Chapter 49

49

I fling myself at him, pressing my hands all over his face to make absolutely sure he’s real.

“Are you a ghost?”

I grab hold of his arms and squeeze gently. They feel real and solid and definitely strong enough to squeeze a little harder.

“Not a ghost.” His voice is extra raspy. He rubs his throat. “I woke up this morning. Still a human. A little skinnier. Unsteady on my feet. A bit battered, but nothing some physical therapy won’t help. But yeah. I’m right here.”

“Right here,” I repeat, the tears behind my eyes finally giving up the battle to remain there. He hooks his arm around my waist and pulls me onto his lap. “Wait…I don’t want to hurt you. Shouldn’t you be in hospital?” I scan his entire body, inspecting him for injuries, signs that he is actually well enough to be here in the library.

Cooper shakes his head and laughs. “I’m completely fine. Sat up this morning and felt like I’d had a long lie-in. The doctors said it sometimes happens like that. People just wake up. It’ll take a while to build my strength back to where it was, but I’m honestly good.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“They spent most of the day giving me every test imaginable before they deemed me fit enough to go home. I have to go back for a checkup in two days, but otherwise they seemed happy enough to free up bed space.”

“Do you feel well?”

“I do now.” Cooper eyes me and grins.

“Your parents! Do they know?”

“They dropped me off here. They’re going to grab a coffee somewhere and then come to meet us inside. They told me you were having an exhibition.” His eyes glitter. “Heard you did a drawing of some super-popular author guy.”

I grab his hands. “Merritt…Is she…? Did she make this happen?”

“Like any of those other gobshites could have pulled it off.”

I gasp as Merritt shimmers into focus at the end of the hallway. She’s wearing a hot-pink suit, a pair of green winged glasses perched on her little nose.

I jump off Cooper’s lap, running over and immediately pulling her into a tight hug. “Thank you,” I whisper. “Thank you for bringing him back to me. I convinced myself you would, but then the longer time went on I thought…” I trail off, unable to finish the sentence.

Merritt gently shrugs me off. “Looks like someone got hella comfortable with physical contact! Good for you, Delph.”

I step back and shake my head in amazement as Cooper wheels over to us. Merritt hugs him and he ruffles her curls.

Merritt looks between me and Cooper. “God, you are cute together. I should have known right away that you were meant to be. I was fooled by all the sniping.”

“Hang on…so you didn’t send me back for Cooper? It wasn’t all part of a grand plan from the very beginning?”

Merritt scoffs. “God, no! I recognised you as his neighbour, but it never occurred to me to set you up. Wouldn’t ever intentionally inflict him on anyone, TBH.”

“Oi,” Cooper warns, giving her an over-the-top glare.

I bite my lip. “So why Jonah? Why did you say he was my soulmate?” I look at Cooper. “When he clearly wasn’t?”

Merritt shrugs. “It was a compelling catalyst, was it not? A fine inciting incident, as authors put it.”

“But why him specifically?”

Merritt steeples her hands together, placing them beneath her chin. “I suppose I just selected someone you’d fancy—the same physical type as your old art teacher—and brought them for an unconscious visit. I mean, I knew he’d fancy you because you’re gorgeous and one of his ex-girlfriends looked a bit like you, but it definitely helped that he was high on pain medication. Made him all dreamy.”

I frown, remembering how Jonah looked at me like I was the most charming woman he had ever met. But he was just high on painkillers that whole time?

I shake my head. “I thought his pupils were so dilated because…Oh my god. He was high. You’re a terrible person!”

“Yes, but also clever, right?” Merritt laughs.

“Or just deeply intrusive,” Cooper retorts.

Ignoring Cooper’s comment, Merritt clasps her hands to her chest gleefully. “I originally thought I’d just get some high-quality entertainment, help you to get laid and maybe figure your shit out along the way and assuage my boredom. But then we had a twist in the plot—you went to games night with Cooper and made him laugh! I hadn’t seen him laugh in five years.” She throws him a tender glance. “And then I saw how he looked at you when you returned from the Shard that night. The way he plucked that petal out of your hair and how pink your cheeks were when he did it. You both seemed to light up. Like someone had finally pressed your on buttons. Imagine my delight when I realised I’d found myself a beautiful little love triangle.”

“A classic romance trope.” I nod, remembering the article I’d read in hospital.

“Absolute classic. So once I realised that maybe you and Cooper could be something special, but that the pair of you were too stubborn to see it, I knew I had to help before time ran out.” Merritt crosses her arms across her chest smugly.

Everything starts to connect in my mind. “Oh my god…wait…you pushed us together? Did you…”

“Make it rain the night after the gala? Yes. Steal the car keys? You bet. Cause an influx of people in The Bee and Bonnet so that you had to share a bed? Affirmative. Shared bed is my very favourite trope of all the tropes. Not that I stayed around to witness any activity, gross.” She holds her hands up. “But yes. C’était moi!”

“Her plan worked a little too well,” Cooper adds, leaning back in his wheelchair and giving me the grin that makes my insides flip-flop.

