The Love of My Afterlife(45)

Amy nudges Cooper away from the exit sign and towards the front of the tank while Bev drags me over so forcefully I almost trip over my own shoes.

“No, no need to take a photo.” Cooper shakes his head quickly. “Let’s just use our memories, shall we?”

“Yes!” I agree firmly. “Analogue. Plus, we don’t want to get in the way of the other visitors.”

Bev pouts. “Don’t be ridiculous, there’s hardly anyone else in here.” She steps back and holds up her phone. “Come on. Kiss by the seahorses. You’ll thank me at your wedding.”

Cooper’s mouth is set into a grim line, his shoulders hunched higher than I’ve ever seen them. I look around in panic. I cannot kiss him, even for a ruse.

Amy giggles. “Bev, leave them be.”

I exhale. Thank you, Amy. But then Amy reconsiders. “You don’t have to kiss if it feels too awkward in front of everyone. But perhaps you could look at each other for the photograph? Into each other’s eyes.”

“Yes, and hold hands! Face each other and hold hands!”

Christ.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Cooper murmurs out of the side of his mouth.

I sigh and turn towards him in front of the glass.

“Hold hands!” Bev shouts.

“You’re right. She is pushy,” I hiss as Cooper reaches to take my hands in his. I snatch my hands away.

Cooper pinches the bridge of his nose. “You try stopping her once she’s got an idea in her head. I’ve tried my whole life. The only one who could ever out-push her was Em.”

I glance over at Bev. I open my mouth to tell her that this is ridiculous and that she cannot bully us into taking a romantic picture in front of some seahorses. But then I spot Amy beside her. Her hands are clasped to her chest, and she’s smiling like this is the most fun she’s had in ages.

“Take the picture already,” I say as politely as I can manage, pasting a smile onto my face and looking up at Cooper. He takes my hands in his once more. Then, so slowly that I’m not even sure it’s happening, he curls his index finger upwards across my palm. I swallow, and frown at him slightly. His face is unchanged. He must not know he’s doing it. My nostrils flare in alarm at the sensations that Cooper’s finger is causing. I’m clearly so unused to human touch that even an accidental tickle from someone I don’t fancy is giving me a full-body blush.

“Three! Two! One!” Bev counts down.

Cooper and I look at each other and I notice that the light coming from the fish tank makes his eyes look like they’re dancing.

“Oh, blast…I pressed the wrong thing,” Bev cries. “Okay, let me try again.”

Cooper continues to look at me, seemingly unfazed. Sweat starts to prickle the back of my neck.

“For fuck’s sake,” I sing, still fake smiling. It’s so hot in here. I wish she’d hurry up.

“Oh, hang on, darlings. I appear to have pressed the button for the calculator application.”

“Is it not that one?” Amy joins in, stabbing a finger to the phone screen. “Ah, cripes. What have I done?”

The room fills with the tinny sounds of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly.”

“Amy, you’ve put it onto the Spotify channel. You two, don’t move! Keep posing. Oh! Aha! Here’s the camera thingamajig.”

“Kill me softly,” I mutter.

Cooper’s lips press together, the edges of them turning pale pink. What a weird smile. I squint. Is he okay?

His shoulders start to shake. Then his mouth opens and he crouches over, a blast of laughter filling the air.

I jump in shock at the sound of it, hands covering my face. And then the sight of this stiff, perennially haughty man laughing so unabashedly catches me, and I let out a small laugh of my own. Cooper splutters, which makes me laugh even more, and before I know it the pair of us are bent double, shrieking so hard we can barely catch our breath.

I see a flash of light from the corner of my eye.

“Told you she made him laugh,” Amy says.

“I never would have believed it,” Bev chuckles. “But it’s true! And now I have photographic evidence!”



* * *





When we’ve toured the remainder of the aquarium I dash off to the loo. I head towards the line of sinks to wash my hands, when I see that one of the mirrors is covered in a lipstick so obnoxiously orange it can only belong to Merritt.

    HAVING A NICE TIME AT THE AQUARIUM, ARE WE? YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO TRY HARDER THAN THIS, BABE. YOU HAVE FIVE DAYS LEFT TO FIND JONAH OR ELSE I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BRING YOU BACK TO THE LAND OF THE DEADS! YOU SIGNED A CONTRACT!!!



I wriggle uncomfortably. She’s right. I am having a nice time at the aquarium. I’ve already been here for way too long. Five days left is no time at all.

“So help me out!” I yell frustratedly into the air, much to the befuddlement of a woman exiting one of the cubicles. She gives me a wide berth and throws a pointed look at the mirror. I turn the cold water on full blast, cooling my wrists beneath the flow. “I’m willing to try harder, believe me,” I call out to wherever Merritt is. “But I’m stuck. I literally don’t know what to do next! Cooper’s going to help me search for Kat when we get back, but other than that I’m at a loss and I’m, frankly, scared. So throw me a bone.”