Royce picked up a bundle of boxes and dumped them in a cart. “I’ll take these out for you. Zedd could be hiding in the dumpster for all we know.”
“Thanks. You’re sweet. I’m sorry this is such an issue.” Maybe that’s why Cosmo was always passed over for promotions. And really, who could blame Royce for not wanting to give him more responsibility when his damn ex-boyfriend constantly showed up and made a scene?
Zedd was destroying every aspect of his efforts to move on. His death party should have been more final. He could have quit his job, changed his name, and moved to a different city.
“It is an issue, but I don’t mind.” Royce pressed down the stack of boxes, then wheeled them toward the back door. “Let me take care of this, and we’ll go get a drink.”
“So thoughtful.” Royce acting as an impenetrable barrier made the gallery one of the only hassle-free spaces Cosmo could be. He’d turned down Royce’s drink offers in the past, but now Marla was gone, and he couldn’t bear to sit in a bar alone.
Royce disappeared out the door, and Cosmo helped close up. This wasn’t technically part of his job, but complaining was certainly not going to get him promoted to something other than art handler.
He walked outside, tugging his jacket around him. Champagne pink bled from the setting sun, and buildings cut sharp silhouettes against the sky. Someone approached from Cosmo’s peripheral vision. The brilliant roses he clutched to his chest made the sunset a diluted facsimile. He wore a pale blue sweatshirt and his–
Cosmo screamed. He lunged for the gallery doors, but the ghost jumped in front of the entrance, an arm barring his way.
“It’s me!” Micah said.
“I know!” Cosmo clutched his heart and backed up. He misjudged the edge of the sidewalk and sharp pain lanced his ankle. The bouquet of roses hit the ground and a firm hand steadied him before he went down.
Micah’s grip was solid, his body and proximity anything but spectral. Breath rushed in and out of him, his features strained. He licked his lips and looked like he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
Of all the people Cosmo had expected to be waiting with flowers, it wasn’t the ghost who haunted his old studio. At times, he’d asked himself if any of it had even been real. Maybe he’d been too preoccupied with death and dreamed it all up. But there was no disassociating fromthis.
“Why are you here?” Cosmo whispered.
Micah let go of his arm. “You’re not dead.”
“Am I supposed to be?” His stomach clenched. “Did I miss my window, and you’re here to push me in front of a bus?”
“What? No.”
“Or you know it’s coming any moment, so you’re here to usher me into the afterlife so I won’t be alone.” That was kind of sweet, actually, but Cosmo didn’t plan on going anywhere except to the bar, then home to his sculpting.
“No, I…” Micah picked up the roses and tucked an errant strand of lavender back into the raffia holding the bouquet together. “I just want to know what’s going on.”
“With flowers?”
A flush bloomed in his cheeks, and he adjusted his glasses. “They were for your grave, but then I found out you aren’t dead, so I figured I’d bring them with me instead of leaving them there where you’d never see them. Why did you scream?”
Yes, how embarrassing. “You startled me. I saw your face and–”
“Right.” Micah’s expression fell, and he looked so much like a kicked dog that Cosmo wanted to apologize, though he wasn’t sure for what.
“I have a bit of a thing for the macabre, and to be honest, I’m ashamed now. Screaming at a ghost is the equivalent of a herpetologist screaming at a snake.”
Micah frowned. “I’m not dead.”
A ghost who wasn’t aware he was one. That was a thing, wasn’t it? They lived out their afterlife performing things they’d done when they were mortal, never realizing the cycle they were stuck in. This certainly seemed off-script, though. “I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t a part of the land of the living anymore. I saw you disappear on two occasions.”
“I sawyoudisappear on two occasions. And you wrote messages on my mirror. You – You played Soft Cell all hours of the night, and I could never sleep.”
The poor dear was really confused. But Cosmo knew how he had died, and it looked like he was going to have to break it to him.
The gallery doors swung open. Royce scowled at Micah. “I told you to leave!”
“You can see him?” Cosmo asked. “Well, of course you can. You told me he was here.”
“I’m not dead!” Micah protested. He pulled a wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open, then aimed his ID at Cosmo.His photo was taken before he possessed his scars, which only proved Cosmo’s point. “Ask Ximena, ask the maintenance men at the complex. I live in your old place.”
