Heaven, Hell & Room Service

Chapter 9: Operation Red Binder

It was safe to say, when he was alive, that Neil had always been able to turn on the charm when it mattered. He was a lifelong bachelor, and had never really made a serious attempt at not being single, but he did have the knack for impressing the ladies when he needed to. He had even managed to make his high school sweetheart forget about the fact that he forgotten her birthday. When the pressure was on, he could deliver.

However, now he faced a new challenge. Get the girl whose afterlife you screwed over to forgive you, and then convince her to go along with some hair-brained scheme of daring escape. It's a bit of a sticky one, and Neil could tell that it wasn't going to be easy. But he also knew that if it worked, the payoff would be totally worth it. And I know what you're thinking. And no, Neil didn't want that type of payoff...although it would be nice.

This plan was made all the more difficult by the fact that Emily was resolutely and very effectively avoiding Neil. But Adam, being the good sidekick that he was, had devised a means of getting her to sit in the same room as his best buddy so that they could tell her the scheme. And so Neil sat in the thirteenth floor lounge at the prearranged time, waiting nervously.

Adam and Milly entered, followed by Emily. When she saw who else was there, Emily stopped on the threshold. "No. You didn't say that he'd be here, not fair!"

"Hi Em," Neil said quietly. She hadn't thrown anything in his face yet, so that was a good sign.

"Come on Em," implored Adam. "We can't play doubles cribbage with three people. Besides, you said you liked crib."

She sighed and dropped into the seat across from Neil. "One game. And I'm not gonna be on his team!"

"Deal," Adam said. Both he and Milly couldn't help flashing one another a quick smile.

They started playing doubles cribbage, dividing the teams along gender lines. I won't bore you with any details of the game for those of you who either dislike or don't know the game of crib. All you need to know is that at some point in the game, Neil handed Emily a unique card on the pretense of passing over his contribution to the kitty.

"What's this?" she said hesitantly. She flipped it over, and saw that the Ace of Hearts had a message scrawled on the top of it. It read: TICKET OUTTA HERE.

"That's my way of repairing the screw up," Neil said honestly. "I'm getting you into Heaven."

"You're what?" she said. Neil could tell that she was interested, albeit against her better judgment.

"I'm breaking you out of here, and breaking you into there. You are going to get to Heaven."

She didn't know what to say. "Is he serious?"

"Very," Adam said with a quick smile. "In fact, I've never seen him this committed to anything in two years."

Emily still wasn't convinced; she had too much integrity and conviction to be that much of a pushover. "So this is your Don Juan of a plan? Be my knight in shining armour and I'll swoon madly in love with you?"

It was time to lay it all out there. "Look Em," he began, hoping like hell that this would work. "I messed up bad. I want to correct that, nothing more and nothing less. I don't give a shit about myself, I just want to undo the error that I did because I care about you."

She looked at him coolly, but there was definitely a glint of interest behind her eyes. "I'm listening."

Neil went on, buoyed by the fact that she hadn't left the room yet. "Well, Adam and I have kinda concocted your escape plan outta here. Milly and the others helped too."