You Had Me at Halo (8 page)

“Hello?” Gemma’s voice sounded cautious. “Who’s this?”

“Gem, it’s me. I’m using Vince’s cell phone.”

“And Vince’s voice. Holly can I just tell you one more time that this is seriously weird.”

“You don’t know the half of it. Anyway, did Irene settle down?”

“Only after I let her tell me all about how her fifth grade teacher humiliated her in front of the whole class by asking her to spell ‘wheelbarrow.’ Honestly, she’s getting worse. But enough about her, how did you go?”

“I found out how the pills got in my system,” Holly told her in a triumphant voice. “Problem is that I can’t go and see myself because of the Vince situation, so I need you to go around and confront them for me.”

“Of course I will.” Gemma squealed from the other end of the phone. “So who is it?”

“Tina Macdonald,” Holly informed her proudly. “In fact it’s so obvious I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.”

“Oh.” Gemma didn’t sound convinced. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure,” Holly was stung by her friend’s doubt. “She was jealous of my promotion of course so was trying to sabotage my presentation. She gave me a cup of coffee on Friday morning, which is when she must’ve slipped me the pills.”

“Holly, that doesn’t really make sense,” Gemma said in a tentative voice.

“What do you mean it doesn’t make sense? Of course it does. She couldn’t bear the idea of losing out so she decided to drug me up.”

“Yes but what would be the point of only giving you four pills? I mean all she would’ve ended up doing is making you fall asleep for a night. It hardly would’ve stopped you doing your presentation on Monday morning.”

“Apart from the fact that I’m
dead
.”

“Holly...look all I’m saying is that Tina would have to be pretty stupid to try and think anything much could happen with only four pills.”

Holly felt some of the wind go out of her sails. “Well, perhaps she was just hoping I would fall asleep in the bath and drown? After all, that’s not so silly, since it really did happen.”

“Perhaps,” Gemma sounded doubtful. “But to be honest I think the whole thing was either an accident OR the person we’re looking for had a particular reason for wanting to make sure you didn’t go out last Friday night.”

She’s right you know,
Vince suddenly spoke and Holly almost fell off the bed in shock.
Besides which, I don’t think Tina’s clever enough to do it.

Holly reached up to her lips. Had her mouth moved? She was pretty certain they hadn’t but to be honest she couldn’t quite recall. Since what with being turned into a guy and then finding out she was body sharing with the same guy, her short-term memory seemed to be a bit up the wall.

I think we can speak telepathically,
Vince informed her, the sound of his voice reverberated inside her head...his head...their head.

Did you just read my mind?
Holly tentatively tried to speak to him. And could she just say that it was the perfect ending to a perfect day. Not only was she trapped in a body of a geek, he would soon have unlimited access to all of her dark dirty secrets.

I don’t think so,
Vince replied.
Unless you were thinking about why one of us can go to the sleep while the other one is still awake.

Holly let out a sigh of a relief since that particular problem was way down her list right now. Which meant that at least her secrets could stay dark and dirty.

S-so you mean we can speak to each other without moving our lips?

My lips,
Vince corrected.
But yes, that seems to be what’s happening.

“Holly?” Gemma was saying. “Are you all right? You’re not speaking.”

Holly realized just how hard this was going to be.
Especially when I have to share a body with someone who has NO idea of boundaries,
she muttered to herself.

I heard that,
Vince sang out but Holly was too depressed to even comment as it occurred to she was right back to the beginning again.

At this rate she was going to spend the rest of her life in Level One, having to put up with all the horrid rejects, while people like her parents were up on Level Three probably wearing lovely white linen togas and bathing in chocolate. Well, not at the same time obviously on account of the complete mess it would make, but it was still just so unfair. How had she managed to screw up her death so spectacularly?

“Holly...Holly. Are you okay?” Gemma asked from the other end of the phone. “I know you’re disappointed, but I think you’re turning a molehill into a mountain. We’ll get through this thing. We always do.”

Oh yes, and apart from not getting invited to any heavenly chocolate orgies, she was also going to have freak Gemma out once again by filling her in on Vince’s reappearance. Suddenly
impossible
was taking on a whole new meaning.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Okay, so here’s the plan,” Holly announced the next morning as she tapped her pen against the kitchen counter. “I’m up against the clock, so everything needs to be prioritized. Since Tina is a dead end, the most important thing is to retrace my steps until we get another clue. Then I can explain everything to Todd and apologize for our stupid fight.”

Holly was proud of how organized she sounded. Especially since she’d stayed awake for half the night panicking. Thankfully she then remembered the trick was to pretend she was focused and confident, even if she wasn’t. That’s how she’d managed to get her promotion after all.

“So, what do you think?” she double-checked with Vince, who still hadn’t answered her.

“Great,” Vince mumbled as he rubbed his eyes. “Now can I have some coffee?”

Holly put down her pen and let Vince flick the kettle on. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as organized as she thought “Sorry, about that. I’m still getting used to this body sharing thing.”

“Yes, I’m having some problems with that myself. So what are your thoughts on having a shower?”

Holly looked down at his pajama-clad body and wrinkled her nose. For going to the bathroom and getting changed, she had merely squeezed her eyes shut and sung as loudly as possibly to distract herself from what was going on. But a shower would require full nudity and to be honest she wasn’t quite sure she had room in her head for any more nightmares right now.

“How about we just have a thorough wash instead?”

