‘Hey.’ Siggi was sitting on the bed next to her, gently waking her.
‘What time is it?’
‘It is time for you to go and get ready for the trip, if you still want to come?’
Iris sat up, wide awake. ‘Yes! There’s room?’
‘Yes,’ he said, kissing her. ‘And there is a good forecast.’
‘All the stars have aligned.’ She threw the cover off and began gathering her clothes. ‘Shall I meet you at the office?’
‘If that is okay?’
‘Of course it is. Do I need to bring anything special?’
‘Just wear all the layers you can. It will be cold while we are hunting.’
‘I’m looking forward to seeing you do your thing.’
He caught her wrist. ‘I am looking forward to sharing the aurora with you.’ He kissed her deeply, and she responded knowing that they would have to restrain themselves for the next however many hours.
Considering how long they spent saying goodbye to each other, which was ridiculous given that they would be together again in no time, Iris still had enough time to get herself ready. She packed some extra layers into her backpack rather than wear them on the way, since it probably wouldn’t be cold in whatever vehicle they were going in. She had half an hour to spare before she needed to meet Siggi, so she opened her laptop to catch up on some emails.
There were a couple from Bjarkey with the results of some data they’d run, and an email from Jay asking her to call him. She frowned. Why wouldn’t he have called her if he wanted to speak to her?
She pulled her phone out of her coat pocket, finding the battery was dead. Only then did she realise that she hadn’t even pulled it out of her pocket since she’d left the hotel yesterday evening to meet Siggi. Almost a whole day since she’d checked it. That was unheard of, but it made her smile because the reason that had happened was so delicious to think about.
She put the phone on to charge, hoping that it would have time to charge enough that she’d be able to take some photos if they were lucky enough to see the Northern Lights. Actually, she’d given hardly any thought to the fact that she might see the phenomenon for the first time in her life. She’d been more excited about going on the tour with Siggi. She had a feeling that she was going to find it as sexy as anything watching him doing his job.
While her phone was plugged in and once it had enough charge to boot up, she found she had eight missed calls from Jay. She hadn’t checked in with him since she’d been to the IMO for the first time. He’d had to arrange the first meeting for her, but Iris couldn’t think of any reason he’d need to speak to her so urgently now. Torn between ignoring him, which was the easy option, and calling now to get it out of the way, Iris decided on the latter. At least then, whatever it was would be out of the way and she’d be able to enjoy her evening.
‘Jay?’
‘Iris. Christ, where have you been?’
She was pleased he was so irritated. The number of times it had been the other way around, well, she’d lost count. ‘I had a day off.’
‘Right.’ He sounded like he was going to dispute that she was allowed a day off, but thought better of it. ‘I’ve been expecting a report from you.’
‘I haven’t finished the first phase of testing yet.’
‘I assumed you would have sent something over once you’d met with the contact at the IMO.’
‘We’re still looking at my data in conjunction with theirs. The activity is starting to increase, so the next few days could give me something more solid to report on. I don’t think we should rush.’
He exhaled in impatience. ‘Iris, we’re not sending you here, there and everywhere for you to swan around taking days off.’
‘I didn’t have a single day off in Hawaii. I was on site every day and writing the results up on the weekends. I flew straight to Reykjavik with no break, worked the first three days and have had two days off since. I don’t think you could call that swanning around.’
Jay was silent for a moment, presumably trying to think of a comeback. ‘I’ll expect the report by the end of the week. You’re due back next week, right?’
‘Right.’ She might be due back next week, but it was looking less likely that the activity in Hraunvik was going to increase enough by then to give her what she’d come for. ‘I’ll have the report across as soon as I have something meaningful pulled together.’ That was all she was willing to promise. And leaving Reykjavik wasn’t on her radar. Especially now.
‘Okay. I’ll expect it as soon as.’
‘Okay.’
‘Thanks, Iris. Bye.’
