Romance Anthology

Spirited Chapter 4

Chapter 4

She had gone to bed that night exhausted. Not physically but mentally. Polly had been quiet the rest of the evening. She had left her to stew in her thoughts. The conversation was likely to begin anew once the teen had figured out what romantic overture she was looking for.

Without Rose to distract her, hopefully she would come to a conclusion at least. There was no way for her to help Polly without a starting point. And by helping the wayward ghost she would be helping herself as well. The sooner the apartment was vacated by the spirit, the quieter it would be.

She came out of the bedroom expecting Polly to be as overbearing as she had been the night before. The place was quiet with no signs of the resident ghost. It was a little curious but nothing to be worried over. She would enjoy the calm for as long as it lasted and get some work done. Who knew when Polly would pop up for the day?

Sitting down at the computer, she settled in to start the day. There were so many manuscripts waiting to be edited. There wasn’t any time to waste on other things. She pulled up the story that she was currently working on. It had been a mess to get through and she would be thankful once the project was done.

“What are you doing?”

“Working.”

“Doing what?”

“Editing.”

“What is that thing?”

“A computer.”

Polly stared at the device in wonder. She hoped that would be the end of the questions. She didn’t want to have to explain modern technology.

She tried to continue with work but the ghost hoovering over her shoulder was proving to be too big of a distraction. A redirection was in order, or another day would be lost.

“Polly, is there something you wanted?”

“Now that you mention it, yes. I gave it some thought, and I believe I know what I need to do to move on.”

“Okay, let’s hear it. How are you going to find love?”

“A kiss.”

“A kiss?”

“Well yes. I’ve never experienced this. I’ve never had anyone to kiss before.”

“Um, not to point out the obvious here, but there’s no one to kiss now.”

“That’s where you come in.”

“It is?”

“Yes.”

She was already dreading the direction of their conversation and wished they had never started it. As bad as it had started, it had more promise than where things could go from there. She wanted to opt out of whatever Polly had in mind for her participation in the plan.

“I’m not sure I want to know, but tell me anyway. How am I supposed to help you get your first kiss?”

“By bringing a man here, of course.”

“I don’t know if you know this or not, Polly, but I’m not a ghost hunter. Even if I could find one, I am not bringing another spirit into my home.”

“No, no, no. I didn’t mean that. That’s silly.”

Of course, it was. Who goes out to acquire a spirit to go on a ghost date? It sounded insane. She would have to be crazy to even try such a thing.

“I’m scared to ask, but what did you mean then?”

“Well, there’s that nice gentleman right down the hall and he did say he would help if you needed anything.”

“No Polly. That’s not even an option. Not only is he not a ghost, so I don’t know how you would be able to kiss him, but when he made that offer, he was just being polite. Even if he was being sincere, I’m positive that’s not what he had in mind when he said it.”

“Can’t we at least try?”

She wanted no part in this future debacle. If Polly wanted to try it, she was on her own. What a conversation that would be. ‘Excuse me, but would you be willing to give a ghost her first kiss? I need her to move on and she can’t until she gets it.’ There wasn’t a person around that would believe that story. Worse yet, he might think she was hitting on him with the world’s worst pick-up line. Okay, maybe not the worst, but the weirdest.

“If you want to smooch him, then I suggest you head on over and just lay one on him.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m being serious here. Can’t you walk through stuff as a spirit?”

“Walk through?”

“Walk, float, whatever it is that you can do.”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t? If you’re shy about it, well, it’s not as if he’ll know the difference.”

“No, I mean I already tried going into his place and I can’t. It’s like I’m walking into a solid wall. Which is silly really. I haven’t had anything like that happen before.”

Well, that got her attention. Something was preventing Polly from accessing Cole’s apartment. Did that mean Cole was the crystal culprit? Maybe that was why he had stopped outside her door. Not because she had screamed out but because he was checking to see if Polly had gotten out. He hadn’t appeared to be able to see her though. In fact, he acted perfectly normal. At least as far as she could tell, anyway.

Were the crystals really connected to him? They might not be. The fact that Polly was barred from entering his home was interesting. A coincidence? Possibly. If she could figure out what was keeping Polly out, could she use it in her own place? She wasn’t so heartless to want the ghost locked away again, but putting a big old ‘Keep Out’ on her home was tempting.

“I don’t know what you want me to do about it, Polly. If you can’t get in, then you can’t get in. Pick someone else.”

“Meeting him right after I came back was fate though. Don’t you think?”

“Not really.”

“Come on Rose. Please just go over there and ask him to come over.”

“With what excuse exactly? Once he comes over here and you plant a big ghostly kiss on him, I still must have a legitimate reason to have asked him over here.”

“Well, I was hoping that you would let me use your body to kiss him with.”