“Good idea” Vince sounded almost as relieved as she felt, and as he busied himself pouring the coffee, she tried not to think about what it would be like if he did take all of his clothes off?
No, scratch that thought
. She wasn’t ready to look down anyone else’s trousers yet. Especially not Vince Murphy’s.

xxx

“This is so strange that I’m getting ready for work and not putting on any make-up,” Holly said twenty minutes later as she admired the way Vince carefully shaved the contours of his chiseled jaw. He definitely looked better without stubble.

Vince held the razor away from his face. “You know it’s easier to do when you’re not talking.”

Sorry,
Holly mentally apologized.
I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this.

Me either. It’s certainly not something I ever thought would happen. I’m still trying to adjust to the fact you work for Baker Colwell, let alone now live in my body.

What’s that meant to mean?
She bristled. Not that she cared what he thought, of course, but it was irritating the way he kept trying to make out like he knew her. When she first started working there he had even asked her out on a date—to catch up on old times he had said. Yeah right. As if Holly had wanted to do that.

He shrugged as he washed the razor under the tap and splashed some aftershave on his face. Holly winced at the sting. “I don’t know,” he said aloud. “I guess when we were at school I always had you pegged as doing something a bit more creative.”

“That shows how much you know about me. I’ve always wanted to join Baker Colwell. My dad used to work there as a senior analyst, so I guess I’m following in his footsteps.”

“If I followed in my father’s footsteps I’d be in prison for robbery.”

“Oh.” Holly widened her eyes in surprise. Wow. Prison for robbery. “I didn’t know that.”

“It’s no biggie.” Vince roughly ran his hand through his hair and then turned for the door. “Anyway, if we have a hope in hell of getting through the day, we should probably leave already.”

“Sure,” Holly said as an awkward silence enveloped them. She wanted to say to him she was sorry for acting surprised, but she could tell by the set of his mouth that he didn’t want to talk about it. Which was crazy.

Just because his father was in prison, it didn’t mean Vince had done anything wrong. In fact, from what Holly had seen, the opposite was true. He had a good job, a nice apartment, and when he wasn’t being annoying, he was an okay guy.

xxx

Holly glanced at her watch. She’d arranged to meet Gemma in the reception area before the weekly staff meeting, but there was still no sign of her, which was a nuisance since some of her “last steps” had involved the ladies room, and there was no way she could recreate them without Gemma’s help.

Vince seemed unnaturally quiet as they watched everyone hurrying past them, and Holly could only guess he was finding this just as hard. Once, at Todd’s bequest, she’d worn some skimpy lingerie underneath her black suit. It had felt sexy and exciting in equal measures to be walking around with such a secret on underneath, but nothing prepared her for how it felt to be walking around with a secret like this.

“Sorry I’m late.” Gemma panted as she careened to a halt in front of them, and Holly was grateful to be jolted from her thoughts. Thinking of skimpy underwear and Vince Murphy in the same sentence was just disturbing.

“I was wondering where you’d got to,” Holly told her friend.

“I had a rotten sleep last night.”

“I know the feeling,” Holly agreed.

“You poor thing.” Gemma flushed as she reached out to give Holly’s hand a squeeze. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay, I guess. Considering I’m back from the dead in someone else’s body.”

“Oh yes.” Gemma quickly pulled her hand away and scrutinized them. “By the way, who am I speaking to? Is it Holly-Vince or Vince-Vince?”

“It’s Holly, you idiot.” It was obvious that despite staying on the phone for an extra half hour last night to try and explain the new situation, Gemma was still having problems making sense of it.

“Hey, that’s a bit unfair calling me an idiot when you’re the one that managed to get herself into someone else’s body,” her friend complained.

“My point exactly,” Vince piped in. “And for the record Gemma, I promise I had nothing to do with Holly trying to hit on you at the funeral yesterday.”

Gemma giggled and Holly rolled her eyes. “Please, don’t encourage him. And Vince, don’t you have something else to do while we talk?”

“Sure, I’ll just go over and grab a cup of coffee. Oh no wait. I can’t move.”

“Ignore him,” Holly advised Gemma. “Because we can’t afford to waste any more time and—Oh...there’s Todd...”

Holly sighed as she looked over to where he was striding through the foyer with a paper under one arm and a coffee in his other hand—a decaf skinny cappuccino, not that he ever let on, but Holly knew he was secretly worried about his weight. Probably wanted to look good for their wedding. She sighed again.

“Great, and things just keep getting better and better,” Vince growled but Holly didn’t pay him any attention.

“Look at how gorgeous he is. I love they way his hair goes all tousled...see...like that.”

Vince squinted.
“
It’s sort of a weird color if you ask me. Does he dye it?”

“Oh, well I guess he gets a few tones and highlights, but there’s nothing wrong with male grooming. In fact some of your colleagues would do very well to take a leaf out of Todd’s book.”

“I’ll be sure to pass that little tip along,” Vince said in a dry voice.

Holly continued to stare in Todd’s direction. “This is so annoying. I mean he’s my boyfriend and I can’t even go over there and tell him how much I love him
.
And what’s
she
doing?”

“Who?” Gemma spun around to see what was going on.

“Rochelle Jackson,” Holly said in disdain as she stared at Todd, who was paying an awful lot of attention to the stupid girl. “She is so unbelievable. I feel like going over there and giving that slut a piece of my mind.”

Gemma’s hand shot out and grabbed Holly’s arm. “Don’t be stupid,” she hissed. “You’re only Holly on the inside. On the outside you’re—”

“Vince Murphy,” Holly muttered. “Yeah and don’t I know it. I mean what’s the point of them sending me back here to sort out my issues if I’m stuck in this body? It’s driving me crazy.”

“Ah, finally we have something in common,” Vince retorted.