The Love of My Afterlife(16)
“Okay,” I say vaguely, stacking the books into my arms and heading towards the exit. “Um, thanks…”
“You’ll be back,” Aled says in a robotic impression of the Terminator. He holds up a little stuffed owl from his desk and waves its wing as I walk away. I turn back before I leave the front door.
He’s still waving.
* * *
I schlep through the smoggy heat with my pile of books, and by the time I reach home, I’m sweating so much my thin white shirt has plastered itself to my skin. I shift the books over to one arm while I fiddle with my key. Getting it into the lock and twisting it the correct way without dropping the books takes every ounce of concentration I can muster. I’ve almost succeeded when suddenly the door is yanked open from the inside. I jerk forward, and the books fall from my arms, tumbling down the dusty front steps of the building.
“Nooo,” I wail gently. I glare at the opening door to see who I should blame.
Of course.
Despicable Cooper stands on the top step. He is now sans leather jacket, though the rest of his clothes are still black. He must be sweltering, but his face looks perfectly cool and calm.
“Are you going to apologise?” I hiss, heading down the steps to pick up the books that I didn’t even want.
His stubbled jaw tenses a smidge. “I didn’t know you’d be on the other side of the door, did I?” He reaches down to pick up one of the books—something called Geographic Profiling:The Essential Guide.
“Why would you yank the door open like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re angry at it!”
“It’s a heavy door, so you really have to pull it. I can’t help my natural strength.”
Is he joking right now? Seeing as I’ve never witnessed him joking, I’m gonna go with no.
“Natural strength? Wow. Congratulations to you on that. Can I get past now, please?”
Cooper’s frame blocks my entrance to the building. He doesn’t move, but frowns, picking up the top book from the pile again.
“You’re searching for someone?”
“Maybe.”
He bends his knees to squint at the spines of the other books in my pile. “That’s some hefty reading for a maybe.” He taps the bottom book with his forefinger. “That one’s not bad. The rest of them are unhelpful.”
Now it’s my turn to frown. “You’ve read them?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
He avoids the question. “Are you really trying to find someone? Who? Why?”
“Would you like me to make a written statement down at the station, Detective Cooper?”
His eyes harden again, hands up in the air. “Fine. Jesus. Good luck with it.”
I think about what Leanne said this morning. About me being rude and snippy sometimes. I didn’t think I was, but the way I just spoke to Cooper echoes back at me. Yeah. Little bit rude, definitely snippy.
“I’m trying to find my uh, ex-hookup,” I blurt. I almost said boyfriend but Cooper would know that was a massive lie on account of me never having any visitors to the building.
“Oh.” The pitch of his voice rises and it rankles me that he seems surprised. I could hypothetically have had a hookup. Yes, not a single man apart from Jonah has ever shown an interest in me, but Cooper doesn’t know that. For all he knows, I could be hooking up all over this town.
I huff. “You’re not the only one having, you know, saucy liaisons in this building!”
“Saucy liaisons?”
“Yeah. But unlike you, I just stuck with one. He’s called Jonah and he is great; very good looking, super smart. Dreamy eyes…” I smile to myself, getting lost for a moment.
Cooper arches a single brow. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, it is so. We, er, we hooked up all over this town.”
Oh god.
My cheeks flame.
“And now he’s ghosting you?” Cooper nods slowly, as if to say of course that’s what would be happening. “And you want to find out why he’s ghosting you?”
God, this guy is insufferable. “Actually, Columbo…” I trail off. I have no idea how to complete that sentence. I can’t exactly say I’m trying to find the potential love of my life who I met for five minutes during death and who I now have to kiss in order to avoid death once more. I spot Leanne waving at me from the window of the pharmacy over the road. The poster in the window beside her is advertising STD medication. “I…I gave him chlamydia,” I finish.
Why did I say that? Why did that come out of my mouth? To Cooper’s credit, his expression remains neutral.
“I’ve not got it anymore, obviously,” I add quickly. “I’ve been treated. I’m fully in the clear where my, you know, is concerned. Clean as a whistle, in fact. But…you know. I have a duty to inform Jonah.”
Cooper nods. “Quite.”
“Yes. Quite.”
I want to slide away into a puddle, slip into an underground drain, never to be seen or heard from again. Take me now, Merritt.
As soon as I get upstairs to my apartment, I run into the bathroom to see if I am indeed as red-faced as I suspect. I truly am. I am a highly pigmented Cadmium Red. Jeez, Delphie.