You Had Me at Halo(17)

“Look, I’m sorry about the magazine, and about running away from your colleagues. I met a few of the ge...I mean computer guys at the funeral, but I didn’t recognize those two. Besides, in my own defense, I hadn’t expected for you to be here. It could’ve been worse.”

Vince made a choking noise in the back of his throat and Holly closed her eyes for a minute to try and block everything out. Unfortunately thanks to the fact there was another person in the same body as her, she failed miserably.

“Okay,” she admitted with a small gulp. “You’re right. This is about as ‘worse’ as things could possibly be.”

“Thank you, and I know you wanted to see Tina, but I think it might be best if we go back to my apartment and get used to the idea. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a big day.”

His place?

Holly was just about to retort that if he thought she was staying the night with him, then he had another think coming, when she realized she had no choice in the matter. She groaned. For some stupid reason she had just assumed she would be going back to her own place to sleep tonight, which, just like everything else everything else she wished to do, would be impossible.

She rubbed her chin, but the feeling of bristles under her fingertips only served as a reminder that she’d come back to earth in a guy’s body. A computer geek guy at that.

She doubted Tina MacDonald would even open the door to Vince, let alone burst into tears and admit to spiking Holly’s coffee. (Okay, so perhaps that scenario was a bit far-fetched, but up until now the image had been keeping her relatively sane).

“Fine.” She reluctantly nodded her head in agreement. It wasn’t ideal, but Holly was starting to discover that not a lot was these days.





CHAPTER SEVEN


Thirty minutes later she let out a sigh of relief when Vince opened his front door to reveal a neat and unassuming apartment. It wasn’t anything like Todd’s cutting edge bachelor pad down by the river, but neither did it have anybody else in it trying to ask difficult questions, and for that she was truly thankful.

A bit of peace and quite was what she needed to try and figure out a new plan on how to contact Tina MacDonald.

It was only ten at night, but when Vince walked past the tidy living room and into the only bedroom, Holly was too tired to complain. She sat down on the bed and started to pull the horrible boots off.

“What are you doing?”

“These things weigh a ton. What’s in them? Cement?”

“They’re steel-capped. As well as sitting down in our workshop doing geeky things, sometimes they actually let us out in public to install systems. They’re for protection.”

“Oh.” Holly tried not to flush as she realized he must’ve heard her start to call him a geek earlier. “Well, they’re sort of heavy.”

“I guess I’m used to them,” Vince said, but Holly noticed he didn’t stop her as she tugged them off.

“Ah, that’s better.” She wriggled her toes for a minute.

“If you say so.” Vince didn’t sound impressed. “What are we going to do about this situation then?”

Well, for a start, when Holly got back to heaven she would definitely be filing a report against Dr. Alan Hill. After all, what sort of bogus health professional would send an innocent girl into such a dangerous situation? An experience like this could knock years off her life, if she was still alive. There should be consequences. And compensation.

“I guess we just need to play it by ear,” she finally said. “You can talk when we’re around your friends and I’ll talk when we’re around my friends.”

“Except I doubt any of your friends would hang around long enough for me to open my mouth.”

“Gemma will, because she already knows.”

“What do you mean she already knows? How did you manage that?”

“With great difficulty. She thought you were trying to hit on her in the middle of my funeral.”

“Great, as if my life wasn’t bad enough.” Vince lay back down on the bed and put his hands behind his neck.

“But now she knows the truth.” Holly wriggled him back up into a sitting position. “And tomorrow I’ll explain everything to Todd.”

“I’d like to see that.” Vince snorted as he lay down again.

“Unfortunately, you will.” Holly sat up and peered around his room. There wasn’t much in there apart from the double bed and bookshelf with a pile of books, a small collection of coins and a moth eaten teddy bear. Then she caught sight of a Baker Colwell Platinum Merit certificate. Boy, those things were hard to come by. Vince must be good at his job. In fact she and Gemma had both being hoping to get one, but so far they hadn’t managed it. Gemma said—

Holly jumped to her feet. Gemma. Of course. All she needed to do was get Gemma to go around and see Tina MacDonald. Why hadn’t she thought of it sooner? All this body sharing was obviously playing havoc with her brain.

She looked at her watch. It was after ten and normally she would’ve waited until the morning, but this was a matter of life and death. Or was that death and life?

“Vince, can I use your phone?”

There was no answer and Holly frowned.

“Vince. Can I use your phone, please?”