In the ensuing chaos I bolted out the back door and ran to my car. I drove home with shaking hands, my phone blowing up with texts from Marner, then stripped off the waiter duds after extracting a promise from Cezar he would wait downstairs for me. I didn’t need him checking me out in my bra and panties under the guise of seeing if I was good enough for his son. That would definitely be his pervy MO.

I called Marner because texts are wimpy. “If you come over, I’ll explain everything,” I said without even giving him a greeting. I needed to cut him off at the pass before he lost it on me.

“This wasn’t what I was planning to do tonight. Stand outside in October in a towel while the fire department checks out the building, and I can’t tell them I saw someone falsely pull the alarm. And that that someone happens to be my girlfriend who was there under mysterious circumstances.”

Like that.

Momentarily distracted by the memory of Marner in that towel, I paused too long.

“Bailey?”

“Yes, I know, I’m sorry. I really am. There is an explanation.” Not one he was going to like, but an explanation nonetheless.

Marner had the market cornered on sighing. He gave me a big one now. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

I had changed into a silky robe, which Cezar made fun of. “What is this, the Love Boat? Who dresses like that?”

“It’s a kimono. Very hot right now. In all the fashion magazines.”

“Well, given how often I pick up a fashion magazine I can’t argue with you.” He was sprawled out on my couch long way, forcing me to sit in the easy chair.

“My boyfriend is coming over. He’s totally and understandably angry with me. He thinks I’m stalking him, worried that he’s cheating on me with a stripper.”

“Yeah, I heard. I’m not deaf, you know. But sorry.”

That was the world’s most lackluster apology ever. It was like he’d taken a class on sincerity from my mother. “So when he gets here, you need to make yourself scarce. I need to make this right with him.”

Cezar made the world’s most offensive gesture. “I hear ya.” He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not what I meant. I meant I owe him an actual explanation of all this nonsense that’s going on.”

“You don’t have my permission to do that. Some of the things we’ve discussed are of a sensitive nature. It’s a non-disclosure thing.”

“I don’t need your permission to do anything.” It was tempting to add, “You’re not the boss of me” but I resisted.

I went into the kitchen and fished my e-cigarette out from the back of the spice cabinet. I kept it behind the thyme, which I never used, in an effort to cut down on my use. I was doing great. I only pulled it out every few weeks when stress got the best of me. This was one of those times. I couldn’t see how my relationship with Jake could move forward and stay solid when I was constantly keeping the truth from him. It sucked.

Which was why I currently had the e-cigarette to my lips and was drawing in a deep inhale. “Listen,” I said, as I sucked and thought furiously simultaneously. “Why do you think you can manipulate physical objects so well? I’ve never seen a ghost be able to hold something in the physical world the way you have that key.”

Cezar just shrugged. “Got me.”

I had no answer either, but I did feel like it could be used to my advantage. “I need you to help me convince Jake that ghosts are real. He thinks I’m a nut case. I had Ryan slam a door, but Jake blew it off, claiming it was the wind. But if you do something, something really awesome, he can’t dispute it.” I wasn’t sure what that was, but Cezar was fond of pinging pennies at me. Maybe he could do that to Marner.

“Sure, kid. I can help you out since you’re going to go to the storage unit and open it and find my money.”

“Right.” I still wasn’t sure how I felt about that. In order to keep my nose clean so I could live with myself, I wanted the discovery to be on someone else. “How about I give the key to your son? Say I found it and can’t get a hold of you? I can put a tag on it with the name of the storage facility.”

“Not a bad idea. You’re no dumb blonde, I’ll give you that.”

“I’m not blonde.”

“Neither am I.”

Hanging out with Cezar was like being with my grandmother. It was random, sometimes annoying, and amusing even when you didn’t want to admit it. “So we have a plan. Wow Marner. Pass off key.” I had another thought. “As soon as you do your woo-woo trip and make Jake believe in ghosts, you need to disappear so I can talk privately with him.”

