The Love of My Afterlife(50)
“This Thursday night? As in tomorrow?”
I nod.
Leanne shakes her head. “There’s just no way. No way in sweet hell that I can pull that off by tomorrow. My god, Delphie. I need warnings. You can’t just come in here and demand time off and spectacular costumes with zero notice!”
I grimace. That’s fair. “I’m sorry,” I say. “Do you know of a costume shop where I could hire something?”
Leanne wrinkles her nose. “Christ, I can’t let you hire. Anything decent will already be booked out, and the fabric they use in those places is lousy. I once hired a mermaid costume from a shop and there was a literal flea in the bra. No, no. You’ll spend the evening scratching and pulling, and that won’t be fitting for something so fancy.”
“Ooh,” Jan says thoughtfully, boxing up a bottle of Buttercup cough syrup for a customer openly disgruntled by the lack of attentive service they’re receiving.
“What is it, Mum?”
“Remember that dress you wore for your grandma Diane’s seventieth party? The grey silky one with the…thingies.” She points at her shoulders.
“The capped sleeves?” Leanne finishes, pressing a finger to her chin.
“You were a bit chunkier then, so it would probably fit Delphie now, and you two are about the same height.”
Leanne closes her eyes and starts mumbling to herself. “It would need fringing, and some sort of sparkle. I could leave the capped sleeves on, yes, and then there’s the feathers from…And the hair could…”
She opens her eyes and then looks me up and down three times, spinning me around with her hand and giving a final nod. “What time are you leaving tomorrow?”
I think about the plan I made with Cooper last night. “We’re going to set off at five p.m. in time for the gala start at seven p.m.”
“In that case you’ll have to be here at two.”
“Two? Ha! Are you kidding? I don’t need three hours to get ready!”
“I assume you need assistance with your glam?”
“Glam?”
“Hair and makeup.” Jan purses her lips together, a know-all expression on her face. “Are you not on Instagram, Delphie? All the movie stars get glam. They have glam teams and all sorts.”
I shake my head. “I’m not on Instagram. Too many videos of people pointing at words.”
I don’t mention that I did once sign up to Instagram, posting a selfie that got only one like, from a US Marine doctor. He later messaged me and asked if I would like to rate his dick. I deleted the app soon after.
Leanne and Jan give each other a look.
“Just…leave it with me,” Leanne says. “Be here at two p.m.”
“Ooh, and before you go, this came for you,” Jan says, handing me a copy of Money Maims, Money Kills by R. L. Cooper.
“You opened it?” I tut.
“I thought it was for me. You never have stuff delivered here. I didn’t know you were into crime novels!”
“I’m not.”
But I am curious to know why Aled was so excited to meet Cooper, and there was no way I was chancing the package being sent to Cooper’s flat by mistake and him knowing I’d ordered his book.
I tuck the novel deep into my tote bag and glance up at the clock on the wall. “Shit. I’ve really got to leg it. I’ve booked myself for a manicure!”
“A manicure? Who even are you right now?” Leanne calls after me as I run out of the pharmacy.
I’ve been wondering the same thing myself.
25
Today is day seven of Merritt’s Ten Days. This has to be the day I finally meet my soulmate in person. It has to be the day I save Merritt’s fate at Evermore and, you know, my entire life. Amidst the panic there’s a small, strange feeling that maybe this was exactly how it was supposed to play out. That fate doesn’t want me to meet Jonah again in a park or a drawing class or a silent disco. It wants me to meet him somewhere grand and undeniably romantic. And what’s more romantic than an opulent ballroom? Granted, there will be loads of other people there, which isn’t ideal. But there will be champagne and spectacular lighting and probably some sort of swishy orchestral music.
Last night, before I said good night to Mr. Yoon, I let him know that I’d arranged a food delivery for that evening and that all he had to do was answer the door. I told him I wouldn’t get home until after he’d gone to sleep so would see him for breakfast in the morning. In response, he wrote me a note that said, Go, be young and have fun!, which made me feel a little sad, though I’m not fully sure why.
As I leave for the pharmacy, Cooper pokes his head around his door.
“How did you do that?” I ask. “Know exactly when I’d be in the hall? Have you been poking your head out every few minutes just in case? That’s insane. Or, wait…Do you have a secret camera?” I peer up at the ceiling corners.
“You’re not exactly light-footed, Delphie,” Cooper says, his hand pressed against the top of the doorframe. “It’s known across the whole ground floor.”
“Really?”
He nods his head towards the door opposite his. “Mrs. Ernestine says she knows when you’re on your way out because it sounds like a herd of elephants making their way across the Serengeti.”