Page 26 of Ghost of a Chance
Jasper snapped a few photos of her signing, as well as one with her and Tim before they left.
Once outside she pulled Jasper to a stop.“I don’t want anyone to know about the Paul thing.”
“I sort of figured.You went even paler than normal when he asked what we were doing.But you know Dan’s filming us and Bri is going to air that segment, right?”
She was about to make a massive mistake, but if she kept implying she could just ring up a ghost and have a conversation with them, she was never going to recover from this.
“Of course I know that.Also did you put the physics book in my bag?”
“Definitely not.Why?”
Opening the bag she held it out to him.Jasper rubbed the back of his neck looking awkwardly around them before pulling her around the corner.“Can you ask him why he’s here?”
“I don’t talk to poltergeists,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Do they show you things?”he asked.
Since that was pretty much what she’d intimated every time she’d used her “ability” to get out of something, she nodded.“It’s not all the time.I guess this explains your phone.”
“Maybe.So what’s the problem with people knowing about your paranormal skills?”
How could she say she wanted her books to stand on their own?That the only reason she’d added the joke to her author bio was to make it a part of the fantasy she’d always imagined for herself.One where she stood out?
The joke was on her.As Jasper had rightly pointed out, she was known as someone who had a psychic ability.At least in her small corner of the world.There was no way she’d ever truly know if her books were popular because of her writing or because people were intrigued by the woman behind them.
“There isn’t one.”
“Good.So what now?”
“Let’s go to the coffee place and you can tell me more about Paul.”
* * *
Joe’s had a certain timelessness to it.As he stepped through the door, the scent of roasted coffee beans and the chatter of the patrons took Jasper back to the first time he’d come here.Freshman year.Paul had just transferred in after studying at another university and flunking out first semester.Too much pressure, he’d said.
Jasper hadn’t anticipated coming back here ever.Especially without Paul.
Of course his friend was technically here, just trapped in a textbook.
Kirsty needed to know about him, and Jasper wasn’t sure where to start, even after they ordered their drinks and sat in a corner booth near the back.There was a tradition for students to write their names on the walls and they were covered with signatures and years.His and Paul’s were scrawled on the other side of the café.
“What do you want to know?”
She pulled her tablet from her bag and set it on the table next to her double espresso with one sugar cube.Her fingers moved quickly over the keyboard.He noticed that chipped paint on her index finger again.He liked the slight imperfection.It showed him that there were cracks in that formidable facade that she presented to the world.To him.
She said that no one had themselves figured out, but she did a cracking job of faking it.Shoving his hand through his hair, he waited for her.He took a sip of his cappuccino with two cubes of sugar.Deliciously sweet and just what he needed.
Closing his eyes, it was almost as if he was a sophomore again.Nothing had happened.Paul was still alive; he was still dithering about his major, but not so erratic in his class choices that he was limited to a handful of degrees.
“What did Paul want to do with his life?”she asked.“I think maybe if we can figure out what was left undone, we’ll have a good starting point.”
Jasper had no clue.They hadn’t talked much about the future.Or rather Jasper hadn’t really listened.He’d mostly partied, discussed their individual classes, complained about the daily minutia of college social life, and worried about their grades.“I’m not sure.We didn’t talk about shit like that.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Homework, how hard certain classes were, people we hoped to hook up with,” Jasper said.
“Did you both like the same girls?”
