Still gripping Rachel’s hand, which she was now even more grateful for, he led the way down the trail. It wasn’t far at all; it was as if they had been in the kitchen and were just nipping down to the cellar. The word ‘cave’ had led Rachel to assume a dark, wet, grey cave and it couldn’t have been more different to that. It was an ice blue, bright space underneath the glacier. The sunlight streamed in, through the ice above them, showing off the natural curves and ripples in the frozen ceiling of the cave.
There were no words Rachel could think of to express how amazing it was. She could have said beautiful, stunning or awesome, but she needed a word which meant all of those things and even more. It was truly spectacular and totally worth the heart-stopping slip earlier on.
“So, I can tell by the look on your face that you’re glad you came now,” Jonas said softly.
“And I can see why you never get bored of coming here. It’s absolutely magnificent.”
Jonas squeezed her hand and then released his grip so that he could begin to explain to the group, accompanied by expansive arm gestures, how the cave was formed.
As Rachel listened to Jonas, she wondered how it would be to hold his hand with no gloves between them. Grabbing her hand at the swimming pool had given her butterflies but not like this. She wanted to feel the strength of his hold against her skin. It had been more than holding hands for her, it had been him protecting her and no-one had ever made her feel that safe before and that made her go weak at the knees.
*
“How was the glacier walking?” asked Gudrun the next day. They had met at the coffee shop to discuss plans for the Design Call.
“It was amazing. I did almost die while I was trying to get up onto the glacier, but apart from that…”
“What? Did you really?”
“Well, it felt like a near-death experience, but I just slipped and Jonas caught me.”
“Oh, how romantic! He caught you in his arms.”
Considering they barely knew each other, Rachel was amused by how easily they had fallen into a friendship.
“Only because he had to. It wouldn’t look good if one of his guests plunged to their death on an excursion.”
“True. Lucky he was close enough to catch you in the first place.” Gudrun said with wide eyes, trying to elicit more information.
“Yes, it was. Right, where are we going to start with this Design Call then.”
There was nothing else to tell. Jonas was a really nice guy and yes, if Rachel was honest, she was attracted to him, but she was struggling with feeling like that. After all, she was with Adam. More than that, she had come away partly to try and reignite the spark between her and Adam. Jonas was so different. Not that she should be comparing them but if she did, all of the things she wished Adam was, Jonas was. How did she even know that? She had only been in the company of Jonas for a total of about six hours. She didn’t know anything about him. She had Adam. She didn’tneedto know anything.
That evening, Rachel was on a high. Gudrun had had some great ideas about the Design Call and between them, they had planned a solid programme of work for themselves until the store opened. It was a great feeling to have the first job on the schedule underway and to have an enthusiastic and capable colleague to share the load with.
To reward herself for having such a productive day, Rachel planned to have a relaxing evening at the pool followed by a glass of wine or two in her hotel room. The snow clouds had cleared so Rachel lay in the salt pool gazing at the stars, hoping for a glimpse of the Northern Lights while reminding herself about how unlikely it would be.
When the clouds re-appeared, she decided to get out which meant a few horrible seconds of snow landing on her bare skin as she walked as fast as she could to get back inside. As she almost reached the door to the changing rooms she heard someone shout her name and saw that Jonas was sat in the warm ‘socialising’ pool. Being so cold that she couldn’t bear to stay out in the open even long enough to say hello, she quickly changed direction and ducked into the water next to him, her frozen feet thanking her immediately.
“Hi, Jonas! So, this is a Friday night out for you, is it?” she teased him.
“Well, the start of it. We’re going into town afterwards.” He gestured to the ledge opposite and one of his friends grinned over at them. “I spotted you in the salt pool but we haven’t made it over there yet. I wonder if you’d like to come for a drink with us tonight? We’re going to Islenski Barinn, it is very close to your hotel, just off Laugavegur.”
“Oh.”
Rachel didn’t know what to say. Rather, she knew what shewantedto say because she did quite fancy an actual night out with actual people to talk to, especially if those people included Jonas. On the other hand, although she felt like she knew Jonas fairly well now, she felt awkward about going out with a group of his friends too. And yet again, what should have been her overriding reason for saying no, Adam.
“It’s just me and these guys.” He nodded towards the three men sat opposite. “This is Olafur, who you know from the airport, Siggi and Brun, this is my friend Rachel, she is here from the UK, working for a few weeks.”
He made it sound like they’d been friends for ages, which Rachel loved.
“Ah, Rachel who was locked in the shop?” asked Brun.
Rachel blushed and nodded.
They each shook her hand and said it was nice to meet her, and one of them, Siggi, the cheekiest looking of them said, “Come on, Rachel, we can show you the best places to party in town!”
Jonas looked at her apologetically, “Our nights out are not that wild anymore, I’m afraid we are a little old for that now.” He grinned at Siggi, who just rolled his eyes. “So, you’ll come?”
