Chloe jumped as Gunnar popped up from behind her, breath visible in the air. She’d googled this phrase,krúttio mitt.It meant ‘my sweetie’. She kind of liked it…
‘Take care,’ he said. ‘All these jumps and dives you take… the ground is icy. We do not want more accidents.’
‘You made me jump!’ she exclaimed.
‘And you must keep yourself calm when I tell you that my friend’s place is not free.’
Her heart dropped. Sadly, probably stupidly, she had been counting on this working out. What was she going to do now?
‘But, there is another place,’ Gunnar said. ‘A friend of my friend has a smaller apartment. His friends were coming to stay there, but now they are not.’
‘Why?’ Chloe asked, suspicion coating her tone.
‘Why what?’
‘Why are this friend of a friend’s friends not coming to stay any more.’
Gunnar frowned like the question she had asked was the trickiest conundrum. ‘I do not know. I did not ask. Do you want me to call him back and say you do not want this place?’
‘No,’ Chloe said quickly. ‘No, don’t do that.’ She sighed. ‘Just, tell me it’s… not a dungeon.’
‘Oh,’ Gunnar said, shaking his head. ‘I did not realise. You did not tell me you had such very specific requirements.’
‘What?’
He laughed then. ‘I am a good person. I do not know people who have dungeons. Do you?’
‘Well, there’s the royal family for a start,’ Chloe answered. ‘Not that I know them personally. OK, never mind, just give me the address and is there a key I collect or something?’
‘Yes,’ Gunnar answered. ‘I will take you to it now. It is on the way of turning around and driving people back to the airport.’
‘OK, great. Oh, so… how much is it to rent? And do I have to pay in the Icelandic money because I don’t have any of that so?—’
‘You have nokróna?’
He had said it like it was against the law not to have any in her possession. Was it? She really didn’t want to add getting arrested to today’s itinerary. ‘No. I mean, can I get some? From a cashpoint?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, but there will be a fee.’
She had the company card. She could do that. ‘OK, so how much is the not-dungeon to rent?’
‘I do not know,’ Gunnar said.
‘What?’
‘My friend’s friend just said his place was available. I did not talk in details.’ He sighed. ‘But, you know, I am sure the space has been paid for so?—’
‘It’s fine,’ Chloe said with a shiver as the cold suddenly got to her. ‘Th… thank you.’
‘Ah, it almost sounded like it was difficult for you to say.’
‘It’s just the cold.’ She straightened herself. ‘Thank you.’
* * *
‘I am sorry for this chaos on the bus.’
He couldn’t believe it. Only two minutes from their stop atHallgrímskirkjaChurch and one of his passengers had thrown up. Fortunately, most of it had gone into an impressively sturdy pig-emblazoned carrier bag from the Bónus supermarket he kept for such eventualities. However, his braking at the first alert of the sickness had meant a rucksack had fallen from the overhead storage and hit another passenger. Today was not going his way at all. But, after that distraction, he felt no guilt for having to make a stop at this apartment.
