“It’s not something you could put off? I have come a long way to see you, Rach. It would be really good to talk.”
Maybe she could meet Adam for a drink and then see Jonas later on.
“I’ll text you when we finish here and we could meet for a drink.”
“Great, I’ll wait to hear from you then.”
He turned and headed to the door. As he opened it, he looked around the store again and said, “It’s really good to see you.”
Almost the second the door closed, Gudrun came rushing up from the basement.
“Guð minn góður! What is he doing here?”
“He says he came to see me, to talk.”
Rachel was stunned that now, after everything that had happened, now that it was over, he had actually surprised her and turned up, albeit unannounced and at almost the worst possible time. She was torn between giving him a chance to explain and sticking to her guns and wondered whether to call off dinner with Jonas so that she could allow Adam some proper time, given that he’d come all this way. But it was the last proper chance she would have to spend time with Jonas and was something that couldn’t be put off until some other time, whereas Adam had just rocked up and now she was forced into having to hear him out when it could easily have waited until she was back in London.
“Aren’t you seeing Jonas tonight?”
“Yes, but I’m going to meet Adam for a drink first. I mean he has come all this way to talk, I can’t just not see him.”
“No, I suppose not.” Gudrun looked despondent. “But don’t forget what he did, Rachel. And don’t forget about Jonas.”
“Gudrun, I’m not planning to forgive and forget with Adam just yet, but he deserves a chance to say his piece.”
“Okay. I am just saying. I love you and Jonas together.”
“I know,” said Rachel hugging her. “Look, let’s get ourselves ready for the newbies and try and focus on that for now.”
“Oh, will I ever be as wise as you?” laughed Gudrun, as they made a start on their lunch before it was too late.
*
While Gudrun welcomed her team and got them organised, Rachel took a coffee order and popped along the road. When she got back Gudrun was doing a welcome speech in Icelandic, switching into English to introduce Rachel.
“Okay,” Gudrun said, “let’s walk the store.”
Rachel smiled at her English retail expression which had left most of her staff looking bemused.
It was customary to ‘walk the store’ with a new shop to make sure everyone knew the space, the reasons for the merchandising decisions and to give them some idea of how the customer is likely to experience the store. They strolled around in a group with Gudrun, now solely speaking English, leading the way and Rachel only interjecting when Gudrun looked to her for clarification. Rachel was impressed with her manner; the three women and one young man were hanging onto her every word and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the products. Once they had been shown around they split into two groups with Rachel taking the till training and Gudrun showing them the stock room and merchandising.
Every Monday, the marketing department sent each store the scheme for that week so, although they each had stock which was individual to them, there were broad guidelines about what should be included in the displays for every shop. There was usually a detailed plan for the main window and around 75% of the interior display space with 25% left to each store to use as promotion for their local products.
Rachel had printed off the scheme for the week and laid it all out on the counter. She explained to the team how to interpret the information and they allocated different areas to each person with Rachel and Gudrun taking the window together as that would normally be Gudrun’s responsibility. Also, Rachel wasn’t sure whether the Design Call would produce stock quickly enough for them to have at the opening so they decided to do all the displays with what they had rather than leaving any space unused as the London team would not like that at all. Besides, it was extra practice for everyone and gave them a chance to use their initiative rather than the whole thing being decided by Head Office.
They all got on with what they had to do. The atmosphere was light-hearted and there was a fair amount of banter, not always in English which was slightly worrying at times from Rachel’s perspective – who knew what they were saying? The whole place had come together over the course of the day and Rachel felt so proud of it and keen to see what Luisa and everyone else thought when they arrived the next day.
All afternoon, Rachel was expecting Jonas to text her or call with firm arrangements for the evening. Eventually, she gave up waiting and texted him to say that she would meet him at her hotel at 8 pm. Hopefully, that would give her enough time to see Adam after work and still meet Jonas without having to rush.
“Hey, Gudrun, can I have a quick word?” Rachel called from the window, while the new staff were practising scanning stock on the till. “Have you heard from Olafur today?”
“He left me a voicemail to say they might be delayed because someone in the group has had an accident, nothing serious.”
“I’ve been texting Jonas and he hasn’t got back to me.”
“They won’t have any signal, Rachel. I expect Olafur rang on the satellite phone. They’ll just have detoured to get the guest some medical help but they’ll still be back today. You can try calling the satellite phone if you like? The number’s in my phone.”
“No, it’s fine,” said Rachel, feeling foolish. “I always forget about there being no signal.”
