Page 40 of My Blind Date is a Ghost

“So, who do you need to buy presents for?” I ask.

“Hmm, my mom and dad for sure. My sister and her two kids. Not my brother-in-law, though. I don’t know him very well.”

“Why not?” I ask.

He shrugs. “They got married after my…encounter. So, I was going through some stuff and wasn’t very sociable. Then I moved here.”

“I see,” I say. “Well, maybe getting him a gift could help you bridge that gap a bit.”

“That’s true,” he says. “I have no idea what to get him though.”

“That’s what gift cards are for,” I say. “A gift card says exactly what you think. ‘I don’t know you very well, but I’m thinking of you all the same’.”

“Hmm. That’s true. What gift of gift should you, then? I also don’t know you well but am thinking of you. But a gift card doesn’t seem like enough.”

“Silly man,” I say. “That’s going to take a bit more effort on your part. You’ll have to pay attention, see what kind of things I like, and then buy me a gift later when I’m not around.”

“Oh, so that’s what I’ve always done wrong in the past. I wasn’t paying attention.”

I laugh. “That seems to be a universal problem for men.”

“Ouch. Well, I guess I can’t be too hurt when it’s probably true. With my last girlfriend, we were just way more practical than that. We basically bought ourselves what we wanted and put them under the tree for ourselves.”

“Wow,” I say, both shocked and horrified. “That’s terrible.”

He lets out a sigh. “Yeah, I guess I should have known something was wrong when we were both putting in so little effort. I had thought I was solely responsible for the breakup, and I totally own my part in it, but maybe we had bigger problems even before my encounter that we were ignoring.”

“Sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean for this conversation to take such a sour turn.”

“It’s no problem,” he says. “I’m over it. I just want to make sure I learn from my past mistakes.”

“You don’t really have to get me anything,” I say. “I’m not actually your girlfriend. We are just friends, right?”

“I know,” he says. “But it’s nice to have a female friend who I can buy something for. I’ve enjoyed my life here, but since there are so few humans, it has been a little lonely.”

“If I understand anything, it’s loneliness.” We walk past a booth with hand-crotched stuffed animals. I remember that Sophia’s twin sister, Piper, has two little girls, so I pick out a frog and an elephant and give the seller Beverly’s credit card to pay for it. When she hands the card back, I notice it has my name on it. Beverly had literally pulled the card out of thin air. I only hoped the money on it was real. The last thing I wanted was for a small business owner to get screwed out of hard-earned money.

“I’ll carry that,” Beckett says, taking the bag from the seller for me.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. So, yeah, I guess we have that in common. Though, I can’t imagine being loney for as long as you were. It’s surprising you’re sane after that.”

“It was hard,” I say. “But it was a weird loneliness. I was surrounded by people. But they just didn’t know I was there.” I shrug. “I don’t want to think about it right now. I want to enjoy being alive again.”

“Yeah. Let’s have fun. Hey, have you ever been ice skating before?”

“It’s been a long time…”

Beckett takes my hand and we go over to the pond. It’s been frozen over for a couple of weeks, so it’s nice and hard right now. We put our stuff in a locker and rent some ice skates. We step out onto the ice and I immediately fall on my butt.

“I seem to have completely forgotten how to do this,” I say.

Beckett laughs and pulls me up. He holds me close and tight this time as he leads me around the pond. We laugh and squeal. We spin and dance. Even though there are probably a hundred other people on the pond, it’s like we are the only two people in the world. I feel so warm inside, so seen, so appreciated. The world I was in before, the one where I was alone, there one where I was invisible, seems so far away from me now. I’d give anything to not go back there again.

Once Beckett and I are out of breath, we change back into our shoes and grab some hot chocolates from a little booth. We sit across from each other as we let the chocolate warm us up and regain our energy.

“So, what should I get Beverly for Christmas?” I ask. “What do you get the witch who can make anything she wants appear out of thin air?”

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