Page 93 of The Love of My Afterlife
“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 ashoulder. “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.”