“Did it ever! I thought falling for Cooper would make you try even harder to find Jonah—to save your own life so you could be with him. But then to my dismay you totally gave up,” Merritt cries. “On the only person who could actually keep you on Earth. You just flailed and accepted your fate like a…like, well…not like the heroine in a romance novel!” Merritt flings her arms in the air and shakes her head. “And I couldn’t change the contract you’d signed. I couldn’t help you any more than a little nudge here and there without overriding free will. I was terrified you wouldn’t kiss Jonah, and that when you inevitably came back to Evermore, Cooper’s heart would break again. But to my surprise, right at the last minute, you got your fight back. You got Jonah’s address and got in the car—”

“But then the crash,” I murmur.

“I’d missed Cooper so much,” Merritt says, her eyes shining with tears. “I knew that keeping him at Evermore wasn’t the right thing but I had no way to send him back. The Franklin Bellamy Clause wouldn’t work because Cooper wasn’t actually dead. After week eleven, Eric and I were starting to get truly sick of watching Cooper moon around after you. Eventually Eric organised a huge meeting with the Higher-Ups. Made a case for allowing Cooper to return to his body because technically he was actually an unconscious visitor, just a little longer term than the norm. He made a PowerPoint presentation, wore a suit and everything. Isn’t that the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard?”

“Like something out of a romance novel.” I grin.

“So romantic—Nicholas Sparks could never.”

Merritt gazes at me for a moment, her teeth running across her bottom lip, dragging off a bunch of orange lipstick in the process. She peers behind her, out of the window on the landing. “I should probably get going…” She turns back to us, the tears in her eyes brimming over. “We got a fresh Dead in yesterday, this woman called Lindy. She is going to make the perfect guinea pig for Eternity 4U. I can’t wait to get going. Eric is now project assistant. Office romance incoming! Like a Sally Thorne but without the hate. Well, unless we’re role-playing of course.”

“Zero boundaries!” Cooper throws his hands in the air.

I pull Merritt into another hug. She rests her chin on my shoulder. “I’ll miss you,” I say.

“No, you won’t,” she replies, pushing her glasses up her nose and looking me right in the eyes. “You’ll be too busy having the time of your life with this loser.” She tilts her head towards Cooper. “And when you’re not hanging out with him, you’re going to draw and paint and be there for your friends and have breakfast with Mr. Yoon, and go on adventures and marvel at the beauty of being alive. Which is exactly as it should be.”

Cooper wheels forward to hug her, but she waves him away “Nope. Not again, Coop. We’ve done our goodbyes three times already. I can’t take it.” She immediately relents though, flinging her arms around her brother and lightly kissing his cheek.

“Thank you, Sis,” he says, his voice cracking. “For everything.”

“Goodbye, Merritt,” I say, a lump in my throat.

“Goodbye, both of you.” Her voice wobbles. “Hope I don’t see you for a long time.”

Cooper and I can only stare as she fades into a glimmering mirage before eventually disappearing into nothing, as if she’d never been there at all.

---

I snuggle into Cooper’s lap once more. Cooper takes my hand and leans in close, nose nudging mine. “So Eric said that if I could find you and kiss you within ten days, then I could stay.”

“I see,” I murmur.

“Ergo, I would very much like to…” He trails off, glancing hungrily down at my lips.

“To what?” I whisper.

“Kiss you, Delphie. If you want me to, of course.”

“I’ve never wanted anything more.”

His lips graze mine immediately, the pair of us smiling madly. We kiss softly at first, tentatively, and then harder and more passionately until we’re pressed so close together I can feel the beat of his heart as if it’s my own.

“I think that should do it.” I eventually laugh, head thrown back. I look at him through eyes blurry with tears. “God, I can’t believe you’re actually here. I was starting to think you’d decided to stay in Evermore.”

Cooper shakes his head. “Being with M again was…it was everything I’ve been thinking about for so long. And if this had all happened when we first lost her, I would have stayed there without any hesitation. But…you. You, Delphie Bookham. I can’t be without you. I don’t ever want to be without you.” He strokes his thumb across my cheekbone. “You make me laugh and you infuriate me. You make me want to be completely myself and to learn how to do that from you. You make it fun to be me. I love you, Delphie.”

“I’m so in love with you,” I whisper back immediately, pressing my forehead against his. The words are brand-new and exciting on my tongue. I get the feeling I’ll be saying them a lot.

I wheel him into the reading room where, one by one, the other attendees immediately race over, laughing and crying and rubbing Cooper on the shoulder. Mrs. Ernestine gives a nonchalant shrug before turning back to inspect my nude of Leanne.

Amy and Malcom arrive, and I laugh out loud as a crowd forms around us.

I’m holding hands with the love of my life.

I’m surrounded by people.

Mypeople.

The ones I love and who love me back. The ones who will be at my side during the peaks and the dips and all the precious bits in between. Those who will be a part of those small everyday moments that might not make it into the poems and the grand paintings and the history books, but all together add up to something more precious than anything.

A life, witnessed. A life, lived.

There’s so much to see, so much to do, so much to feel.

Cooper interlinks his fingers with mine and squeezes tight. I squeeze back, my heart bursting with the anticipation of all that’s to come.

I’m so ready.