“Hey,” Vince complained. “Don’t stand up so quickly. It’s making me dizzy. I’ve been knocked out remember.”
“I thought you were still knocked out.” Holly tried to mask her mortification as she reluctantly sat back down again. “How much did you hear?”
“Well, you did mention how brave and strong I was.”
“Oh, God,” Holly groaned. “I was only saying that stuff because I didn’t think you were awake.”
“You said I was a good listener,” Vince protested.
“I was being rhetorical.” Holly gritted her teeth; an action that Vince immediately reversed.
“Well, I thought it was nice. Besides, since you’ve found out all of my secrets, it’s only right I know a few of yours. Is that why you told me?”
“Maybe,” she admitted. That and the fact that after tomorrow Holly wouldn’t remember them herself and it sort seemed wrong to just let Dr. Hill wipe them away. Perhaps it was like a last confession?
She vaguely remembered a long ago Sunday school lesson where the vicar’s wife talked about the dark night of the soul. Well, Holly was guessing she’d had one of them. Though did it count if the body was dead? Also, she had the feeling the person was meant to come out the other end of the experience feeling cleansed and pure, but that wasn’t quite going to happen either. Holly was going to come out of this without a clue what her middle name was, let alone whether she liked chocolate (yes), The OC (very much) or the Backstreet Boys (as if).
“Hey.” Vince groaned and Holly realized he was looking down at his knuckles. “Don’t tell me I’ve gone from being a womanizer and a criminal to now being a thug?”
Holly studied Vince’s hand. Boy, Todd’s face had really made a dent and the three middle knuckles were now red, raw, and throbbing. She hadn’t even noticed, or if she had, she’d probably found the pain comforting compared to how she was feeling on the inside.
“So I guess you’d better fill me in on what’s happened since I’ve been gone.”
Since she’d already told him her darkest secrets, it seemed petty to try and keep him out of the loop. “The short version is that Todd and Rochelle Jackson have been having an affair behind my back and after he was rather rude to me, I punched him.”
Holly could feel Vince biting down on his lip to stop from laughing. “I see,” he said in a constrained voice. “You hit Todd.”
“In the face,” Holly clarified.
“Always a good place,” he agreed and she could feel a small smile starting to tug at his lips.
“It’s not funny,” she moaned. “I really messed up. Todd was furious and that’s not all. We forgot to drop those laptops and manuals off to Peterson’s and even though Andrew went and did it later on, I think it might be too late. What if I’ve cost you your—”
“Holly.”
“But—”
“But nothing. This isn’t about me, so stop worrying about that and let’s concentrate on you.”
“Your restraint in rubbing it in is a wondrous thing,” Holly agreed before letting out a long sigh. “But as for me, well it doesn’t really matter. If I can punch Todd in the nose, Dr. Hill’s wiz bang machine is going to know I’m not over my issues. In fact I’ve probably collected even more emotional baggage since I’ve been here.”
Not least of which was the fact she kept thinking of how much nicer it felt now that Vince was back. Surely that was a thought that couldn’t do anyone any good.
“So that’s why you were getting all deep and meaningful before, wasn’t it?” he said softly and Holly nodded.
“I didn’t mean to go on,” she apologized.
“I’m glad you did. I feel like I know you.”
“Yes, well I feel like I know you as well,” Holly retorted as she caught sight of all of his medical notes. “And I want to know more about this heart condition of yours. Why haven’t you been taking your medication? And if I’m in your body, then why don’t I feel sick?”
For a moment Holly thought Vince was going to swear but then he just shrugged. “I have been taking the meds. I just made sure you were asleep when I did it and I didn’t mention it in order to avoid a lecture just like this,” Vince said lightly. “Besides, all I did was faint, it’s been happening on and off for ages.”
Holly shook her head. “I don’t believe you. Dr. Hill said he made a mistake when he put me into your body, but I don’t think he did. You see I saw the purple lights around your head when I was in heaven. That means you were meant to die. It says so in the rulebook. Did you know it was happening?”
“To be honest I was more concerned about the dead girl who was in my body when I came around,” Vince quipped. “As for why I was fine, well I couldn’t tell you. So quit worrying. There’s nothing wrong with me apart from the fact my heart beat isn’t quite normal.”
Holly felt stupid for doing it but she found herself putting Vince’s hand on his knee and squeezing it. “You’re heart works better than most people I’ve met. Don’t you forget it.”
For a moment Vince didn’t say anything before suddenly lying down on the bed. “It’s been a long day,” he said gruffly. “Probably better if we get some sleep.”
It was the sound of the birds outside the window, which caused Holly to wake up with a start. At first she couldn’t quite work out what was going on, but then it all came flooding back to her.
She had punched Todd, which meant she had probably taken three million steps back from sorting out her issues. She doubted even if she did find out what happened and clear her name, that heaven would give her a second chance.
She had really screwed up big time.
