The Love of My Afterlife(85)
I’m trying to sound reasonable, but my voice comes out low and shaky and desperate.
“Mayfair?” Cooper glances at his wristwatch. “Right now? Is everything okay?”
I bury my head in my hands, letting out a groan of frustration at the questions, his lack of panic. Although of course why would he be panicking when he’s completely in the dark about what’s been going on? “No. No, it’s really not okay. It’s the furthest from okay it could possibly be. And I wish I could explain it properly, Cooper, but, god, even if I did, you wouldn’t believe me. You couldn’t believe me. Just…come on, let’s go. We need to go right now! It’s literally life or death!”
Cooper pulls a face and sits down on the edge of his bed. No. I don’t need him to sit down. I need him to get in the car and drive me to Mayfair, to Jonah, who somehow I have to get to kiss me without any preamble. I think of the remainder of my savings in the bank. “Maybe I could pay him to kiss me?” I mutter to myself. He would still be kissing me of his own free will, right? Would that work? Would Merritt allow it? Christ, my head is spinning.
“Maybe we should just sit down for a moment,” Cooper says gently as if we have all the time in the world. He pats the bed beside him, his expression concerned. “Would you…would you like a cup of tea? Shall I telephone a doctor?”
I get a flashback to the last time he offered to telephone a doctor for me. When he found me on my living room floor in my nightie, confused and muttering about a missing burger. Fuck. He thinks I’m having some sort of episode. With trembling hands, I check the waiting time on my ride sharing app—it’s now thirty minutes. Way too long.
“We need to go!” I shout, sheer panic making my chest pound so hard in my skull that I can feel it in my nose. I grab Cooper’s hands, and despite my best attempts not to lose my shit any more than I already am doing, I start to fully sob. “Please. If I don’t kiss Jonah, then Merritt will send me back to Evermore and I don’t want to go there, not yet. I want to stay here. Alive. Please!”
Cooper inhales sharply, eyes flashing. “What did you just say?”
Shit. I’ve made it worse. I really do sound like I’m unwell. Cooper stands up from the bed. “Who…who is Merritt, Delphie?” he asks, his voice quiet and even.
I throw my hands up in the air. I give up. “Merritt is my Afterlife Therapist.” Cooper opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out. I realise that I’m making absolutely no sense to him. I’m barely making sense to myself. “I know it sounds crazy,” I plead. “But…I died. Okay? I fucking died ten days ago. And I…I met this crazy woman in the afterlife who is obsessed with romance novels and she—” Cooper suddenly looks like all the air has been taken from him. He drops back down onto the bed as if his knees have stopped working. “She wanted me to kiss Jonah—that’s why I’ve been trying to find him—not because he’s the love of my life but because it’s a deal I made with Merritt. She wanted me to give her a real-life happy ending, like in her romances, otherwise I would have to die all over again. Which I thought I was okay with. But then today…the last few days, being with you. It’s made me realise that I’m not okay with it. I don’t want to die. Not at all. So please, please, please. Let’s go. Even if you don’t believe me and I completely understand why you wouldn’t, please just take me to Mayfair. I need to at least try! I know it makes no sense but I need you to please just help me.”
I’m properly crying now, panicked little breaths escaping me. How could I have played so fast and loose with this?
“Obsessed with romance novels?”
This is what he got from what I just told him?
“Look, I know it sounds like something I’ve invented, but I promise it’s real.”
Cooper stands up again and stares at me, his mouth set into a grim line. He trails the heel of his hand over his jaw, up to his forehead. His eyes are shining with tears. “Are you telling me the truth right now, Delphie? Because if this is some kind of sick joke about—”
“Why would this be a joke?” I run my fingers through my already messed up hair. “It’s not in the least bit funny.”
Cooper swallows hard, shaking his head slightly. He bites the corner of his lip, his eyebrows dropped low.
“Please,” I whisper. “Please drive me to Mayfair—I’m all out of options.”
Cooper’s eyes flick from side to side, like he’s weighing up his choices which I’m pretty sure are (a) do as I ask or (b) telephone for medical attention. He eventually lets out a sharp breath before grabbing my hand and leading me out of his bedroom, through the happy fracas in the living room, and out into his car.
He doesn’t say a word as he screeches away with such urgency that it slams me against the window. I feel like he doesn’t believe me as much as he wants to see where this is going. If he has somehow gotten himself involved with a psychopath. Either way, we’re finally on the way to Jonah. There’s still a chance.
“Address,” Cooper barks, tapping his hands against the steering wheel, impatient or irritated, I can’t tell.
I fumble with the paper in my hands. “Ten Berkeley Street…I have his number too. I should call him. Fuck.”
I stab the digits into my phone, hands trembling, tears obscuring my vision. I eventually get the right combination but the phone rings out.