I follow her to the door of the dining room, peeking my head out into the hall to make sure that no one is lurking around. Then I close the door.
Erik kicks his feet up on the table, scanning me critically. “What’s up with you? You usually tell the press office to cancel at least half of your engagements.”
I walk to the window, looking out over the gardens. “I’m distracted today, I guess.”
He’s quiet for a few beats. “Does this have to do with Margot?”
I swivel my head toward him, shooting him a glare. “What?”
He looks unruffled. “I know that you flew her up to meet you in Norway over the weekend. People talk.”
I look back out the window, my face contorting. “Pis,” I curse. I heave a sigh.
Erik stands up, stretching. “So? Did you two finally fuck?”
“Ja,” I admit. Then I think about what he just said and turn to give him a hard stare. “And what do you mean, finally?”
He rolls his eyes. “Please. You two were always going to fuck. I saw the future written all over your face when you first told me that Margot was going to be coming here.”
I snort. “You can’t have known that.”
“We’ve been best friends for twenty years. I’ve never seen you as far gone for a girl as you were when we left New York. If you think I didn’t pick up on the sparks between you two, you’re crazy.”
I consider that for a second and then nod slowly. “You’re right. I won’t deny it. We did fuck like two rabbits. On every surface, multiple times. Four times in the shower.”
A grin spreads across his face. “I knew it!”
“Ja, ja. You’re psychic.” I screw up my face. “I’m not sure what is wrong with me, though. Usually after I fuck a girl, I don’t think about her again. Margot is still in my system, I guess.”
I crack my knuckles, brooding. Erik walks over to where I’m standing, leaning his shoulder against the window’s frame. He looks at me carefully.
“Are you in love with her?”
Shooting him a dark look, I cross my arms. “What? No. I only recently decided that I don’t hate her, honestly.”
He smirks at me. “You know what they say about there only being a thin line between love and hate…”
I scowl at him, opening my mouth to retort. But I don’t get a chance. The heavy door to the room flies open, a butler hurrying to get inside the room.
“We’re having a private conversation,” Erik starts calling.
That’s when my grandmother steps into the room, her eyes narrowing at us. She looks as polished as ever in her white woolen skirt suit. “Mr. Moen. Your services are no longer needed. Take the rest of the day off.”
Erik’s eyebrows fly upward. He understands that my grandmother has way more power than he does; he bows to her, sliding a quick look my way. “Your majesty.”
“I’ll catch up with you tonight,” I tell him, waving him away. Then I turn to my grandmother. “You look lovely today,Momse.”
She gives me a look that is nothing short of withering. “Get your jacket. We both have an engagement at theRigshospitalet, the children’s hospital.”
My eyebrows rise slightly. “I think I’m supposed to be at some kind of children’s puppetry thing in an hour.”
Ida stares at me coolly. “Meet me downstairs at the car in five minutes. Don’t keep me waiting.”
“Ja, of course” I say, but she’s already turned and is marching out of the room.
As I gather my dark suit jacket and add a dark blue tie, I try to figure out just what she wants with me. My fingers freeze as a stray thought crossed my mind: what if Ida somehow knows about Margot and I fucking?
Surely not… right? I mean, she would have to have spies everywhere for that to be the case. Trying to recount to myself the handful of people who would knowandcould’ve told her, I head down to the limo that is pulled up downstairs.