“Hey.” She jumped at the sound of Vince’s voice. “I’ve got something for you.”
“You have?” Holly fought back the surprise. Perhaps she should’ve got something for Vince as well? A thank-you-for-letting-me-use-your-body gift. Though she must admit that off the top of her head she couldn’t quite think of anything appropriate.
She felt Vince lean over and reach for a packet of photographs. “What are these?”
“I thought you might want to have a look,” he said as he opened them up for her. The first one was of him sitting under a tree with his guitar under his arm and a smile on his face. Man, he was pretty hot looking when he smiled. No wonder Amy had been making such a play for him, unrequited though it was.
Vince only paused on it for a second before flicking through the rest.
“Ah,” he finally said. “Here we go.” The photo was quite old. Vince only looked about eight or so and he was surrounded by a gaggle of friends.
Holly studied it carefully. Was it a birthday party? The next one was the same, but the one after featured him with a small girl who had huge brown eyes and…Hey…Holly had a dress just like that when she was a kid…and the little white shoes sort of looked familiar as well…
No way.
She dragged the photo up to her face to study it more closely. But it was true. Here was photographic evidence that she and Vince had been friends. Well, for one day anyway.
So why on earth didn’t she remember it? Boy, look how adorable she had been back then: all brown ringlets and slim legs.
She flicked through the rest of the photographs until she discovered one that looked familiar. It was the same party and there was a chubby clown holding up a white bunny rabbit.
She remembered.
There had been tiny little cupcakes with bright red cherries on top and Holly had a nasty feeling she’d gone around the plate and eaten all the cherries before discarding the cakes. There had been more as well: music, laughter and lots of running around.
And Vince. There he was, suddenly coming into focus in her memory. And not just for that day, there had been other days too.
“I remember,” she said finally and for a moment she thought she could feel Vince smile.
“I’m pleased,” he said before standing up. “Now I guess I should take you to work so you can say goodbye to Gemma and then perhaps we could…you know…find out how those pills got into your system.”
“The only thing we’re doing this morning is groveling until we know your job is safe.”
“Holly, I don’t care about my job.”
“Well, I do. You have your mortgage and your tablets to afford.”
Vince folded his arms in a ‘we will talk about this later’ sort of way. However he merely said, “So are you ready?”
No, Holly wanted to yell.
She wasn’t remotely ready.
She hadn’t been ready to die and she certainly wasn’t ready to lose her memory. But apparently what she wanted didn’t really matter too much these days and so she took a deep breath.
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Nice going, Murphy,” someone called out as they walked into the Baker Colwell foyer.
“Yeah. Well done. That prick had it coming to him.” Holly looked up and saw it was a couple of guys she’d worked with before she’d got her promotion.
“Er, thanks,” she said, not quite sure what they were talking about. As she walked on a couple more guys nodded in her direction but it wasn’t until someone started to cheer and said, “Nice shot,” that Holly realized they must be referring to Todd. And that she had punched him.
Hey, you’ve made me famous, Vince teased.
Yes, but why? Holly frowned. Todd was one of the most popular guys in the company. He was young, dynamic and had corner office written all over him, so why were people so pleased Vince Murphy had decked him?
More importantly, how had they all found out? Holly felt ill. Despite how pleased everyone seemed to be at Todd getting punched, she had the sinking feeling it would be he who had the last laugh. Before she could delve any more into it Gemma came running up, panting.
“Thank God I’ve found you. I’ve been trying to call you all night. Why did you turn off your phone?”
“I didn’t,” Holly said. “I think the battery’s gone dead and I forgot to charge it.”
“So, are you okay?” Gemma demanded. “I’ve been sick with worry. You just ran out of there last night without saying anything.”
“I’m sorry.” Holly winced. “I just had to get some fresh air.”
There was no way she could tell Gemma the truth about what was going to happen to her now she’d failed her manual purge, but if she’d stayed around last night, that’s exactly what she would have done.
Look at how she’d spilled her guts to Vince. While Holly had been discovering that a lot of things in her life weren’t as she’d thought, Gemma wasn’t one of those things. She was the best friend a girl could have, and there was no way she wanted her to be worrying about Holly’s eternal damnation.
“It’s understandable.” Gemma gave a vigorous nod of her head. “I still can’t believe that Todd and Rochelle were…well you know. I mean I knew Rochelle was chasing him like crazy…but Todd? I never would’ve expected that in a million years.”
“Yeah,” Vince said in a typical Vince-like drawl. “Totally never saw that one coming. Todd’s always been such a great guy.”
“Vince, you’re back.” Gemma’s face broke out into a smile. “I didn’t realize. Did you…er…have a nice time?”
“As far as being knocked out goes, it wasn’t too bad. Though it seems I missed all the action. What with Holly decking Todd like that.”
“It was unbelievable. She was…I mean you were…well you both were amazing.” Gemma gave an expansive wave of her arms.
