourne. She has an apartment in Mimi’s block on Linden Avenue.

Chapter 1

The girls have gotten together at Rini’s attic flat to celebrate.

With Martha’s expert help Rini has put on a lovely spread of nibbles for them. Soon the talk turns to boys – or rather, the lack thereof.

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As Peter and Rini sit down, it’s soon obvious that Lily is taking a shine to the new arrival. Shame she can’t come out and openly ask Peter if he is single (she knows Rini’s parents got divorced when she was little).

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DSC_0147a — Rini was mortified, but knew her Dad well enough to realize that he wasn’t judging them. A few hours later Peter got up to leave.

DSC_0013a — Rini walked her Dad downstairs and onto the pavement outside her building.

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DSC_0077a — They each take turns registering and writing their profiles. It’s a lot of fun doing it in a group, and there’s a lot of laughter and hilarity. Afterwards they get ready to leave.

Early the next morning and even before going to work Rini got out her phone to check whether anyone had responded to her internet dating profile. She was amazed at the results. DSC_0039a DSC_0042.aJPG DSC_0043a DSC_0002a DSC_0017a DSC_0004a DSC_0025a DSC_0005a DSC_0073a DSC_0066a DSC_0077a DSC_0009a DSC_0090a DSC_0004b