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wrong in their diaries.’

      ‘Oh come on, Jimmy, it isn’t funny. You have to want to do this. It has to be worth a try.’

      I grabbed his hands in mine, closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths.

      ‘Friends, spirits…

      ‘Countrymen!’ interrupted Jimmy.

      ‘Stop it!’ I hissed. ‘We come in peace and friendship. We give thanks for the life of Jimmy Mack who has now sadly departed from the physical realm. Please help us guide Jimmy to his rightful place in the universe.’ I offered his hands up to the night sky. I knew the wording wasn’t spot on, but I just hoped someone somewhere would get the gist.

      We stood there in the increasing cold a moment or two longer, before he dropped his hands to his sides.

      ‘Nice try, Alice, and I do appreciate all the trouble you’ve gone to, but really this isn’t going to work. Can we go home, please? I’m freezing cold, hungry and tired. I can think of much better ways we could be spending our time.’

      His gaze skittered over my face, and I wasn’t sure about any of those other spirits, but mine plummeted to the floor. Tears gathered in my eyes. What had I been thinking? Jimmy was right, this was never going to work and yet he’d been lovely enough to humour me and see this whole ridiculous escapade through to the end.

      ‘Yes, I suppose you’re right,’ I sighed, defeated. ‘We’ll go. This is obviously not the way to do it, but there’ll be another way. I promise you.’

      Just as we turned to go, I spotted the lights in the distance. Vast bright white lights approaching at a steady pace, searching us out, the accompanying growling rumble growing louder and louder. I shielded my eyes with my arm from the dazzling glare, the vibrations from the craft reaching my shivering body.

      ‘See, what did I tell you! Look! They’ve come for you, Jimmy. They’ve come for you.’ Our eyes locked together and in that moment I realised however important it was for Jimmy to find his spiritual home, I didn’t want him to go. Not yet. I’d only just met him, but in some ways it felt as if I’d known him a lifetime. And that wasn’t nearly enough time. There was so much I still needed to know. The fact that I wanted him to stay, wanted more of him, filled me with fear. Why did I feel this way about a ghostly stranger? It didn’t make any sense.

      Emotion prickled through my entire body as I grabbed hold of his hand. The enormity of the situation was clearly too much for him as well as his whole body rocked with something approaching hysteria as he gasped to find the words.

      ‘It’sOK, it’s OK,’ I soothed, stroking his arm.

      The craft shuddered to a halt in front of us and a door flew open, a man in an all-in-one suit leaping down onto the ground.

      ‘What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing? In my bloody field! There’s nothing to see here. The party’s over. Now clear off!’ he yelled.

      I looked across at Jimmy who, doubled up with mirth, was no use whatsoever. Making abject apologies to the tractor driver, the ghost and I sprinted back to the car.

      OK so Plan A may have been a major fail, but I was certain that there were dozens of other options we could try and in the meantime it wouldn’t be too much of a hardship sharing the flat with Jimmy.

      He was well-mannered, domesticated and easy on the eye. I’d had worse house guests.

      As long as Jimmy obeyed a few simple house rules then I couldn’t foresee any problems. And the first and most important rule on the list, not to turn up unexpected when I was out doing other stuff, I reminded him of on Monday morning as I was getting ready to go to work.

      ‘Now remember, you can’t just turn up at work, showing off your fancy magic tricks. I have a very important job to do and I really don’t need the distraction of you popping up in the middle of an important board meeting.’

      ‘Wow,’ he said, letting out a slow whistle as his gaze travelled the length of my body taking in my grey slub silk pencil skirt and matching jacket. His eyes lingered on my ankles and black patent court shoes. ‘You look pretty hot in all that office gear. Kind of severe and buttoned up, but I like that.’ He raised his eyebrows approvingly and I turned away trying to hide the fetching pink patches of embarrassment that were now adorning my cheeks. Jimmy Mack had a reputation as a flirt, only I would never have believed he’d be practising his skills on me. ‘Very nice indeed,’ he added.

      ‘No turning up at the wrong times, Jimmy. Are you listening to me?’ I asked, picking up my keys from the hall table, trying to ignore the warm fuzzy feeling his attention provoked.

      ‘Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be as good as gold. I promise. I’ve plenty to be getting on with here anyway.’

      ‘Good.’ I said, on my way out. ‘I’ll see you later then.’

      ‘Yeah, you have a good day at the office, sweetie!’

      Chapter Six

      ‘Morning, Alice, good weekend?’

      Simon, my boss had his sleeves rolled up and two empty coffee cups on his desk suggesting he’d already been in at work for at least a couple of hours.

      ‘Yes, great,’ I said opting for the sanitised version, not the ‘oh my God, a ghost moved into my flat, you might know him, he just happens to be a celebrity, and we spent the rest of the weekend trying to get rid of him again’ version. Although that might have been fun just to see the look on Simon’s face.

      ‘Good, good,’ he said distracted. ‘I’m in meetings for the best part of the day, but I’ve sent you a few tasks to your inbox if you could look at those for me. Oh, and you’ll need to schedule in a meeting with Roger Carter. Damon Mitchell has been in this morning to hand in his resignation so I’ll need to chat through with Roger the likely ramifications.’

      ‘Really?’ I said, completely taken aback by the pang of disappointment the news elicited within me.

      ‘Yep. Didn’t see that one coming. He’s our best salesman by a long chalk. I’m sorry to lose him, but he wasn’t going to be bought off. He’s leaving to start his own business, apparently. Landscape Gardening. At least he’s not going to one of our competitors. That would have really pissed me off.’

      ‘I’ll be sad to see him go,’ I admitted, trying to wrestle the idea of the super-smooth salesman I knew giving up the suave designer suits for his wellies and the outdoor life.

      ‘Me too,’ Simon said, as he turned to leave my office. ‘I’ll catch up with you at lunchtime if there’s anything important.’

      I realised with a thud that I’d miss seeing Damon about the place. His smiling face popping around my office door always lifted my spirits; he was funny, delightfully indiscreet and yet always seemed genuinely pleased to see me, his cheeky banter never seeming intrusive only affectionate.

      I hated change, any kind of change, and all of a sudden everything in my life seemed to be shifting like the earth’s plates creating imperceptible but far-reaching consequences.

      Decisively, I clicked on my inbox, moving emails into folders, checking off tasks, my mind operating on autopilot. I glanced at my watch. It was two hours since I’d left Jimmy on his own and my attempts at not thinking about him were clearly failing. I’d been scared I might conjure him up in my office and I certainly didn’t need that kind of distraction, but with him constantly in my thoughts and the news of Damon’s departure rattling around in my head, it was almost impossible to concentrate on anything else.

      What was Jimmy up to, I wondered, a lonely spirit navigating a hostile world.

      I’d once signed up to an online dating agency so I had a small idea how that felt, but however much I tried to imagine myself in Jimmy’s shoes, I couldn’t. It was too awful even to contemplate. How must he be feeling with no one to talk

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