Page 97 of You'll Be the Death of Me

“Hey, what’s the worst that could happen? We’re already dead,” she said with a little grin to soothe him.

“You forget thatIam, and you are not. Not all the way, anyway. And to say I’m a little worried about all the rules we broke on earth would be an understatement.”

Dell rolled her eyes. “You and yourrules. We didn’t harm anyone. In fact, we exposed a crime. Your supervisor should thank us.”

The elevator dinged, and they stepped inside. The small box had a metallic scent Dell could almost taste.

“Beatrice is not one to say thank you,” Cole said, and pressed the button for the thirteenth floor. It lit up, and they lifted off the ground.

The ride felt faster than it should for climbing thirteen floors, but Dell was pretty sure the top floor of the building reached into the cosmos, so they weren’t exactly abiding by logical physics.

When they arrived, Cole led her into an open office space that looked like one she’d seen on TV. Having only ever worked in kitchens, Dell only had TV as a reference for what an office looked like. The long, rectangular room held a grid of cubicles, each with a desk, a computer, and someone sitting in a chair tapping away at a keyboard.

“Where’s yours?” she asked Cole, and nodded at the bullpen area.

“Over there. I’ll give you a tour if we have time after.” He pointed to their left and continued walking along the outer path beside the cubes. Dell tried to imagine what his desk looked like. On earth, Dr. Cole Lewis’s desk had probably held an unorganized array of books and notes, maybe student papers in need of grading. His favorite coffee mug, stained from overuse. Perhaps a photo of Chaucer. Here in the afterlife, it probably looked like his apartment: neat, plain, dull.

“So, why is this place half awesome and half miserably bleak?”Dell asked, gesturing at the cubicles. “I mean, outside looks like a watercolor dreamscape, and inside looks like a comedic rendering ofCorporate Hell.”

Cole’s mouth twitched with a tiny smile, and Dell wondered if he’d used the same description. “Because this is just a holding zone. The architects didn’t put in the same effort as in the true afterlife. No one is supposed to be here that long, so it didn’t need to be beautiful. But when the department started getting backed up, they put in a few amenities to ease the wait.”

“Hence the mishmash of pleasant sights and smells but absence of food and interior decorators. Got it,” Dell said.

“Exactly.” Cole turned them down a hall and approached a closed door. Outside it, he stopped and took a deep breath. He turned to her with a pleading look. “Dell, I want you to know I’m sorry for dragging you into this whole mess, but the time I’ve spent with you will have been worth whatever we’re about to face.”

In the back of her mind, Dell wondered just how frightened of Beatrice she should be. But in the front of her mind, she could only think she agreed with Cole. The past day and a half had rerouted her life—and death—in ways she never could have imagined. And being with him felt as right as the rising sun.

She rose up on her toes and kissed him. “For the record, I forgive you.”

“I’m not sure I deserve it, but I’ll take it,” he said. He took another breath and reached out to knock on Beatrice’s door.

“Enter,” a woman said from the other side.

Nerves crested in Dell’s chest when they stepped inside only to fall flat when she got a view of Beatrice. Where she’d expectedsome vicious dragon lady, maybe even a literal demon, sat a petite woman in a loud pink cardigan and cat-eye glasses. She could have been twenty or fifty; Dell could not guess her age. But she didn’t look scary at all.

“Ah, Mr. Lewis. Thank you for arriving promptly,” she said from behind her sturdy desk. Its thick wooden legs looked like tree trunks rooted into the floor. The rest of the office looked well-worn with crowded bookshelves, draping plants, tall file cabinets.

“Of course, ma’am,” Cole said as if it had been no bother to be zapped from earth to some inexplicable pocket of space and time with no warning—naked, for that matter.

Dell smoothed her hands over her dress’s skirt, still recovering.

Beatrice turned her feline gaze on her. “Ms. Verdella Rodgers. The name that launched a thousand mistakes.”

Dell involuntarily quivered at the chill in her voice and suddenly understood why Cole was so on edge. “Hello,” she said despite feeling like acknowledging the description was somehow admitting fault.

“On behalf of the administration, I do apologize for the mistake that led us here, at least initially,” Beatrice said demurely.

The apology settled over Dell with a different weight than the many times Cole had said it. Sure, they were responsible for her untimely death, and if they were an earthbound organization, she’d have license to sue, but dying had ultimately saved her life. In more ways than one.

“That’s okay,” Dell said. “I actually learned a lot of things I needed to know, with Cole’s help.” She looked up at him standing beside her and took his hand.

He gave her a tiny, soft smile.

Beatrice interrupted the moment with a loud clearing of her throat. “Yes, you two seem to have really hit it off.”

Dell cringed inside, wondering just how much of what she and Cole had been up to Beatrice was privy to.

“About that, ma’am—” Cole started.