Cezar made air quotes. “Talk.” He rolled his eyes. “That’s what the kids are calling it now? I thought it was Netflix and chill.”

That actually made me laugh. “Don’t ever say that out loud again.”

He shrugged.

There was a knock on my front door. I went and put my eye to the peephole. It was Marner, dressed in jeans and a Cavaliers sweatshirt. His hands were in his front pockets and he looked sexy as hell. The view of him in the towel would not quit my thoughts. I pulled the door open. His nostrils flared when he saw my silky floral robe, which was gaping slightly at my cleavage.

“Oh come on,” he said. “That’s not even fair.”

“What? I just changed into something more comfortable.”

“This is how old-school porn starts.” His nostrils flared as his eyes ran over me.

“I wouldn’t know.” Though I could fill in the blanks if I tried hard enough. “Are you coming in?”

“Yes.” He moved in, crowding my space. His hand came up and cupped my cheek. He gave me a long, lingering kiss.

I was instantly reassured that he wasn’t angry with me beyond reason. He kind of had a right to be, to be honest. Without the facts, I looked like either a lunatic or a loser. Maybe even both. “Hi. Thanks for coming over.”

“You have me dying of curiosity. I wouldn’t miss it.” He shifted, brushing his body along mine, before stepping into my house and into the living room.

I felt a flutter of both attraction and nerves. His greeting calmed my anxiety, but still. This needed to go well or Marner and me might be kaput.

Cezar was still sitting on the couch. Marner sat on him.

“Ow! What the hell?” Cezar protested loudly, shoving at Marner. His hands went through his back repeatedly.

I bit my lip so I didn’t snap at Cezar to stop being a drama queen. There was no way that was actually hurting him. Because, you know, he was dead.

Marner frowned and shifted uncomfortably, looking behind him. “Is the window open? There is a hell of a draft here.”

“No, the window is closed.” I sat back down in the easy chair. “I think you might be feeling Cezar’s presence. As a ghost.” Nothing like just throwing it out there. Boom.

Marner’s eyebrows shot up. “Come again?”

I launched into a monologue, determined to be convincing, yet not desperate. “Let me start at the beginning. So when I went to Cezar’s for the home staging yesterday everything was normal, like I said. But when I went out back I saw a body in an Adirondack chair. A man in swim trunks with a bare chest covered in blood. I figured it was a gunshot wound, but I mean, I wasn’t sure. What I was sure of was that he was dead. Very dead.” I crossed my legs and then uncrossed them immediately. My foot tapped up and down in agitation. “So I called 9-1-1 and hid in my car, because I wasn’t sure if there was an active shooter or what.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?”

Great question. Glad he asked. “Because here’s where it gets weird. The sheriff’s department showed up and there was no body.”

Pause. Very long pause. “What do you mean, there was no body?”

I pointed at Marner, nodding my head, letting him know that had been my thought precisely. “Exactly. That’s exactly what I said. Then I realized the horrible truth—I saw a ghost, not an actual body.”

“Oh God.” Marner rubbed his forehead. “Are we on the ghost thing again?” He sounded pained.

“You should be happy I see all dead people, since you thought I was conjuring Ryan because of a crush, which I never had.” Well, not after Ryan had appeared as a ghost and Marner and I started dating. I did have a crush on Ryan back in the day, but we needed to leave the past in the past.

“I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“Cezar isn’t the first ghost besides Ryan I’ve seen. I saw Hannah too. That’s why I was asking about her being missing.” Ryan’s girlfriend had been sitting in my kitchen one day, a murder victim. “And one of Nick’s victims was hanging around for a while too, the guy whose body I found in the field. So I think what we can conclude is that murder victims show themselves to me, looking for help.”

There was a long, stark pause. “Do you have any vodka?” Marner asked. “Because I really need a drink right now.”

A drink. I could do that. I would do whatever was necessary to make sure he heard me out and didn’t just write me off as a nutcase. “Sure. On the rocks?”

