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I snapped my eyes open just as Owain was pulling away. “It’s a bit late for good luck now, but save it for next time.”
“How often does this happen?” I asked, a little stunned by one chaste kiss.
“About one or two a month? Maybe more?”
“Then I think we’re in a good luck deficit. I don’t take cheques, only direct deposit.” I got back to my feet, reinvigorated by my favourite stress reliever and closed down on Owain. “Banking hours are from now until now, so you’d better hurry before we close.”
A pretty pink blush bloomed across Owain’s cheeks. “Are you going to be around for the next one, then?”
Which stopped me in my tracks. Because was I? And what was Owain going to do if I wasn’t? Try and talk the ghost’s ear off again?
“Do you handle all the ghosts that pop up around here like that?” I asked.
Owain glanced off to the side. “Like what?”
I ducked down to put myself back in his eyeline. “Like you’re running a kindergarten.”
Owain laughed, loud and clearly fake. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just trying to be hospitable. I treat all my guests like this.”
“I get not wanting your friends to get zapped, but she was most certainly not a friendly ghost, Owain. Surely you can see that. Why did you fight me so hard about dealing with her before someone got hurt?”
He twiddled his thumbs nervously. “Well, no one did get hurt.”
“This time.”
“You stole her chocolate bar. I’ll have it under control next time.”
“How?” I demanded. “Even before the chocolate bar, she’d nearly stabbed us through the head with a knife.”
He didn’t want to look at me again, shuffling around. “I think we should both call it a night. It’s been eventful, and we both need showers.”
“Owain—” I tried to catch his wrist, but he slipped away, the wily little thing.
“Goodnight!” he hollered back at me as he scarpered.
eight
Meetings, cliffs & rubber rings
Ryan
Iwalked back into my room, goo dripping from my clothes and leaving puddles on the floor. I knew Owain would freak over those, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. It wasn’t like it was any different from the re-wallpapering the ghost bitch had done, though something told me he wouldn’t care about those because all the ghosts within a ten-mile radius got a free pass and a cookie.
I knew he was fucking weird. I knew that. Fantastic arses didn’t completely erase my judgement. But fucking hell if his insanity wasn’t inversely proportional to the biteability of his behind. HA! Take that, Mr. Knox. You didn’t think I paid attention in maths at all. Fucking killing it over here. Applying all that good stuff I learned—
“Take a seat, Ryan.”
I let out a very manly, very stoic scream of surprise at the sound of a voice that did not belong in my room, already reaching for my tool belt.
“No need to scream,” another voice said, a wisp of a chill floating past my left ear.
“I wasn’t screaming,” I snapped defensively, flicking the light on.
Yellow light flooded the room, and it took a second for my eyes to adjust to the B movie scene in front of me. Or rather my room…filled with ghosts. Floaty, transparent arses parked in chairs arranged in a circle.
“The fuck is this?” My fingers tightened around my Pulser. “Not to be rude but, I’ve had about enough of the unexpected guests. Does this place come with a spectral Do Not Disturb sign? Where do I sign up for one of those?”
Now that my heart had stopped trying to burst out of my chest, I fully took in what was happening.
