A Very Reaper Romance

Chapter Two – 364 Days Left

The next morning, Jack went to the bathroom and got ready for… well, he wasn’t sure what, but he felt like getting ready was important. He finished up, pulled on some jeans and a white t-shirt, put his wallet and the ledger in his pocket, then headed into the tiny town to buy some snacks and introduce his new face to the residents.

Walking into the main high street, Jack felt nervous. Would anyone see through his disguise? Was he going to have to take a soul on his first day as Reaper? He thumbed the leather of the ledger in his pocket, wondering what mysteries it would reveal.

Jack headed into the coffee shop to see the same useless barista named Raven that he always ended up being served by when he was alive. She always got his name wrong – seriously, how hard was the name Jack? – and she never seemed to give much of a s**t about it either.

“Welcome to Coffee Stop, what can I get you?” Raven asked, more interested in her nails than his order.

“Toffee latte with whipped cream, please,” Jack said politely.

“Name?”

“Ja–aime. Jamie,” he said, catching himself before f*****g it all up on the first day. Raven said nothing and just sauntered away to start making his order.

Jack moved to the end of the bar and waited patiently for his drink, watching the people pass by the window. The autumn leaves were coming in, along with the biting breezes that made a coat necessary, something a few of the passers-by were already sporting. Jack wondered which of these souls he would be responsible for transporting.

He pulled the ledger from his pocket and rifled through it, marvelling at the doodles inside. He flicked to the last page, the most recent drawing. It was a castle and the number twenty-two – Jack’s age when he died. Who was responsible for the drawings, though? How did they appear?

“Jack?” Raven called out, catching Jack's attention immediately. “Toffee latte for Jack?”

You have to be shitting me, Jack thought to himself. He collected his coffee with a smile that Raven did not return and made his way back out onto the street to wander around and say hello to people. Jack was so busy marvelling at the fact Raven could get his name correct now it wasn’t his name anymore, that he didn’t notice the young woman walking toward him, her nose in her phone.

The two barrelled into each other without any attempt to slow down from either of them, at least not until it was far too late. Jack’s coffee went flying, and the young lady’s phone flew from her hands and hitting the pavement with a sickening crack as she landed on her backside with a thump.

“Shït! That’s hot!” Jack said, fanning his shirt away from his skin. “Oh my god, are you okay?” he exclaimed, realising what had happened.

“Yeah, I’m okay, not sure about my phone though,” she said, crawling over to pick it up. “Urghhhh no!” she cried as she turned the phone over, revealing the completely shattered screen. “I can’t afford to fix this!” She looked to be on the brink of tears, and Jack felt immediately guilty.

“Oh s**t,” Jack said. “Hey, there’s a phone shop at the top of the hill, let me get the screen replaced for you. It was my fault anyway.” He held out a hand to help her up, and as she came face to face with him, Jack was struck by the depth of her beautiful brown eyes.

“I can’t let you do that,” she said awkwardly. She chewed her lip absentmindedly as she considered his offer, despite her reluctance to accept.

“Yes, you can,” Jack retorted. “It was my fault, and I can afford to fix it, so let me fix it.”

The woman eyed him cautiously. “Why would you do that? I’m a stranger to you…”

Jack held out his hand for her to shake. “My name is Ja–aaaaime. Jamie. My name is Jamie.” The new name was going to take some getting used to.

“Hi Jaaaaaaime,” she giggled, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. “I’m Zoie.”

“Nice to meet you Zoie. Now, shall we go and get your phone fixed?”

“What’s the catch?” she asked, her voice laced with suspicion.

Jack shrugged. “I ruined your phone; you ruined my coffee. Pay for a new toffee latte, and we’ll call it even,” he said with a grin.

“Deal,” Zoie smiled.

Fuck, she’s stunning, Jack thought to himself as he took in her easy smile, her bronze skin shimmering in the morning sunshine, and her mass of well-tended curls falling down her back.

“You’re staring,” Zoie whispered with a smile.

“Oh. Sorry. Right, phone. Let’s go,” Jack said, taking off up the high street, embarrassed at how obvious he had been with his staring at the woman he had a feeling was going to be a complication in his Reaper role.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Jack tried really hard not to stare at Zoie as they stood at the counter waiting for the phone to be repaired, but it was a challenge. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever encountered and while he was mad at himself for causing the damage to her phone, he couldn’t deny being glad of the opportunity to spend some time with her.

Zoie told him about herself while they waited. He learned that she was twenty-three, she lived in Chester and was at university in Leeds studying for her master’s degree in public health (at which Jack shifted nervously on his feet, given he found himself responsible for public death) but was visiting her grandmother who was recovering from a minor surgery.

“How minor?” Jack blurted out, hating the thought of having to transport Zoie’s grandmother any time soon.

“Wow, weird way to phrase that,” Zoie said slowly. “She had a carpal tunnel release. They didn’t even put her to sleep but she’s still frustrated. Nana is an active woman,” she laughed. “I swear, the things she gets up to, the Grim Reaper must be hanging around her twenty-four seven.”

“Oh, haha-ha…” Jack’s laugh was anything but enthusiastic.

Zoie eyed him suspiciously for a moment before asking, “What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, what about you? What do you do, where are you from, all that jazz.”

“Oh, umm…” Jack looked around the shop, unsure what to say – he couldn’t tell her about his life, because he wasn’t alive anymore. He had to invent a role for Jamie. And fast.

