You Had Me At Boo - Marian Tee Page 0,3

and it wouldn't hurt if you did the same thing, too."

Chapter Two

One month later

"You've got mail," sang the eight-year-old girl who liked to hang out on my window sill, legs dangling off the edge. Since we were thirteen stories above ground, it absolutely wasn't the definition of safe. But since the kid also happened to be a ghost (date of death circa 1969)...

"How many times do I have to tell you not to read my emails?" I swiped my iPhone from her hand before throwing myself on the couch. I've been home for a month now, and thanks to my newfound abilities, I had somehow ended up babysitting the prettiest little dead girl with a penchant for snooping around my private life.

Mary Priscilla rolled her eyes. "I just read the subject line, big deal."

"Still invasion of privacy."

"Well, sue me."

Horrible little brat. Why was I still putting up with this pint-sized smartass? If I had known she'd be this annoying, I would have pretended not to see anything amiss, the first time she showed up on my window sill.

I could still remember how she had freaked me out that day, with her bloodstained teeth and her neck bent at an odd angle. The memory was enough to make me shiver, but when I also thought about how someone could be so evil as to kill a little girl by pushing her out of the window...

Right.

Now I remembered why I was letting this girl have the run of my home, and I quickly tried to distract myself by clicking the unopened mail waiting in my inbox. There was nothing Mary Priscilla hated more than seeing me sad over her murder, which she kept insisting she had already gotten over.

I wasn't sure I believed her, though. I mean, she was still here, so finding her killer must be her unfinished business. Or at least that was how it seemed to me, but then again...what did I know?

Either way, it was best not to think much about bringing the girl's killer to justice, who was likely to be just as dead as Mary Priscilla.

"Have you read the email yet?"

I hastily pulled myself out of my thoughts before Mary Priscilla could guess what I had been thinking about. "Um...no, not yet." I snapped my gaze back to my email, skimming its contents—-

"Oh my God!"

The words that I had been half-heartedly reading from the email finally started sinking in.

"What is it?" Mary Priscilla excitedly floated off the window sill to peer over my shoulder. "Holy—-"

I glared at her. "Mary Priscilla!"

The brat made a face. "Oh, fine. Holy mackerel. Happy now?"

"My house, my rules," I retorted.

"Whatever." She snatched my cellphone out of my hold and flew away before I could catch her. "Lemme read...wow. You really did find a job!" The little girl sounded so shocked, it was more than a little insulting. "Who knew an old woman like you—-"

I threw one of the square pillows at her, but Mary Priscilla made herself incorporeal just in time, and the pillow simply went through the lacy white ruffles of her dress.

"Cheater!"

But the kid only snickered and stuck her tongue out. Damn brat. Why was I letting this brat haunt rent-free in my apartment again?

DINNER THAT NIGHT WAS extra special. While I'd never admit this out loud, finding a job had been even more difficult than I anticipated, and it had me celebrating with a rare indulgence of one whole can of Pringles.

Employed again, finally!

Believe me guys, hopping back into the employment merry-go-round for a second ride is no walk in the park. It's pure ego-demolishing hell, and especially if you're a forty-year-old made semi-famous locally for being dumped.

I had started by trying to ask for my old job back, but the advertising company I used to worked for already had a makeup vlogger "collaborating" with them on call. Failing that, I had tried to apply for other similar openings, but half of them turned me down without even sparing my portfolio a glance. They tried couching it in more polite terms, but it was pretty easy to read between the lines: they all thought I was too old. So that thing about 'life starting at forty'? Yeah, well, clearly the job marketplace hadn't gotten the memo on that one.

As for the other half...they were willing to give me a try at least, but things ultimately always went south the moment they asked me for the URL of my (nonexistent) YouTube channel. A few - liking enough of my