“He had it coming,” Holly said with a sniff. “Though actually I was more upset about the fact he didn’t believe in me, than that he was with Rochelle.”
“I know. What a bastard. I’m glad you punched him because otherwise I would’ve,” Gemma said.
“I don’t think Simon would’ve appreciated that,” Holly reminded her.
“Actually Simon didn’t appreciate much of what I said after you left. Can you believe him? And to think I wasted four months of my life with a crush on that stupid egghead.”
“Madness,” Vince interrupted before Holly managed to take over. “I’m pleased you don’t like him anymore, because neither do I. It’s much better to be single than to be with such an idiot.”
Gemma blushed and started to fiddle with her clipboard. “The thing is that after you ran out and I argued with Simon and the rest of them, Vince’s friend, Andrew came in. I guess he was looking for you, Vince. But when he heard what happened, he came over to see if I was okay.”
“Really?” For a moment Holly was distracted from her own problems. As far as she was aware, Andrew had been planning to go home after he dropped the laptops off. Sly dog.
“Yes, he seemed to know we’d been best friends and that Todd had been insulting you. He said Todd had it coming anyway and he was pleased Vince was the one to do it,” Gemma said with a watery smile. “So I sat with him for a while which was great because you weren’t answering your phone and I swear I’d been thinking about going around to see if you were okay.”
“Not a good idea,” Vince said. “It’s not exactly safe my end of town. Especially at night, when you’re alone.”
“He’s right,” Holly agreed. “And Vince has man-strength.”
“Yes, he does.” Gemma giggled. “I still can’t believe you punched Todd. Does your hand hurt?”
“A bit,” Holly admitted. “But it was worth it.”
“Yeah,” Gemma chuckled. “I bet you won’t forget the look on his face in a hurry.”
“No, I won’t,” Holly lied as she recalled just how much that punch had cost her. Besides, even if she could only remember it for a few more hours, it was still a comfort.
“So this morning I wrote down the names of a couple more people who might’ve given you the pills. I’m also going to go around and take down all of those posters. I don’t care what my boss says.”
Holly studied her boots and didn’t say anything.
“What?” Gemma demanded. “Oh, you’re worried that I won’t be able to get away like yesterday, but I’ve—”
“She has to go back to heaven at one o’clock, Gemma,” Vince said the words that Holly couldn’t quite get out.
Gemma’s face went pale as she dropped her bag to the ground with a thump. “But surely they won’t take you back until tonight. Midnight or something. That’s what they would do in the movies. One o’clock is a stupid time. And besides, you haven’t resolved your issues yet. You can’t go back until that’s done.”
“I don’t think it works like that.” Holly gulped.
“No, don’t say that.” Gemma started to sob. “W-what’s going to happen if you don’t sort everything out before you go?”
Holly bit down on her lip and forced herself not to cry. “Oh, you know,” she said in a bright voice. “I guess they’ll stick me into a heavenly self-help group or something. Probably incredibly boring and I’ll get told off for talking.”
Gemma tugged a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her eyes. “Yeah, that sounds like you. And you’ll be back into the regular part of heaven in no time. Hey, and then you can see your dad and your real mom. That’ll be good.”
“It certainly will,” Holly’s voice sounded hoarse, even to her own ears. “I can’t wait.”
“S-so what are you going to do now? We could still spend the morning trying to, well…get some things sorted out.”
Holly shook her head. “I think we’re just going to go to see Vince’s boss and apologize. Vince isn’t too wrapped in the idea, but I can’t bear the idea of my actions costing him his job.”
Gemma gave her a watery smile. “So this is it?”
“I guess so,” Holly agreed. “But at least this time we get to say goodbye properly.”
“God, Holly.” Gemma started to sob again. “I’m going to miss you so much. Who knows when we’ll see each other again?”
“Not for a long time, I hope. I don’t want you dying anytime soon.” Holly bit on her tongue to stop from crying.
“Well, in that case you’d better not forget me,” Gemma said firmly. “Because if you find out that my next boyfriend is doing the dirty on me or something, I’m counting on you to somehow show me a sign.”
“Two thumps on the wall will mean yes,” she assured her friend, while trying not to think about the reality—that in a few hours she wouldn’t know who Gemma was. Before she could get too depressed, a surge of workers came through the door as the large clock hanging on the marble wall turned nine.
“So, I guess this is goodbye.” Gemma wiped away more tears.
“Yeah.” Holly stood up as well and almost fell back over as Gemma wrapped her arms around Vince’s torso and squeezed it tightly.
“Hey,” Holly said in alarm. “Remember I’m only Holly on the inside, on the outside I’m—”
“Vince Murphy,” Gemma finished off in a strangled snivel. “I know. This is for him as well. He’s taken good care of you.”
“Thanks,” Vince said softly.
“Bye, Gem,” Holly mumbled before she untangled herself from her friend’s embrace and started to jog away before Vince’s limited social status tanked even further by bawling like a baby.