The Love of My Afterlife(30)

“What?”

“They’ll fire me for sure. If that happens, Eternity 4U will never get off the ground, and it has so much potential. And then there’s you…”

“WHAT ABOUT ME?”

“If they find out and Jonah doesn’t plant his lips on yours, well, they might not let you back in.”

“To Evermore?”

“Yep.”

“So? Where would I go?”

Merritt shrugs. “Who the fuck knows? They keep that shit under lock and key. But I have heard rumours of a place called Nevermore. Apparently acoustic song circles and making their own pea hummus are a big thing over there. Word on the street is that it’s a completely screen-free environment too. Not even televisions.”

“That sounds terrible.”

“I know. And I heard Eric once mention a place called Clevermore, where they communicate entirely in Ancient Greek and sit exams for fun.”

“My god.”

“And for all I know, those might be the best-case scenarios. So, the point is that I will no longer be in touch as much, and frankly, the quicker you can get things going with Jonah the better. That way I can cut contact and we’ll be in the clear.”

I shake my head. “Is Jonah even my soulmate, or did you lie about that too, just to have me put on some sort of show because you were bored at work?”

“Oh, he totally is!” Merritt says, breezily waving my question away. “So you really do need to get on with it.”

Totally my soulmate. My stomach warms at the thought. A person completely meant for me.

“Wait…” I say. “Are you still going to take away a day because I didn’t sing ‘All That Jazz’?”

Merritt shakes her head. “I did consider it, but then I figured you tried, at least. And, you know, trying to do the scary thing is almost as good as actually doing the scary thing. But I’d appreciate it if you tried to hurry things along as much as you can.”

“I’m seeing Jonah tomorrow night. At the life-drawing class.”

She wiggles her eyebrows. “Yeaaah you are. Hey, maybe you could take the braids out? You have such gorgeous red hair. Let it be free! The braids are so severe on you. Trunchbull meets Russian ballerina dancing through the pain. Très rigide.”

I tut. “You were saying you shouldn’t even be here?”

“Yes! Right.” Merritt claps her hands together. “I’ll be in touch when I can, and in the meantime good luck with Jonah. And seriously, doll. Think about the braids. You need him to want to kiss you as soon as possible or…”

She does a horrifying throat-cutting motion before turning into an iridescent shimmer and then popping into nothing.





16





I call up the GP’s surgery and the London Home Team, both of whom seem reluctant to engage with me because I’m not a family member of Mr. Yoon. I consider going round to his flat and asking him to sign a declaration or registering me as a point of contact and dropping it off at both offices. But then I remember:

         Mr. Yoon currently hates me.



     I may have been inserting myself into his life a little too much and should probably scale it back. I hate it when people get up in my business, and Mr. Yoon has a very similar personality type to me so I can understand why he’s pissed off at my nosing about. Either way, he’s the closest thing I have to family in London—almost a surrogate grandpa—and the thought of having upset him made me cry the hardest I’ve cried since, well, since I didn’t wear plaits on top of my head.





In the end, I make a decision to get in touch with the local council and see if there’s someone there to co-ordinate Mr. Yoon’s care so that he can have a bit of space from me when he wants it.

In my bedroom, I switch on the fan and google Gen Hartley. Since thinking I saw her last night, her face has been buzzing annoyingly around my brain and I find myself curious about what her situation is these days. Unlike Jonah, she is right there at the top of Google. It’s a newspaper article. Gen Hartley and Ryan Sweeting holding one of those obnoxious gigantic charity cheques, smiling graciously into the camera. I scan the text.

Gen and Ryan Hartley—He took her name?—hand over their cheque for the fundraising night of their new party planning business, Sweethearts Events.

I roll my eyes and look up at the date of the article. It’s only from a year ago.

I carry on reading.





Gen and Ryan have recently returned to Gen’s childhood home in West London after spending ten years in New York with their two children (Freya, 9, and George, 6). They finally set up the business they had always dreamed of running when they met at Bayswater High School as teenagers.




I frown. She’s back in London after living in New York?

    Since launching their business, The Sweethearts—as they’re known by their friends—have planned charity events for celebrities as illustrious as Benedict Cumberbatch, Niall Horan from One Direction, and Bake Off’s Paul Hollywood.

About the fundraiser, Gen says:

“Since Ryan and I met, we always wanted to run a business where people could have fun and experience joy, while also giving back to the causes that mean so much to us. We are delighted to be based in West London once more and hope to plan many more fundraising parties in our corner of London and beyond.”