You Had Me at Halo(8)

Ten minutes later her friend turned the corner and came into sight. She was limping slightly, probably thanks to her new shoes, but apart from that she looked exactly the same as she had thirteen days ago. Well perhaps she was a bit more pissed off than she had been back then...

“What the hell are you doing here?” Gemma demanded as she put her hands on her hips and glared. “You know there’s a strict company policy on stalking.”

“What?” Holly started to say before remembering that she couldn’t be distracted. She was on a mission here and needed to concentrate. “I mean, I’ll tell you why I’m here. And...well...I don’t really have much time and there’s not an easy way to say it so I’ll just spit it out. I’m Holly.”

Gemma let out a bark of laughter. “Jeez, what is wrong with you? Have you been drinking? I mean I know funerals make people a bit weird, but this is going over the Richter scale. It’s not funny.”

Boy, she could say that again. Holly took a deep breath. “Gem, it’s true. It’s me. I know it sounds crazy. Ridiculous even, but the Cliff’s Notes version is that I’ve been sent down from heaven for two days in someone else’s body.”

“You’re damn right it sounds ridiculous.” Gemma folded her arms and glared.

Yep, it was really going well. “Okay, so why don’t you ask me any question you want?” Holly licked her lips and tried to keep the desperation out of her voice. “Something only I...I mean something only Holly would know the answer to, and then you’ll see.”

“I’ll see you getting arrested,” her friend retorted.

Oh crap. Holly winced. So much for her brilliant plan. Perhaps if she’d ordered a tuna salad instead of the hamburger, she would’ve thought of something better? Fish was meant to be brain food wasn’t it?

“I mean it.” Gemma fumbled around in her purse, presumably for her cell phone.

“Your last serious boyfriend was Gavin Rivers but you broke up with him at Christmas because he had been cheating on you,” Holly blurted out in a rush.

Gemma lowered her hand and stared. “Who told you that?”

“You did.”

“Yeah right, because I tell you technicians about all my dates.”

“No, you tell Holly Evans about all your dates. What about the fact you have a secret crush on Simon Trimmer, and when he accidentally touched your leg in the staff canteen last week you sent me a text message to tell me how hot he was? You have high hopes he’s going to ask you on a date any day now.”

“Oh my God. So you’re the creep who stole Holly’s cell phone the day after she died and now you think it’s funny to have read her text messages. Well I can tell you something for nothing Vince Murphy: You’re one sick guy.”

“No.” Holly scowled in frustration. “Of course I...wait…someone stole my cell phone? Oh man, I hope they didn’t see the photo of us lifting up our shirts after we’d drunk that bottle of wine, because I looked so fat in that. How embarrassing.”

Gemma’s mouth fell open and she widened her eyes. “Okay, so now you’re starting to freak me out. I deleted all those photos before the cell phone was stolen. So if you did steal it then there’s no way you’d know about them.”

“Unless I was Holly.”

Gemma narrowed her pale blue eyes and folded her arms tightly around her waist. “Fine, so if you really are Holly, you won’t mind answering a few questions then.”

“Shoot.”

“Do I prefer George Clooney or Brad Pitt?”

“Trick question because you don’t rate either of them; your heart always has and always will belong to David Boreanaz.”

“What’s my favorite color?” Gemma demanded in a firm voice.

“Green because you think it suits your hair, but to be honest I’ve always thought blue looked better on you. Especially that Gap blouse that you like to wear with your True Religion jeans.”

Gemma started to look a little less comfortable. “A-and what was the name of the concert Holly and I went to see last November?”

Holly felt a lump formed in her throat. “We went to see U2 and you still have the ticket stubs at the back of your drawer along with the pressed flower your very first boyfriend gave you. It was a yellow rose.”

“H-holly? Gemma said in a whisper. “But, I don’t—”

“Me either,” Holly finished off. “None of this makes any sense at all. Especially the waking-up-dead bit. But it really is me.” Holly could feel the tears pouring down her face.

“But how can this be happening?” Gemma said in a shell-shocked voice. “I mean I saw you in the coffin; how could you now be—”

“That’s because heaven is complicated. It has even more rules than a Baker Colwell Staff Incentive Fun Day, and it’s twice as boring. But the thing is I still have some earthly issues to get sorted out and until I can do that, they won’t let me move up through the levels.”

“Heaven? Levels? I think I’m struggling here.” Gemma shot her a bewildered look as she dropped down onto the bench next to Holly. “I mean I want to believe you, but—”

“But it doesn’t make any sense,” Holly finished off with a sigh. “Tell me about it. And you haven’t even heard the rest of it yet...”