The request was shyly asked but it still made her pause. Thoughts slipped through her mind like water through fingers. She couldn’t have heard her right.

“You are not allowed to possess me. I don’t care what your reason is. That is not an option, so don’t even try it.”

“Alright fine. I didn’t think you would agree anyway. Can you invite him over so I can kiss him though?”

“Polly, I don’t know him. It’s weird to ask someone to your home without a reason. What do I say to him? ‘Can you come over so this ghost that’s haunting me can kiss you. Afterward, we can stand around awkwardly to see if she moves on even though you can’t see her.’”

Polly stood there blinking at her in silence. Had she not thought her request through? Or had she hoped that Rose would do all the hard parts herself? Not happening. She said she would help her not do everything for her.

Turning her attention back to the computer, she got back to work. Polly needed some time to figure things out. While that was taking place, she would get some editing done. She was more than halfway done with the current novel and was hoping to finish it by the end of the day. Though the way it was written it was likely going to be much later in the night when she finished. Her goal here was to knock this one off her plate and move on to one that was less of a mess.

The screen glitched once. Then, twice before, small whisps of smoke curled up from the keyboard. Backing away from the machine, her mouth hung open. The screen started to create crazy patterns and lines as more smoke rose from the laptop.

“Polly!”

Because it had been her fault. The ghost had her hands on the computer. Well, more like in the computer, causing it to not only short out but had started the thing on fire.

Pully her hands away, Polly backed away with wide eyes. Rose's gaze moved between the ghost and the machine. She was frozen as her mind tried to process what happened. Smoke billowed upwards, setting off the fire alarm above them. The sound moved her to action. She didn’t have anything to put out the flames, but she needed to find something before it was no longer confined to the laptop itself.

Rushing to the door of her apartment, she flung it open. Hopefully, there would be an extinguisher in the hallway, though she couldn’t recall seeing one when she moved in. The doorway was blocked by Cole. She stumbled back out of his way as he ran into her home carrying a personal fire extinguisher with him.

His strides ate up the floor as he made it over to the small blaze. White fog covered the table as he worked to put it out. It didn’t take too long since there had been no spread that had started. She was lucky he had come when he had.

“What the heck happened?”

“A Power surge?”

What could she say exactly? The ghost did it. She was never very good at thinking on her feet. She was lucky the excuse was a plausible one.

Cole opened a window to air out the room. She took the time the distraction gave her to assess the situation. She was fine, having moved out of the way before the fire really got started. Glancing at Polly she checked that no harm had come to her either. Though expecting a fire to do anything to a ghost was ludicrous.

Polly stood a few feet away staring in a trance at Cole. Rose’s eyes moved to the man, noticing for the first time that he was dripping wet with a towel draped around his hips. He must have been in the shower. No, that wasn’t right. He would have had to be able to hear the alarm over the water. It probably wasn’t possible. He was likely just getting out of the shower when the noise went off.

Shaking her head, she moved to stand in front of Polly. The young woman had undoubtedly never seen a naked man before. Well, mostly naked. She should try and keep the ghost’s modesty intact.

“Thank you. I wasn’t prepared for something like that to happen.”

“You’re lucky it didn’t get out of control. You should really have an extinguisher on hand.”

Clearing her throat, she looked everywhere but at him. She didn’t trust that she could keep her eyes above the waist. Polly tried moving from behind her to get a better look at Cole. Shuffling her feet, she refused to move out of the way.

“Sorry to have interrupted your shower. I’ll let you get back to it.”

Cole moved to the side, coming closer to her. Unfortunately, it also put him closer to Polly as well. How was she supposed to protect her from getting an eye full? She was trying not to be rude. Especially since he had just saved her apartment from catching fire.

Polly had maneuvered herself so that she could take in the view. A smile crept across her face as she looked him over. Things went from bad to worse when she began blowing air at him. What in the world was she trying to do? The ghost’s gaze was transfixed on Cole’s towel as she kept blowing in his direction. Gasping, Rose moved in between the pair once again. Only this time it was to protect Cole from Polly.

“I’ll walk you out.”

Taking a firm grip on his arm, she pulled him across the room. He didn’t fight her though it was clear that he could have. Taking a moment to look up into his face, she fought the urge to roll her eyes. A smile was tugging at his mouth as his shoulders shook slightly. His breath was a bit choppy as he fought not to outright laugh at her.

Of course, he would think she was uncomfortable with his current state of undress. She didn’t want him to think that it was because of his lack of clothing. Even if it was. Not for any explainable reason though. She just needed him to leave before Polly managed to find a way to remove his towel.

“Well, thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day.”

She closed the door between them, cringing internally at her wit. This day couldn’t get over soon enough and only just started.

Turning back to the other occupant in the room, she glared at Polly. What could the ghost possibly do?