“Jamie?”

“I-I’m in data collection,” he said entirely too quickly. It wasn’t a total lie; he was collecting the recently deceased’s identities in a way. The problem was, he didn’t actually know what data collection was. “Uh, yeah, so collecting people’s information from health surveys and stuff before they have surgery and putting it into the system for the doctors to use.” It sounded legitimate enough.

“Oh,” Zoie said slowly. “That sounds—”

“Boring?” Jack finished for her.

“Yeah, kinda,” she laughed.

“Eh, it is. But it pays well and I work from home mostly, I only have to talk to people if the job requires I… make contact, yeah, contact them. Aside from that I keep my own hours.”

“I guess that doesn’t sound so bad,” Zoie mused.

“Okay, all done,” came the technician’s voice as he walked back to the counter. “It’s working fine but if you wanna check it over I’ll get the payment ready.” He handed Zoie her phone and she immediately began testing the screen out while Jack readied his wallet.

“This is great! You’d never know anything had happened, thank you so much!” Zoie squealed. Her joy was contagious and Jack couldn’t help grinning at her happiness.

The smile was quickly wiped from his face though. “That’ll be £195 boss,” the guy behind the counter said.

“£195?!” Jack exclaimed.

“Yes mate,” the guy said, rankled by Jack’s reaction. “£100 for the screen, £95 for the rush job.”

Zoie looked at Jack uncomfortably, she felt it was too much but at the same time ­– she needed her phone. Jack saw the distressed look on her face, and he knew right then that he never wanted to see that look ever again.

“That’s fine mate. Card okay?”

The guy behind the till nodded and passed Jack the terminal to put his card and PIN in. Zoie watched on, wondering how her day had taken such a turn considering she was only heading to the coffee shop after seeing her Nana and now she was allowing a perfect stranger to pay £200 for her phone to be repaired. What was going on?

The technician gave Jack a receipt and Jack smiled at her as he put it in his wallet and put it back in his jeans pocket. “Ready?” he asked.

“Ready for what?”

“Well, I do believe you owe me a coffee,” Jack grinned.

“After that, I think I owe you several,” Zoie laughed.

“Sounds good to me,” Jack said sincerely, and Zoie stared at him for a moment. She felt a pull towards Jamie, a pull she couldn’t explain but it was something she didn’t care to think on too long.

They walked in relative silence to the coffee shop, and Jack started to feel nervous that Zoie was uncomfortable in his presence already. Just as he was working up the courage to say something, a dog on a leash stopped in its tracked and began snarling in Jack’s direction – baring its teeth and barking aggressively.

Cold prickled up Jack’s spine as he realised the dog was seeing who he truly was. Would the dog attack? What would happen if it did?

“What the fück?” Zoie cried, surprised by the sudden noise. She looked round to the dog and saw the owner desperately trying to pull on the leash, to no avail.

“Let’s, uh, let’s go,” Jack said anxiously.

“That was weird,” Zoie said as they walked away. “Clearly that dog didn’t like you, but I’ve never seen one stop walking to let someone know they don’t like them.”

“That was weird, I’ve never seen a dog react like that,” Jack said, leaving out the part about it likely having something to do with him being the new Reaper.

They rounded into the coffee shop and headed straight to the desk. Raven was still working, her gothic appearance and multiple facial piercings framed by jet-black hair didn’t exactly scream ‘Welcome valued customer’. Still, The Coffee Stop was the only coffee shop in their tiny town and in fairness it did serve pretty decent coffee – even if it did always come with a dose of Raven’s apathy.

“Welcome to Coffee Stop, what can I get you?” she asked in her same monotone voice.

“A toffee latte and a peppermint hot chocolate,” Zoie ordered confidently.

“Name?” Raven asked, barely able to prevent her eyerolling.

“Zoie and Jamie”

“Be ready in five.”

Jack and Zoie moved to the end counter to wait for their drinks and once again, Jack’s attention was drawn to the window. They had spent so long in the phone shop that the sun was now high in the sky and Jack still hadn’t been to introduce himself to anyone as the new guy around. Zoie seemed equally content to watch the world go by and the two of them were so busy people watching they almost missed Raven calling their names.

“Peppermint hot chocolate and toffee latte for Zelda and Jack.” Raven called. There it was. She had gotten his name correct again. Jack’s eyes narrowed on Raven as he took his drink from her and she held his gaze, her face expressionless.

“I swear she does it on purpose to mess with people,” Zoie whispered as they walked out of the shop. Jack stole a glance back to Raven, who was staring at the pair, a bored expression on her face and her arms crossed.

The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town, learning about each other’s lives and falling into easy conversation. Neither really wanted to say goodbye to the other and Jack had never experienced such an easy connection with someone; his chest ached with the knowledge that Zoie wasn’t getting to know the real him but the masked version.

When it finally started dropping dark, Jack walked Zoie back to her grandmother’s house then walked back to his new home in the cottage. Thanks to the lamp in the front garden casting its soft yellow light, Jack learned the cottage was called Reaper’s Rest – a little on the nose but in a place like Barrowstead that was built on farming he supposed no one would really take any notice. Walking in the front door, Jack was surprised to find the fire already lit and the lights on. He could hear movement in the kitchen and every hair on his neck stood on end.

Was someone here?

“Hello?” he called out, his nerves bristling under his skin.

“Jack. Take a seat.”