The Love of My Afterlife(42)
He holds up a yellow petal between finger and thumb. I pat my head self-consciously. It must be from Frida’s flower crown.
“Thank you,” I say stiffly before turning and running up to my flat, slamming the door behind me.
* * *
In my flat, I immediately grab my laptop and search Jonah’s name plus “dancer” and “the Shard.”
Still nothing? Jeez.
“Why are you so fucking elusive, Jonah?” I huff. “I’m literally depending on you for my life.”
I imagine Jonah grinning at me, running a hand through his lovely caramel hair. “I’m worth the effort,” he says in my imagination. I picture running my own hands through his hair, and a little shiver of delight softens the anxiety for a brief, beautiful moment.
“Merritt, you have to help me,” I mutter. “Can’t you see I’m doing everything I can? Please!”
I wait for a text, an appearance, anything. But nothing happens. With a sigh, I take my sketches out of my bag and unroll them on the kitchen table, pinning them flat with salt and pepper shakers. I touch a finger lightly to one of them, a close-up of Kat’s face drawn in a free, almost loopy style. My heart lifts, despite itself. This is good. I glance over at the stack of oil paints I’m forever buying but am too scared to open. I wonder briefly what life would have looked like if I’d never stopped making art. Would I still be in this situation? I push the thought away.
There’s a firm knock at the door.
My heart leaps. Merritt? Though surely she would never do anything as pedestrian as knocking.
I open up to find Cooper standing there, arms folded across his chest.
I sigh. “If you’re coming to me with anything that could be even slightly considered stressful, then I beg of you, go back from whence you came. It’s been a tricky day.”
“Whence you came? Why are you talking like that?”
I narrow my eyes. “Actually, I’m not sure. I think it’s your formal demeanour. The, you know, stiffness. I respond in kind.”
“The stiffness?”
“Oh, come on. You must know that about yourself,” I say, backing into my apartment as he takes a large step in and closes the door behind him. “I’d even go so far as to say you’ve cultivated it.”
“The same way you have with your ‘I’m a lone wolf’ shtick. And it is shtick.”
“You must know all about shtick, making things up for a living?”
“I don’t do that anymore.” Cooper clears his throat, strides across the room, and sits on my sofa without being invited to. His jeans hitch up. His socks are yellow.
I throw my hands up. “What do you want? I am currently trying to find my way out of a rather large life pickle and I’m short on time.”
“I see. Can I help?”
I narrow my eyes. He’d only be offering to help if…“You need another favour?”
He shifts in his seat and runs his hand over his jaw. “I do. I was going to ask you downstairs but you literally ran away.” His voice dips with disbelief.
I tut. “Like I said, I’m short on time. Anyway, did you not hear what I just said about bringing chaos to my doorstep?”
“Like you did with me when you barged into my flat and insisted I help you? Look, I really am sorry for being rude the other night. My sister…It’s not something I talk about. Ever. With anyone.”
I soften slightly. “I understand. I shouldn’t have been so nosy. How can I help?”
Cooper’s mouth bunches to the side. “My mother…”
“Amy. Yes.”
“She wants you to join us at the aquarium. To meet my Aunt Beverley. Tomorrow morning.”
I grimace. “Sorry, no can do. I need to go to the park again to find Jonah.”
“You still haven’t found him?”
I huff. “It’s…complicated.”
Cooper tilts his head to the side and crosses one leg over the other. “Have you considered that he may be actively avoiding you?”
I make a face. “Jonah isn’t like that.”
“And yet…”
“Are we done here, Cooper? I have things to do.”
Cooper leans forward. “Surely it would only take you a few minutes to inform Jonah of the…issue? And then you’d be free, right?”
I sigh. If only it were as simple as that. But it’s not. Not only do I have to locate a man who seems never to stay in one place for long enough, I then have to get him to kiss me with barely any preamble. I can’t be dallying around an aquarium in the middle of all this.
“Maybe another time, eh?” I puzzle for a moment, curiosity getting the better of me. “Anyway, why on earth would your mum want me to meet your aunt?”
Cooper looks at his feet, which are booted as usual, though one of the laces is now undone. “She, well, she, uh, she liked you. For some unknown reason, she liked you very much.”
“Heaven forbid anyone could possibly enjoy my company.”
Cooper sighs. “My Auntie Bev is flying out to trek across Nepal tomorrow night. A soon as Mum told her how ‘nice’ you are, she insisted on meeting you before she goes…She’s very pushy—Mum’s a little terrified of her. We all are, frankly.”