“Or straight out of the bottle. Either way is fine.”

I was going to assume he was joking.

“Grab something for me too,” Cezar said. He had shifted out from under Marner and was sitting next to him.

He was being very quiet and patient, I had to admit. I was impressed. But I couldn’t respond to him until Marner was willing to believe me. I got down one of my highball glasses and filled it with ice. I kept a few dusty bottles of liquor over the fridge and I got down the vodka. I knew it was de rigueur to keep it in the freezer, but I wasn’t a big vodka drinker and the freezer was filled with microwaveable edamame and pints of ice cream. Lots of ice cream.

Back in the living room I handed the drink to Marner and he took a long sip. Cezar shot me a bitter look.

“Nothing for me?”

I shook my head slightly.

“So…” Marner looked like he was trying to figure out what to say to me. Maybe he was mentally ordering my room at the psych ward. “What the hell happened when the sheriff showed up and didn’t find a body?”

“He accused me of falsely calling 9-1-1. But I think he might be willing to let it go because I haven’t heard anything more about that.” I bit my fingernail. I had put that concern out of my mind and now it came back. I wondered if it was just a fine or something more serious.

“So Cezar is dead.”

“Yes.”

“Who else knows that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. The killer. Other than that? Maybe nobody. I’m guessing someone has filed a missing persons report by now.”

“They better have,” Cezar said.

“What does this have to do with you being dressed like a waiter and sneaking around the Schvitz?”

Right. That. “Cezar asked me to find a key to a storage unit where he has some money stashed. One of his colleagues has a spare key and Cezar knew he would be there tonight.”

Marner cursed. “Does that mean that you were digging around in some guy’s clothing in the locker room? Because I’m guessing you didn’t ask him for the key while you were serving his steak.”

“Just locker twelve. I wasn’t in the locker room for more than three minutes, I swear. Then I got scared and hid in the freezer and there was a whole pig in there. What are they going to do with that?” I shuddered at the memory. “It was like I fell into Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Ohio edition. It was horrifying.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t get trapped in there, Bailey. Or get caught sneaking around. The guys who run that place have concealed carry permits.”

“I kind of realized that a little too late. But all’s well that ends well, because I’m out and Cezar got the key.” I turned to the dead mobster. “Cezar, show Jake the key.”

Cezar mocked me. “Show Jake the key,” he said in a high-pitched voice.

I had no idea what the attitude was for, but I was going to ignore it since he pulled the key out from the waistband of his swim trunks (yuck) and dangled it off of his index finger out in front of his body.

“Do you see it?” I asked Jake. “To the left of you.”

Marner had been looking at me, skeptically, but now he turned at my directive and actually jumped. “Holy shit. What is that?”

“It’s the key to the storage unit. Cezar has it dangling from his finger.” I was curious what it looked like to Marner. “What do you see?”

“I see a key hanging in mid-air.” He had reared back initially, but now Marner reached out and flicked the key with his finger. It swayed back and forth on the ring, which was still secured on Cezar. “How is that possible?”

“Well, I’m no David Copperfield, so you’re going to have to believe me that this is a ghost holding a physical object for the sole purpose of convincing you this is real.” If he didn’t believe me after this I had no clue how to proceed.

“That’s unbelievable.”

“So are male rompers, and those exist. It’s right in front of you, Jake. You can see it with your own two eyes.”

Marner tried to grab the key, but Cezar yelled, “Hey! Back off, bucko.” He yanked it out of Marner’s reach.

Marner sat back, jaw dropping. “This is freaky as hell.”

“Tell me about it. I’m not sure which is freakier—that I can see ghosts, or that you can’t but they’re around.” At least I was aware of when a spirit was sitting on my sofa. It would really be awkward to have a ghost creeping around without my knowledge.

“So they talk to you?” He seemed stunned, but curious, almost like he genuinely believed me. “What do they say?”

I shoot a bemused look at Cezar who was rolling his eyes.

