1
Mats Larsen leant back in his office chair and closed his eyes. He was tired. Even so, he hadn’t intended to take a nap, but that was what happened, only interrupted when his desk phone rang.
‘Yes?’ He picked up the phone, but he was still half asleep, wondering how long he’d been out.
It was his assistant, Hanne. ‘This is your two-thirty wake-up call,’ she said.
He rubbed a hand over his face and smiled. ‘Thanks.’ Hanne was always on his side.
‘Ole is on his way. He wants to talk to you about London.’
Mats put the phone down and stood up, stretching to help revive himself. It had been a busy few weeks. He’d been flying back and forth to Bergen on the weekends, and although he loved catching up with his brother and sister and checking in on his project, it gave him no time to recover from the work week. His demanding job as an investment strategist for Halvorsen & Bryne, the biggest investment bank in Norway, had always been challenging, and he used to enjoy it. Now, in his mid-thirties, he was planning his exit strategy. More than planning it; it was in full swing, but he wasn’t ready to make the move yet.
Ole came into his office like a force nine gale. Where did he get the energy?
‘Mats,’ he said by way of a greeting. ‘Hanne’s booked you on the early flight to London tomorrow. The meeting’s all set, but I can’t go after all. It looks like Camilla is having the baby today.’
‘Congratulations!’
From the look on Ole’s face, it could have been someone else’s wife disrupting his plans rather than a joyful event in his own family. ‘It’s terrible timing, but she insists I have to be there.’
‘Of course.’ Mats smiled, but this was another reason why he wanted out. Not because Ole’s wife was having a baby, but because in this office, the significance of such things was often dismissed and seen as an inconvenience. The same thing had happened when his mother had been sick a couple of years ago. He’d explained that he would work from the family home in Bergen for a few weeks and explained the reason why, but even then, he was called back to Oslo for a meeting that he didn’t need to be at, not really. Not when his mother was dying.
‘The rate we set out is non-negotiable. I know they’re expecting us to move on it, but we’re not going to. You’ve read the file?’
Mats nodded. ‘No problem. I’ll handle the meeting,’ said Mats, even though the last thing he wanted to do was get up at the crack of dawn on a Tuesday and head to London.
‘Thanks. I’ll catch up with you on Friday.’
There was no point asking Ole why he wouldn’t be at home with his wife and newborn baby on Friday because, unfortunately, the culture the rest of Norway had around parental leave and family life hadn’t penetrated the glass walls of Halvorsen & Bryne. At thirty-five, Mats still hoped that he might have a family of his own one day, but not while he worked here. And that was another reason he was plotting his escape. It had been a big decision. He’d come into the industry straight from school and worked his way up, his natural instinct for whatlooked good proving to be more valuable than a degree and propelling him to Head of Global Strategy before his thirtieth birthday. But he’d had enough, and every day he stayed since he’d decided to leave was a day he felt like he was wasting.
Hanne poked her head around the door after Ole left. ‘I couldn’t get a flight back for you tomorrow night, so I’ve booked you a hotel and a late afternoon flight on Wednesday.’
He looked at her, wondering why she’d left the flight so late on Wednesday.
‘You need sleep, Mats. Have a lie-in in London. I’ve scheduled,’ she said, making air-quotes, ‘a lunch meeting and put it in your calendar.’
It brought a lump to his throat that she’d thought of him. Noticed how he was feeling. There was no-one else to do that, but it wasn’t her job. He cleared his throat and smiled. ‘Thank you. I appreciate that more than you know.’
She grinned. ‘Happy to help.’
‘Would you mind sending some flowers to Camilla Falk? Since Ole’s just left for the hospital, I think we can assume the baby will be here in the next half an hour.’
Hanne laughed. ‘On it.’
Mats spent the rest of the morning working on an investment strategy for a new client. This was the part of the job he loved. Four hours passed in what felt like minutes, and it was only his phone ringing that pulled him out of the zone. It was his sister, Ida.
‘A huge delivery’s arrived at the house.’ She sounded cross, but then she was cross with him most of the time.
‘What is it?’
‘A huge wooden crate that the delivery people wouldn’t even bring into the house. It’s on the driveway.’
‘It’s the chandelier for the hallway.’
‘Why didn’t they take it to the unit? I should have made them take it there,’ she said.
‘It’s too fragile. I wanted to keep it out of the way.’
