‘Nine or ten.’
‘Show us,’ Jo said, picking up her phone. ‘What’s his name?’
‘Mats. I don’t know his surname.’
‘That’s okay. The first name might do. Where does he work?’
‘I don’t know, but he’s opening a hotel in Bergen.’
‘You’re so bad at stalking people, Lots. You need to get this basic information right from the off. He could be anyone,’ said Freya.
‘I’ve found a woman on Instagram who is working on a hotel near Bergen. Oh, wait, no. It’s on an island. Not actually in Bergen,’ said Jo.
‘It is on an island. That sounds like the one.’ Lotta went to sit next to her sister and looked over her shoulder. ‘Wow, if that’s the place, it’s beautiful.’
Jo ignored her, intent on her mission. ‘She’s tagged another account here.’
Lotta watched as her sister went down various rabbit holes that eventually led to a mention of Mats.
‘Mats Larsen!’ Jo said triumphantly, typing his name into Google. ‘Oh my god, is that him?’
‘Yes.’
Freya moved to sit on the arm of the sofa next to Jo, all three of them huddled around the phone.
‘He’s a banker.’
‘Oh my god, Lots, he’s basically one of the main people at this bank. He must be really well-off.’
‘He’s leaving his job, I think, to do this hotel instead.’ She didn’t care at all about whether he was well-off. If he was, she already knew it didn’t define him.
Her sisters stared at her with looks of approval that she’d never seen before in the context of boyfriends and it meant alot to her that even based on this scant information, they finally approved of someone she thought was nice.
‘It’s fate,’ Jo said. ‘Simple as that.’
10
Mats spent the afternoon watching the clock and not getting much else done at all. He’d never known a day go so slowly and since he couldn’t settle to anything, that made it worse. Lotta, right now, was on a flight from London, and in twenty-three minutes a car was picking him up from outside his office, and he was going to meet her at the airport. She didn’t know any of this. As far as she knew, they were meeting for dinner later that evening. But he wanted a second shot at their first meeting now that he’d stopped worrying she might be after him for his money.
Less than an hour later, Mats was inside the terminal building. He’d been informed by the driver that the flight had landed twenty minutes earlier. He kept his gaze on the doors that led through from baggage reclaim, checking every person who came through. After ten minutes or so, he spotted her hair, bunched on top of her head as it had been every time he’d seen her in person. He kept his eyes on her as she walked through, steering her case with one hand while her other was on the enormous bag she had on her shoulder, which also had her coat slung through the handles.
She bent down, placing the bag on the floor. Her hair made a break for it and tumbled down around her shoulders. He walked towards her while she wasn’t looking and heard her slight harrumph as he stood there, waiting for her to lift her head and see him.
‘Mats!’ She had both of her hands in her hair and a hair elastic gripped between her teeth, but he could see she was pleased and surprised to see him. In a swift movement, she coiled her hair back into a messy bun and pulled her coat on while Mats picked up her bag and slung it over his shoulder.
‘Hey, how was your flight?’ he said, as if this was something they did all the time.
‘Good, thanks. I had the whole row to myself this time,’ she said, laughing. ‘What are you doing here?’
Feeling brave since she was so pleased to see him, he held out his hand. She took it, and together they walked to where the car was waiting outside.
‘Last time we were here, I was going to offer you a ride into the city. I didn’t, and I wanted to put that right.’
‘It’s so great to see you,’ she said, looking at him with her deep blue eyes.
She squeezed his hand, and he felt as if his heart might explode.
The driver was looking out for them and loaded Lotta’s luggage into the boot of the car while Mats held the door open for her to climb into the back seat, then he went round the other side and let himself in.
