And the kind of reaction that Rachel was hoping to get came down the phone, at considerable volume.
“Oh my God! That’s amazing! Wooooooooooo!!!!”
Rachel rolled her eyes, smiling, as she imagined Anna’s colleagues thinking she’d gone mad, whooping like that in the office, although they were probably used to that kind of thing from her. Before Rachel moved in with Adam, she had shared a flat with Anna and it was crazy most of the time. Anna was always involved in some kind of drama, usually boyfriend related, that made her life endlessly entertaining.
“Thanks, I was desperate to tell someone, I’ve only just found out. The first store is in Reykjavik!”
“I’ve always wanted to go there, that’s amazing. Oh my God, you’ll see the Northern Lights!”
When they’d started work on the Scandinavian stores, Rachel had made a Pinterest board for each of the cities they were launching in. It helped with planning the décor if you got into the vibe of the place, and she loved her Reykjavik one the most because of the Northern Lights.
“Hopefully. I’m so excited, Anna, I can’t believe it. I’ve spent six years endlessly ringing plumbers and electricians and it’s finally paid off.”
“You deserve it, Rach. What are you going to do to celebrate? Have you told Adam?”
“Not yet. I’ll tell him tonight. Luisa’s given me until Monday to decide so I think I’ll cook dinner for us. Butter him up a bit.”
“Well, just remember it’s your decision. I’m really chuffed for you. We’ll have to have a night out to celebrate properly.”
“Definitely. I’d better go.”
Rachel was even more excited now that Anna’s enthusiasm had added to her own, so she had a quiet little dance around the ladies’ then composed herself and went back to her desk. She googled ‘Reykjavik Northern Lights’ and found a plethora of companies offering Northern Lights excursions. Looking at the images gave her goosebumps. She couldn’t believe she was going to get the chance to actually go there.
The only slight problem was going to be telling Adam.
2
RACHEL CALLED INTO Little Waitrose on her way home and picked up a ready-to-cook Thai green chicken curry and a more expensive bottle of red wine than she would normally buy. Cooking Adam his favourite meal and plying him with good wine might help her cause.
She was always home first, especially lately, because he was working long hours on an important deal which was just coming to fruition. She’d taken to eating alone rather than wait for him to come home only to find that he’d eaten at the office anyway. But tonight, she’d felt the need to pin him down so in the end had sent him a rare daytime text which, even more rarely, he’d responded to, saying he’d be home at 8 pm.
Resisting the urge to change into her pyjamas, Rachel decided on jeans and Adam’s old university hoodie; he thought she looked sexy in it which could be useful later. Anything fancier than that and he’d know there was something up straight away. Besides, their loft apartment was open plan and had insanely high ceilings so despite it being a very stylish place to live, in the winter it tended to be freezing. It was in a converted warehouse in Shoreditch and Rachel loved it. Because there was such a lot of floor space, they had huge comfy sofas which she had filled with gorgeous cushions from work. In daylight, it was wonderful when the sun streamed in through the original-paned floor-to-ceiling windows but at night, it was more of an effort to make the place feel warm and cosy.
Rachel eyed up the new bottle of wine that was open and waiting on the breakfast bar, along with the candles she was going to light as soon as she heard Adam’s key in the lock. It seemed bad form to open the wine before he got home so she opened a different, less fancy bottle and sipped on a glass while she prepared the dinner.
He was twenty minutes late which was no surprise; Adam was the definition of a workaholic and often lost track of time when he was engrossed in something. No stranger to working long hours herself, Rachel had some sympathy but gradually she had ended up working more and more to fill the endless hours while Adam was still at work and she knew she had Adam’s approval and respect because of it even if he didn’t behave in a way that made her feel that he deserved the same.
Despite living together, they mainly spent time with each other when Adam had the time and that wasn’t very often, so Rachel felt like it should make no difference to him if she was away for a while. He didn’t see that that was how it was between them, yet here she was waiting until it suited him to turn up. Again.
Hearing him come to the door, Rachel fumbled with the matches and managed to light the candles just as he walked in.
“Rach, I’m sorry I’m late. I got caught by Steve on my way out of the office,” said Adam, as he pecked her on the cheek before he took his black wool coat off, threw it across the back of the nearby sofa and sat down.
He took his glasses off and kneaded the bridge of his nose between his fingers, looking tired and a bit more stressed out than he normally did.
“It’s okay, I’ve just about got dinner ready.”
He hadn’t mentioned the candles and had just reached for the wine and poured some for himself without noticing how fancy it was. Rachel tried not to be annoyed that he’d not picked up on her efforts.
“God, what a day. The shit has hit the fan with the Scramble deal. Something came up last night so we’ve been video conferencing with the US all day. I almost called you because I thought I’d be there until late but it’s on hold now until Monday.” He put his glasses back on. “How was your day?”
“Good, thanks. Better than yours by the sounds of it.”
He smiled at Rachel, his deep brown eyes finally brightening as he raked his hand through his thick dark hair to push it off his forehead. Then his face dropped. “What’s with the candles? Christ, is it our anniversary?”
“No, no, I just thought it’d be nice to have dinner together. Call it date night if you want. I had a really good day, so you know, it’s a mini celebration.”
She should have just said it. What’s with the candles? I got a promotion! It would be over by now. Now she’d missed her cue and she wasn’t sure Adam was in the most receptive mood anyway. She turned to the hob, pushed the chicken around the frying pan and stirred the rice, waiting for him to ask what they were celebrating.
