You Had Me at Halo (7 page)

Holly put her hands on her hips. “I know this isn’t ideal but we’ll just have to work around it.”

“Work around what? The fact there’s another person in my body?” he demanded as once again she felt her arms being crossed.

“There’s no need to get snooty,” Holly retorted as she turned to finish her conversation with Dr. Hill, only to find he had disappeared from sight. “He’s gone.”

“Gee, and I didn’t even get to thank him for putting someone else in my body.” Vince’s voice was laden with sarcasm.

Holly got up and began to pace.

“Okay, now is so not the time to panic,” she instructed herself. “We just need to think this situation through. Yes, it’s going to make getting back to heaven a bit more difficult but with a bit of planning—”

Holly suddenly found herself moving back to the bus stop and sitting down with a thump.

“Stop all of that walking so I can get this straight,” Vince said. “Are you seriously trying to tell me you’ve been in heaven and they’ve sent you down for a...a...well...
why
have they sent you down?”

Holly let out a sigh as some of her anger evaporated. “I guess this is even weirder.” for you than it is for me. The thing is I sort of got kicked out of heaven. Don’t laugh.”

“Sorry,” he said in a contrite voice as she felt him bite down on the fleshy part of his lip. “So coming back to earth is a punishment?”

When I’m stuck in someone else’s body it is
, she wanted to mutter, but sensing it wouldn’t help relations, she kept her thoughts to herself. “You see the thing is after I got kicked out I was sent to Dr. Hill. He’s a—”

“Shrink?”

“Yeah. Though he calls himself a spiritual realigner. A Spiritual Screw-up more like it. Anyway, I didn’t quite manage to shed all of my earthly issues when I died.”

“What does that mean?”

Holly sighed. There was no point being coy about this, since soon she and Vince would be sharing more than just secrets. “I still get a bit annoyed when anyone says I committed suicide,” she admitted. “Apparently it’s a problem.”

“I can’t imagine anyone who knows you would believe that you committed suicide,” Vince instantly said. “You’re probably just sensitive because of that thing a few years ago after your dad died.”

“How did you know about that?” Holly couldn’t hide her surprise. Until she started working at Baker Colwell she hadn’t seen Vince for at least twelve years and her self-harming was not something she liked to talk about very often. Or ever, even.

“I kept in touch with a few people after I moved away. Word gets around,” Vince said in a gruff voice.

“Well, thanks for not believing I did it on purpose. But even though most people don’t know about what happened back then, they still seem to think I killed myself. Which is why I need to get it sorted out. I also need to explain to Todd what really happened.”

“Good luck with that. He’s a jerk.”

“Of course he’s not.” Holly felt herself bristle again. “He’s wonderful.”

“Yeah right,” Vince said in what was obviously jealousy. Not that Holly was surprised since Todd was just that sort of guy. Girls wanted to be with him and guys wanted to be him. For a moment she lost in how wonderful Todd was when she caught sight of the watch on Vince’s arm and remembered just how little time she had left on earth.

“Gemma,” she said out loud as she got to her feet and turned in the direction of her friend’s apartment. “It’s almost nine at night. I’ve got to get back around to see her so we can find Tina MacDonald.”

“Nine? Shit, I’m meant to be somewhere.” Vince turned and headed back towards the building.

Holly dug her heels in and forced him to stop. “Did I not just explain why it’s so important that I need to get all my issues sorted? I only have two days. Tick-tock, heavenly clock and all of that.”

“Well, you’re not going to find Tina MacDonald at this time of night, so why waste time? This is my body remember and I have a life. You can’t just come in here and take over.”

“Possession is nine tenths of the law,” she reminded him as she tried to head back in the other direction. “And, hey, you might learn something.”

“That you’re insane? I think I’ve already picked that one up, thank you very much. Now if you don’t mind—”

“I do mind.” Holly gritted her teeth. “Why can’t you just work with me on this?”

“Well, let’s see. For a start you seem to think that my problems aren’t as important as yours. Secondly, because it’s too late to go running around playing Nancy Drew. And thirdly, but most importantly, because you didn’t even ask or say ‘please.’”

Holly dropped her jaw for a minute. Of all the ridiculous, stupid, selfish reasons, that was just the bottom drawer. In two days time she could curse Vince Murphy all she wanted, but in the mean time she was just going to have to go along with it.

“Please, can we go back to Gemma’s place so I can get Tina Macdonald’s address?”

“If we must,” Vince grudgingly relented. “Since I’m probably too late. But first I need to make a call, and can I just ask, is this what it’s going to be like for the next two days?”

“Hey,” Holly responded. “You know I’m sure there are a lot of other guys out there who would be thrilled to have someone like me in their body.”

“Yes, I’m completely delighted at the experience. Just what I’ve always wanted. A dead girl to talk to,” Vince retorted as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Holly was about to say something when the door to Baker Colwell opened and a couple of guys wandered out. Her back stiffed as she recognized them as the two guys who had been following her earlier on. Had they been in the building trying to find her? What creeps. Not that they really looked like your normal run-of-the-mill thugs. In fact they looked more like computer geeks than...
Uh-oh
, Holly winced as once again she realized she had forgotten just whose body she was in.

“Vince.” The taller of the two spoke as they made their over. “Where the hell have you been, man? You know we all had overtime.”

“It’s a long story,” Vince said. “I was just about to call to explain why I’m late. Is Bob still inside?”

The shorter one shook his head and pushed his glasses back up his nose. “No, we’ve just finished, but he wasn’t happy with your no-show.”

“That I can believe, and trust me, I had every intention of being there, it’s just…well—”

“What’s going on, anyway?” tall guy asked. “First you were weird at the funeral and then when we saw you before, you ran away from us.”

“Ran away from you?” Vince blinked and Holly winced some more. Besides, how was she meant to know who Vince Murphy hung out with? Or that he even had any friends. Certainly when they were in school together, she didn’t remember him being Mr. Social.

“That’s right, and why do you have a bride magazine in your hand?” the short guy said. Thankfully before Vince (who did seem a little speechless) could answer, the tall guy’s cell phone started to beep
and after glancing at the screen he just shrugged his shoulders. “Look, we’ve got to go, but we’ll see you tomorrow.”

“A bridal magazine?” Vince stared down at his hands after the two guys had disappeared down the street. “Let me guess—tomorrow we’ll be shopping for handbags and getting our nails done?”

“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?
”

But there was still no answer. Was he ignoring her? She was just about to pinch his arm before realizing not only would it hurt her as well, but perhaps he was asleep? After all he’d had a pretty rough day, what with having his body snatched and all.

She fumbled around in his jacket pocket until she found the cell phone and prayed the battery wasn’t flat. Actually it seemed quite outrageous that Dr. Hill hadn’t provided her with an expense account when he’d sent her down here. She was going to have serious words when she got back up there.