The Love of My Afterlife(84)

“Jealous? Of what?”

“How close I was to your mum.”

I think of back then. Of Gen, Mum, and me singing and playing and cooking and gossiping together. How Mum and Gen did seem to get along so easily. Like a couple of grown-ups.

I look down at my feet. “Maybe I was a little jealous. But that wasn’t the reason I stopped inviting you over. My mum was…”

“What?”

“My dad left and then my mum fully lost it. She was drinking and crying all the time. I didn’t want you to witness that. I was embarrassed.”

Gen shakes her head. “Jesus, Delphie. I would have helped you! You didn’t tell me.”

“I…I…didn’t. You’re right. But you were…You fucking took me out, Gen.”

Gen sighs and runs a hand through her hair before making eye contact with me. “I’m sorry, okay?”

A tear spills over onto my cheek. I wipe it away with my fist.

“I need to find Jonah,” I say, glancing at the clock on her wall. “As soon as possible. I need you to give me his address.”

Gen’s face screws up. “What is that all about? Jonah said he’d never met you before. But you were acting so weird around him. Was he lying? Do you know him?”

I nod. “Yeah, but not in the way you think. I…I can’t explain why I need to see him, because, well, it’s ridiculous. But I need you to give me his details. His number, his address. You owe me.”

“Are you going to try to kiss him again?” Gen asks with a grimace. “Because—no offence—you scared the shit out of him. He’s usually such a cool customer.”

She stares at me for a moment longer before getting up and padding over to a large mahogany dresser. She opens a drawer and pulls out a piece of paper and a pen, scribbling on it before handing it to me. “It’s Jonah’s number and his address. Don’t tell him I gave it to you.”

I exhale. Finally. I’m gonna do this.

As I leave down the garden path, Gen calls after me.

“Hey, Delph?”

I spin around. “What?”

“Are you fucking R. L. Cooper?”

I nod. “All the time.”

“Nice.” She leans against the doorway and shrugs a shoulder. “Do you…do you want to hang out sometime? Grab a drink?”

I look down at my feet before meeting her eyes. A flicker of understanding passes between us. But it’s not enough. “Absolutely not,” I say. I hold the piece of paper aloft. “Thanks for this, though!” I add, before breaking into a run.





42





With less than an hour left on Earth, I return to my building and immediately hear raucous laughter coming from Cooper’s flat. What’s going on? Who’s in there?

His door is ajar. I peek my head around it to find that most of the guests from the library party are inside, sitting on the sofas and the big windowsill. Jan is in the kitchen, head very close to Deli Dan, while Leanne chats to Cooper and Mr. Yoon. She laughs at whatever they’re saying, her head tipped back gleefully.

Aled spots me first and hurries over. “Delphie! We got busted!”

“What?”

“My colleague Laurel came into the library to pick up her forgotten umbrella and discovered us! I didn’t realise we’d been playing the music so loudly but R. L. Cooper’s little Bluetooth speaker packs a real punch. Anyway, in she storms saying that we immediately needed to vacate or else she would call the police.”

Frida joins him, in a much more sober state. “He shouted, ‘Leg iiiiiiitttt!’ Which in the UK means run! So we ran. Most of us anyway. Mrs. Ernestine told Laurel she was a miserable cow and should fuck off or else.”

“Cooper invited us all here,” Aled tells me, his cheeks red with booze. “We missed you, get yourself a drink.”

I nod and hurry over to Cooper, whose face breaks into a huge grin when he sees me.

Mr. Yoon types quickly into his VOCA. “We got busted,” says the Louis Theroux voice.

“I heard!” I say, thrilled that I can communicate with him so quickly but somewhat distracted by my impending death. “Cooper, I need a word.”

His eyebrows dip at the urgency in my voice. I grab his hand and pull him into the bedroom, closing the door behind us, shutting out the happy noises of the party.

“Are you okay, Delphie?” he asks, pressing his warm hand immediately to my cheek. I wish more than anything that I could just close my eyes, nestle into him like a cat, and ignore the reality of what’s actually going on right now. “Where did you go? I texted you, thought maybe you’d gone home for a bit of a breather. Wait…have you been crying?”

I catch a glimpse of myself in his wall mirror. Mascara streaked down my face, hair mussed up and sweaty from the run back. I look insane.

“I need a favour,” I tell him, my words tripping over themselves. “Can you drive me somewhere? You’ve not been drinking, have you?”

He shakes his head. “Just club soda. I laid off, in case Mr. Yoon felt ill again—it’s been a huge day for him. Are you alright? Where do you want to go?”

My heart lifts at Cooper’s innate thoughtfulness towards Mr. Yoon. I take a deep, steadying breath. “I need to get to Mayfair. Like right now, right this second. I’d get a cab but the wait is too long and it only takes about fifteen minutes in the car. I don’t have much time.”