Emma laughed. ‘I was thinking more along the lines of sitting around on rocks, combing my hair and saving handsome princes from drowning.’
‘Ariel. I’m familiar with her work. Bo was obsessed for a while after we saw the movie.’
‘But no more?’
‘No, it’s all Elsa fromFrozennow. They’re fickle at that age.’
They were interrupted by the waiter coming to take their dessert order. Aidan was too full but wanted to try the crème brûlée and was cheered when Emma said she did too and they agreed to share. He couldn’t believe how well this was going. He’d expected it to be awkward and dull at best, but Emma was smart and interesting, she had a good sense of humour, and she was even up for sharing food. If he’d known dating could be this easy, he’d have started a long time ago.
‘So what brought you to Dingle?’ he asked, pouring them both more wine when the waiter had left. ‘Do you have connections here?’
‘That’s a story,’ she said, leaning forward and folding her arms on the table. ‘Have you heard of astral projection?’
Aidan nodded. ‘I’ve seenDoctor Strange.’
‘Oh, I haven’t seen that. Superhero movies aren’t my kind of thing.’
‘Funnily enough, I read a book about it recently too.’
‘You did?’ Emma said with interest. ‘What was it called? Maybe I know it.’
Aidan frowned. ‘I can’t remember the title. It was something very generic. But it was about this woman who was really into astral projection and she murdered her husband because he was having an affair with the next-door neighbour. There was blood at the crime scene matching hers and they found the murder weapon with her fingerprints on it, so they got her for it. But in the end, it turned out she’d swapped bodies with the neighbour’s wife when she was astral projecting, so it was actually the neighbour’s wife in her body taking the rap and getting carted off to jail… if you can follow that. It was “the twist you won’t see coming”. She was stuck with playing the neighbour’s wife then, of course, which she wasn’t too happy about. But I think she was planning to dispatch him soon too.’
‘Crikey! So it was… fiction?’
‘Well, yeah.’ Aidan frowned. ‘Obviously.’
‘Well, that sounds pretty lurid. But I’m sure you know most people don’t use astral projection to get away with murder,’ she said with a light laugh.
‘Most people…’ As far as he knew, most people didn’t use astral projection full stop. ‘You mean you think it’s a real thing?’
‘Oh, I know it is. I’ve done it many times. You don’t believe in it?’
‘Uh… no.’ It felt a bit rude being so blunt about it, but at least he’d stopped short of saying he thought it was completely bonkers.
Emma shrugged, not seeming to take offence. ‘I know lots of people are sceptical and there’s no scientific evidence. But you don’t need evidence when you’ve experienced it first-hand.’
‘Wow.’ Aidan fiddled with the stem of his wine glass. ‘I thought you were just into meditation and stuff.’
Emma gave a wry smile. ‘Meditation was my gateway drug.’ She took a sip of wine.
‘So is that… something that happens to you often?’ It felt ridiculous even asking the question – like asking her how frequent her psychotic episodes were.
She shook her head. ‘I wish. It’s such an incredible experience. The first time it happened to me, it was spontaneous. I didn’t even know what it was. You feel sort of tingly and floaty – it’s a bit like being high on weed.’
‘Are you sure you weren’t just, you know…’
‘What?’
‘High on weed.’
Emma gave a tinkling laugh. ‘No, definitely not. I’d just been on a week-long chakra cleanse and I’d been fasting for part of it. I’d had nothing but water and herbal tea for the last few days – definitely no weed. Anyway, I was exhausted and I conked outas soon as I got home. Then I felt these vibrations and a pulling sensation, and next thing I knew I was out of my body and on the other side of the room, looking back at myself in the bed.’
Aidan frowned. ‘It sounds like you just needed to eat something. I mean, you were probably having hallucinations after all that fasting.’
She gave him a patient smile, shaking her head. ‘It definitely wasn’t a hallucination. You’ve never had an out-of-body experience?’
‘I can’t say I have.’
