“Nice to see you getting stuck into it. Still on schedule?”
“Yes, we’ve just started snagging. There are a couple of shelves that could do with moving. I was going to mark them on the drawing and send that over for you to see. Also, Nick will need to move the counter position because of a problem with getting the data connection. I can mark that too but I’m not sure yet how much of a move it needs. He’s going to sort that out first so I can let you know how it goes.”
“Remember that the flow of the store needs to be preserved above everything else. If the counter moves too far… Well, I’ll leave it to you. You know the issues with it.”
“Hopefully, moving the other shelves I mentioned will improve the flow in the back -left corner because it was going to be a bit of a dead zone. That might alleviate any problem with moving the counter anyway.”
At this stage, you could have the most perfect layout drawing but until you saw it all built and could see how the display areas were going to work once you’d merchandised the store, you couldn't tell whether it was going to work as you’d planned on paper.
“I trust your judgement, Rachel. That’s what you're there for. Did you get the info about the freight?”
“Yes, we’ll be ready for it. Gudrun’s been brilliant, she’s a real asset. We’ve been out meeting designers too so we’re both hopeful that there will be some fantastic new stock for you to see.”
“That sounds brilliant. It’s been worth having Gudrun on board early then so we’re not totally relying on the Design Call.”
“Definitely. I can’t wait for you to see some of the things we’ve found. Okay, well barring any other issues, I’ll see you next week.”
“Great. Oh, and can you drop me an email to let me know when the freight arrives? We paid for the expedited service and I want to make sure we get it. Thanks Rachel,” she said, ending the call.
Before Rachel started painting again, she tried to establish with Nick where the counter was going to end up. At the moment, it was on the right -hand side of the shop, running parallel to the sidewall about halfway down. Nick wanted to shift it a metre nearer to the back of the store and even with her shelf shuffling at the back she would have to do something else to keep the flow intact.
These last-minute problems were what Rachel thrived on and this was the first time she had been sorting it out on-site rather than liaising from the office because usually, Luisa was the one in this position, albeit probably not painting.
Her slapdash painting efforts were just about finished when Nick yelled from upstairs. “Rachel, come and check this is all okay then!”
They’d moved the shelves and the counter around with everything now still needing to be made good and fixed back properly. Rachel didn't love the new counter position; it was too far towards the back of the store and had looked better where it was before but it was workable. They couldn’t live without the data connection for the till so there wasn’t a lot of choice and it was very rare that they opened a store without deviating from the original plans in some way or another.
All of these things were still running through Rachel’s mind when she locked the shop up that evening. She had decided to go swimming, grab a hot dog at the pool and then go back to the hotel to mark up the drawings to send to Luisa. But before that, she had to go back to the hotel for a shower before her swim because she couldn't very well turn up with paint all over her.
Less than an hour later she had done a few lengths of the pool to make herself feel that she deserved the soak she was having in the hot saltwater pool, surrounded by snow. The sky was cloudy but there were clear patches for a few minutes at a time so Rachel lay with her head just out of the water, looking at the stars and, as usual, hoping against all probability for a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Her mind had stopped going over the next couple of days work at the shop and had been filled instead with thoughts of Adam.
She had a churning feeling in her chest whenever she thought of him because of the unresolved business of whether or not Anna had seen him out with someone else. The problem was that ever since she had decided she needed to confront him about it, she had been trying to play out how the conversation would go between them but given that there were infinite outcomes, she ended up unable to predict what might be said. Rachel really preferred to be on much more solid ground than that, which had led her to this limbo. But enough was enough. She was a strong person, stronger in Iceland somehow than she felt at home and finally, she felt ready.
Once she got back to the hotel, with the churning feeling threatening to turn into something a little messier, she sat on the bed with the laptop in front of her and called Adam. It began to ring. Every ring seemed to last an eternity and she wanted to hang up but wished Adam would answer all at the same time.
“Hi Rach,” he said as his face filled the screen.
He looked pretty wretched which surprised her.
“I’m so sorry about the weekend. I don’t know what to say.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t come. I really thought you would.”
“Rach, I wanted to. Believe me, I couldn’t get away. It was just bad timing. I had said I might not make it.”
He hadn’t. If he’d said that, she would have known for sure that he wasn’t going to come because it wouldn’t have been the first time that he’d laid the groundwork to let her down.
“Adam, you didn’t say that to me. I thought it was different this time, that you really wanted to come.”
“Sorry. I know it’s no excuse but I thought you knew it wasn’t a firm arrangement.” He looked surprised which made Rachel’s blood boil.
“A firm arrangement? It wasn’t a business meeting, Adam. It was supposed to be special, time for us to be together. When was the last time that happened? Of course it was a firm arrangement.”
She paused for what seemed like ages and Adam didn’t say anything. Perhaps he was trying to think of the last time they’d done anything out of the ordinary together. Good luck to him because aside from the Icebar, she had struggled.
“It’s over,” she said.
In that moment, she was so certain that she couldn’t believe she had waited so long to put an end to it. No one should have to put up with being in a relationship where they were constantly let down and overlooked. That wasn’t love. Rachel knew that now. Now that she’d had a chance to be away from the grind of her normal life. She could breathe here, see what mattered, allowherselfto be what mattered for a change.
