‘How does a bacon sandwich sound?’
‘Heavenly!’ he sighed with an enormous grin.
A ghost with a sense of humour, a possessive regard of my remote control and a healthy appetite, sitting large as life in my living room, was something that might take a bit of getting used to, but I supposed sharing a bacon sarnie and a cup of tea would be a good place to start.
Chapter Three
The doorbell reverberated through my flat early the next morning. I jumped out of bed, panic washing over me. The events of yesterday afternoon and evening flashed into my head in a messy jumble. It was a dream, right? I’d imagined the whole thing. Thank goodness for that. Poking my head out of the bedroom door I saw the remains of our late-night snack. Two empty plates, two empty mugs and the faint whiff of bacon lingering in the air. Oh God. Definitely not a dream. Maybe some sort of mental breakdown then, I thought, with just a faint edge of hope. Even that scenario seemed preferable to the reality creeping into my mind like the early morning sunshine filtering into the hallway. Tiptoeing down the corridor, I stopped outside the guest bedroom, gently pushing open the door, hoping against hope that it would be empty. There, sprawled over the double bed, his long limbs tangled in the white sheets was the new man in my life, Jimmy Mack. No dream, but a living nightmare.
The doorbell rang again, more insistently this time.
‘Coming,’ I called hastily, trying to rid myself of the overwhelming sense of guilt I felt. OK, so there was a dead man in my flat, but it wasn’t as if I was personally responsible or anything like that.
‘About time,’ grinned Lexie, holding open her arms for our customary hug, as she stood in the doorway. Purple tufts of wayward hair framed her elfin features. A multi-coloured stripy short skirt, mauve leggings and black T-shirt completed her inimitable look.
‘What kept you?’ she asked, as she swept past me. ‘Didn’t get you out of bed, did I?’
‘No,’ I stuttered. Lexie would be onto all of this in a matter of minutes. ‘I was just getting ready actually.’
‘Really,’ she said slowly, inflecting that one word with a whole lot of meaning. Her eyes wide she marched around my flat like a police officer on a raid, her eyes scanning the remains of last night’s impromptu supper party. ‘I haven’t interrupted anything here, have I?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I said a little too defensively. ‘Sarah popped round last night, that’s all. It was late by the time she left. I just didn’t get round to cleaning up.’
‘Sarah, eh? Do I know her?’ That familiar impish grin rested on her lips as she looked at me through narrowed eyes and then she took off running down my hallway flinging open the door to the guest bedroom.
‘No, don’t!’ I screamed, but it was too late. With my heart in my mouth, I watched as Lexie surveyed the contents of my spare room. I squeezed my eyes tight and held my breath.
‘Disappointing as ever, Alice,’ she sighed, a look of contempt on her face. ‘I must admit though you had me going there for a moment. I really thought I might find some hunk hiding beneath the bed for once.’
My breathing steadied for a moment.
‘If I had anyone in my flat why on earth would I be hiding him away?’ I said, feeling only slightly aggrieved that the idea of a man being in my bedroom was so outrageous. The commotion must have woken Jimmy, surely? Hopefully he’d done the sensible thing and made himself scarce.Mind you, thinking about it there wasn’t a whole host of hiding places, just the bed, a small cupboard and a pile of ironing overflowing from a wicker chair. I was pretty certain he couldn’t be lurking under there. Perhaps he was performing some spectral hanging out of the window manoeuvre.
‘Hmm, I suppose,’ said Lexie, her interest evaporating. She wandered off in the direction of the kitchen. ‘I’ll stick the kettle on, shall I? I’m dying for a coffee.’
‘Um, yeah, great,’ I said, taking up the spot just vacated by my sister realising Jimmy hadn’t performed any disappearing act at all. He was still there on the bed where I’d last seen him, all 6’2” tanned, toned inches of him, completely sparko. I could even detect the slightest hint of a snore coming from out of his mouth. At that precise moment he rolled over displaying a very decent torso and much more in the process.
Jimmy Mack, recently deceased, was as large as life in my bedroom seemingly apparent only to me. What on earth was I going to do with him? Apart from watch over him all day which at that moment didn’t seem such a bad idea The bacon sandwich and restorative night’s sleep had clearly done him the power of good; his skin now radiated an almost healthy glow, the washed-out grey look of yesterday thankfully gone.
Quietly, I pulled the door shut, breathing quickly, hoping against hope that when I came to open it again, my visiting ghost would have decided to take up residence elsewhere.
‘So I thought we’d go down to the village and do some shopping,’ Lexie called. ‘I’m on the lookout for a cape, something goth-ish. I’m sure they’ll have something on the market.’
Glad of the distraction, I followed her into the kitchen.
‘Great,’ I said, thinking some fresh air might give me some much-needed thinking space, time in which to decide what to do with Jimmy Mack. ‘Although I can’t be long. I have some work to do.’
‘At the weekend? I hope they’re paying you overtime.’
‘Oh it’s just some loose ends I need to tie up. You know me, I don’t like leaving any jobs unfinished.’
But it wasn’t work that was troubling me so much as what to do about my unexpected house guest. Mentally I’d drawn up a plan of action.
Check Yellow Pages.
Google ghosts and how to get rid of them.
And then I was stumped. Check Tripadvisor for heavenly resorts?
Aargh, it was hopeless.
At work I was used to things being thrown at me; could I organise an eleventh-hour meeting with executives from three different continents? No problem.
Book the flights, find hotels, arrange conferences? Leave it with me.
Field my boss’s telephone calls, emails and unplanned personal visits? All part of my day’s work.
Schedule his diary, pacify his team, deal with irate customers, galvanise the sales force? Absolutely.
But could I point a wayward soul to his proper destination in the universe – absolutely no flipping way. I didn’t know where to begin.
I threw back the coffee, wishing it was something stronger, and was just about to go off for my shower when Jimmy appeared in the living room with the tiniest of towels covering his modesty and a huge grin upon his face.
‘So this is your sister then, is it? Aren’t you going to introduce me?’
My mouth gaped opened, but words completely failed me. There was a near-naked man parading himself in my living room. A stunningly gorgeous one at that. My stomach went into free fall as I looked from Jimmy across to Lexie who was completely oblivious to my discomfort before my gaze returned to Jimmy’s resplendent form. I sighed inwardly, as my breath caught in my throat, desire trickling through my veins. This guy was known as a smooth operator; easy on the eye with an open charming manner, but in the flesh, up close and personal, his physical attributes were more captivating than I could ever have imagined.
It was all I could do to stop myself from screaming, ‘Oh my God, Lexie, have you clocked the pecs on that!’
Instead I did another quick glance between Lexie and Jimmy and said, involuntarily, ‘Lexie.’
‘Yeah?’ she quickly countered.
This was freaky.