Page 49 of Ghost of a Chance
The look she gave him would have melted a weaker man.Frankly he felt singed by it.
“You’re just mentioning it now?”
“I’m pretty sure I said he was like a brother.”
She shook her head and her bangs shifted, revealing her frustrated look as she stared out the window.“Gia’s like a sister to me and we share no blood.”
“Sorry.I should have been clearer.Everyone who knew Paul knew we were cousins.I wasn’t hiding it.”
They arrived at the apartment building soon after and he pulled into a parking space nearby.
“What else?”
“Uh, Paul was working on figuring out some physics notes left by my dad.”
“Okay, all of this should have been brought up earlier.Why were you sitting on it?”
“I don’t know.Maybe if you knew we were related you’d think that I should have figured out how to help him on my own…lame, I know, but I can’t do this on my own.I wanted you to have to stay.”
“Once you brought the freaking book on the TV show that was a done deal,” she pointed out.Leveling that serious stare of hers on him, she just waited.
“I don’t like talking about any of it.I can’t deal with the grief.I know, grow up, right?But I can’t.I miss Paul and this freaky ghost version of him isn’t the same.I guess…it’s easier to not talk about him.”
Her lips narrowed before she opened the door and got out of the car.He did the same, pocketing his keys as they approached Dan.Kirsty was pissed and rightly so.She’d stopped her entire life to help him.To help his best friend.And here he was keeping vital information from her because he was scared.She had every right to hate him.
“Hey.Before we go inside I want to say…talking to you about Paul is helping me open up.I wasn’t keeping the fact that he was my cousin a secret for any nefarious reason.”
“I get that.I was starting to trust you.”
Dan approached them before he could respond.
Dan chatted all the way to the apartment and didn’t seem to notice that Kirsty wasn’t speaking to either of them.When he knocked on the apartment, it was answered by Lon, the new renter, who let them in.
Lon had on sweatpants and a UVM basketball T-shirt.His hair was short and he had a weight bench in the corner.He told them to feel free to look around and went back to the couch and his controller where he was playingFallout.Kirsty stood at the edge, still simmering from earlier.
The apartment hadn’t changed much since he’d lived there.The same old leather couch with a blue fabric-covered love seat dominated the space.There was a TV mounted to the wall and a small credenza under it for the cable box and game consoles.The kitchen was off to the side.Jasper couldn’t see it from here but wondered if the sink was full of dishes as it had been when he and Paul lived here.
“This was my room,” he said, pointing to the one on the left.
Dan poked his head into the room.“Did it look like this when you lived here?”
“Yeah, this place has always come fully furnished.My bedding was different and I had a fewStar Warsposters on the wall.”
“I’ll get some B-roll of the house.Did you bring the book?”
Jasper opened his backpack, taking it out and opening its well-worn pages.
All three of them waited to see if anything happened.Maybe they’d finally get lucky and it would be easy.
…Nothing.As Jasper placed the book on the bed, Kirsty wandered over to the other room.Dan asked Jasper to sit on the bed and hold the book.“As if you’re studying it.Look pensive.”
“I’m not an actor.”
“I’m aware.I want to capture some of what you’re feeling.”
When they walked into the other room, slightly more deflated, Jasper caught the scent of Kirsty’s perfume.She was perched near the window gazing down at the street.There was something solemn about her.To him, keeping his secrets about Paul felt harmless.But in reality he’d hurt her, broken her trust.
He owed her a real apology.