“I’m not a moaning spectre,” he said. “What does he think I say? Help me?”

“I think you have told me that,” I said. I turned back to Marner. “Usually they say whatever they want. Ryan likes to give me a hard time, just like he did in real life. Phil, the Torso Murder victim, was kind of melancholy. He talked about his parents. Cezar is a piece of work who has a particular fondness for Britney Spears.”

“You know it.” Cezar crossed his arms over his stomach. “That girl has been through a lot, I give her props.”

“This is weird.” Marner tossed back the rest of his vodka and made a sound in the back of his throat. “So this guy is sitting next to me? How the hell do I know when we’re alone or not?” He eyed my cleavage again.

Relief made me downright giddy. That sounded like a man who might actually believe me. “Now that you know, I can tell you. Before I couldn’t because you didn’t, and I hated it. That’s why I’ve, uh, pulled back a few times. Ryan was being a jerk and hanging around at inopportune moments.” It was really hard to get your intimate on when you had a third party watching without your consent.

“Ryan needs his ass beat then. If he’s blue-balling me on purpose I am not okay with that.”

“What are you going to do, beat up a dead guy? At least now we can talk about it.” I stood up and went to pick up his glass. He looked like he needed a refill.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Marner reached out and fiddled with the belt on my robe. “I want to be alone with you. That’s all.”

I’m a sucker for his eyes. I can’t help it. And now I kept thinking about him in that towel, sweaty and mostly naked…

I turned to Cezar. “Remember when we talked about you leaving? That would be now.”

“Yeah, I caught on. I’m not exactly an idiot.” Cezar looked sour. “But tomorrow we need to get back to me.”

“What about me?” I asked. “Everything isn’t about you all the time.”

“It is if I say so.” He started to sing Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

I needed to find his body yesterday, but it would have to wait for tomorrow. Tonight was all about me and Jake. Jake and me.

“I promise I will go see your son tomorrow,” I told Cezar. “Goodnight. Have a safe trip back to purgatory.”

He gave a chuckle. “I’m going. Goodnight, kid. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

That could mean anything, but I wasn’t going to ask for clarification. I just waved to him, and told Marner, “Let me get you another drink. I’m going to pour myself a glass of wine.”

Cezar poofed and I added, “He’s gone, by the way.”

Marner stood up and rubbed his head, following me into the kitchen. “I am struggling with this, I have to say, but I can’t figure out any other explanation.”

“Sometimes is the simplest answer is the right one.” I set his glass down and poured more vodka, then fished around in the fridge for a bottle of white wine I knew I had chilling in there.

“I also can’t believe you were in the Schvitz.” He grinned. “You’re a little more ballsy than I gave you credit for.”

That was satisfying to hear. Just because a girl liked to wear a dress didn’t mean she couldn’t be bold. “I was scared, I’m not going to lie.”

“Speaking of lying, I knew you were when I saw that outfit. You wouldn’t put something like that on unless you were being forced to.”

“I basically was. Cezar has been blackmailing me by singing diva songs at three a.m. I had no choice.” I backed up, triumphant at having found the Pinot Grigio. “Oh!” I let out a started cry when my butt collided with Marner. Hello. How had he gotten there?

“You shouldn’t bend over in that robe,” he murmured.

“You can’t stop me.”

He slid his hands over my hips and his lips over my neck. “I don’t really want to stop you. That was more a warning than anything else.”

“Is there where I’m supposed to ask if that’s a gun or you’re just happy to see me?” I was gripping the wine tightly and trying not to sound breathy as he nuzzled my neck.

He laughed softly. “Exactly.” Gently, he turned me around. “Come here.”

The wine was between us but that didn’t stop Marner from making me forget there was anything other than his mouth on mine. He tasted like vodka and naughty intentions, his hands busily working their way under the silk fabric I was wearing.

Feeling the thrill of freedom from intrusion from dead people, I let go of the wine, my robe, and the last of my doubts.