‘Like when you’ve had a monstrous Christmas dinner and you undo your jeans and just let everything, you know, hang,’ Rula added.
‘But,’ Chloe said, beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. ‘He’s being cautious too. More than me. And this morning at the airport it felt a bit like he wanted to…’ She swallowed, not really wanting to finish her sentence. ‘End things.’
‘No!’ Kat exclaimed. ‘No, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been that. I mean, why introduce you to Magnús? That’s not something you do lightly.’
‘Unless,’ Rula said, pointing a fiery red fingernail into the air, ‘he’s thinking, now you’ve got your big company partnership opportunity, that you’re going to forget all about him and the short time you’ve had in Iceland.’
Was that what Gunnar thought? Chloe let her mind wander to the conversations they had had since she’d told him the news about Michelle making her offer. She had told him she wasn’t sure about accepting, that she was wondering whether it really was the right move. But she hadn’t made clear that that decision didn’t affect the way she felt about him. Whatever she chose professionally wasn’t going to impact on how she currently felt personally. She wanted to see where things went with Gunnar, navigate the distance situation whether she was Michelle’s partner or not. Was he thinking she was making a choice between him and her career and she had opted for her career? Did he think the two things couldn’t co-exist?
She gasped then. ‘He thinks I’m doing the same thing Kirstin did!’
‘What?’ Kat said.
‘Yes, I will echo that. What? And who is Kirstin? Was she the kidnapped person or the girl who bullied the not-really-his-son?’ Rula asked.
‘I have to go,’ Chloe said, scrabbling up from the chair.
‘Go where?’ Kat asked. ‘You’ve only just got here.’
‘To the airport. Where’s my coat?’
‘What? Are you crazy? It’s close to midnight now and I was going to get Katherine to whizz up a little cheeseboard and some pickled onions,’ Rula said.
‘Your coat is still drying, on the chair.’
Chloe was already heading to pluck it off and began collating everything she had brought with her. Was she crazy? Or was the crazier thing that she had even got on the plane in the first place? She’d been so focussed on the getting back to the UK to deal with Sinclairz Chairs she hadn’t thought about reassuring Gunnar, and all he had seen was another woman walking out of his life after meeting Magnús.
‘You don’t have to fly back there tonight,’ Kat said. ‘Just call him.’
‘No,’ Chloe said. ‘That’s not enough.’
‘But what about the Sinclairz Chairs pitch?’
‘I know exactly what I’m going to do about that. But, right now, the only thing I need to do is get back to Iceland.’
67
REYKJAVIK AIRPORT
‘…OK and here we are everybody. On behalf of my company, and of me and of the whole of Iceland including our magicalhuldufólkwe wish you a safe journey to your next destination and we give you the greetings of the season. In Iceland, we say “Gleðileg jól”.’
It was the early morning and Gunnar smiled at his passengers as they began to disembark the airport transfer bus. And then his heart suddenly soared as he caught sight of a familiar coat. There was someone standing closer to the terminal building. A woman. Her hair was covered by a black beanie, but there was maybe something about the way she was standing? Could it be… And then the woman turned around. It wasn’t who he had hoped. Hope. Did he even still have that after how he had been at the airport before she left? She had texted him that she had landed and he had ‘liked’ the message. Why had he only liked the message? Why had he said nothing? He knew why. Because he did not want to influence any of the important decisions she had to make about her future. That wasn’t who he was. But, by saying nothing, was he making Chloe think he didn’t care at all? The absolute opposite was true. He cared so much already.
‘You need to get off the bus now.’
He jolted in his driver’s seat at the sound of Magnús’s voice right next to him.
‘Magnús, what are you doing here? Why are you not at school?’
‘I am on my way to school. Hildur has arranged a taxi,’ Magnús said.
‘And Hildur will be trying to climb these steep coach steps if you do not get out of the seat and come outside.’
It was Hildur’s voice now. One look past Magnús and he saw the old woman was standing in the snow at the foot of the steps, wrapped up against the elements like a walking sleeping bag.
‘What is going on? Why are you here?’ Gunnar asked them as he got to his feet and hastened Magnús to get off the bus.
‘Why are you here?’ Hildur asked him. ‘That is the question Magnús and I have been asking ourselves.’
