He kissed her cheek and she breathed in the scent of him, her stomach dancing at the closeness of him to her body.
‘I was worried you wouldn’t be here.’
His laugh was easy. ‘Yet I came early just in case you finished ahead of schedule. When have I ever not been waiting for you when I promised to?’
He had her there. He’d been as reliable as clockwork, always waiting for her when he said he would be.
Oskar began to walk then, and she followed beside him, not touching but close enough that their elbows might bump, and every time he glanced at her she felt a now familiar warmth spread through her body. He was like no other boy she’d ever met before, and it both excited and terrified her.
‘Tell me how you came to work here,’ he said. ‘I want to know everything about you.’
‘I’m not all that exciting,’ she said. ‘I’m sure the other young women you usually meet are far more interesting.’
He shook his head and stepped in front of her, his eyes meeting hers as she stopped before him. ‘I wish you could see yourself how I see you,’ Oskar said, his voice low. ‘I knew from the moment I first saw you that you were special.’
Amalie glanced away, embarrassed but also flattered, and when Oskar took her hand in his, she let him. If she’d been at home, if there was any chance of her parents hearing about her date or her sister seeing her, she’d never have let him touch her so openly. But it was summer and she was far from home, and for the very first time she no longer wanted to follow the strict rules that were usually set for her. She wanted to have fun and enjoy being herself.
‘Come with me, I have something to show you.’
She followed him to a spot on the grass, the farthest point from the hotel and the closest to the water, where a small basket had been placed alongside a folded blanket.
‘You brought these?’ she asked, looking between him and the basket.
Oskar shrugged. ‘I rushed down after my shift ended. I thought you might be hungry.’
Her stomach gave a little growl in response that made them both laugh, and he let go of her hand to throw the blanket out across the lawn. He sat on the edge of it and beckoned for her to join him and she did, tucking her legs to one side and shyly glancing at him again.
‘How about I prepare our food, and you tell me about your family. Where are you from? Do you have any siblings?’
Amalie could see from the way he was looking at her that he truly wanted to know about her, and she decided to indulge him, even though she couldn’t see what would be interesting to a man like him about her comparatively simple life.
‘I have a sister, Hilde, she’s older than me, and I’ve lived my whole life near Sandvika with my parents,’ she said, watching as he opened the basket and placed a plate between them. ‘Hilde worked here for three summers before she was married, and it’s because of her that I got this job.’
Oskar took out freshly baked bread, smoked salmon, cheese and some cold meats.
‘I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I packed an assortment of things,’ he said. ‘But tell me more. What was your childhood like? What are your dreams?’
She laughed. ‘My dreams? I don’t know if I have any. I know what’s expected of me, that I am to work to help my family, and then marry as best I can, but?—’
‘You must have dreams,’ Oskar said earnestly, as if it wasn’t possible that anyone could live without them. ‘No one can takethe things we dream of away from us, no matter how impossible they might be to achieve.’
Amalie sighed, suddenly sad as the weight of his words settled over her. ‘I did have dreams, when I was a girl. I wanted to ride horses and live in a big house, to stay in the types of beautiful hotels that the women in my family clean rooms in. But that was a long time ago.’
‘You don’t dream of those things anymore?’ Oskar asked.
She smiled, wondering if he was naive or simply a man so used to dreaming and knowing that those dreams could come true, that he couldn’t understand what her life was truly like.
‘I suppose I grew up and realised that that’s all they were. Dreams, and nothing more.’
Oskar took her hand and held it tightly, staring into her eyes. ‘How old are you, Amalie?’
‘Nineteen,’ she whispered, her words catching now that he was touching her again.
‘You’re too young to give up on your dreams,’ he said. ‘You speak as if you’re an old maid, not a beautiful young woman with your entire life ahead of you. Please, keep those dreams alive.’
Amalie laughed, but he pressed his palm to her face and looked deeply into her eyes.
‘Promise me you won’t give up on them, Amalie. We only have one life, and we have to live it in the best way we can.’
