‘I will have to put the work on hold until my apartment sells.’
‘What’s the difference between waiting for that to happen and taking our money and paying us back when you sell?’ Ida was exasperated, and although Mats didn’t want his siblings to step in and save the day, he was touched that they hadn’t saidI told you so.
‘She’s right,’ said Fredrik. ‘You’ve come this far. How much will it take to see it finished?’
‘More than the inheritance money.’
Mats didn’t miss the look of shock that passed between his brother and sister. ‘Selling the apartment is the only way to get it finished.’
They were all quiet, taking in the enormity of the situation.
‘The kitchen is paid for so that will be installed without any more cost. Then Lars and his team will work until the end of the month. Hopefully we can leave it in a good state to survive the winter and get started again in the spring.’
‘The real estate market is always strong in January,’ said Fredrik.
‘I might look into taking on some consulting work,’ Mats said, his heart sinking at the thought. It felt like a step backwards. Like he’d failed, but he had no other option.
‘Have you seen much of Lotta lately?’ Fredrik asked.
‘I went to London last weekend,’ Mats said, feeling as though it must have been more than a week ago. It certainly felt like it. ‘She’s busy with some new clients, which is great.’
‘She’s coming next weekend when Anders and Becca are here. And we’ve invited Gudrun, a friend of Anders’ who’s working in Oslo at the moment, and I think her partner is coming from Iceland for the weekend too,’ said Ida.
Mats almost caveated Ida’s statement by saying that Lotta might be too busy to come. It was a possibility after last weekend. They hadn’t talked much since, which he knew was because she was busy with work. He understood, but it was hard to live without even hearing her voice for days at a time.
And that was why he’d followed through on his decision not to ask her to help with the marketing. It needed to start now, as she’d said herself, so Mats sent a brief to a marketing agency that Ingrid had recommended, asking them to come up with some possible names for the hotel. He’d also given them Becca’s sketches and asked them to suggest ideas for a preview campaign based around those in the absence of any actual photos from the site. At the moment there was nothing pretty to be seen. But after today, he was going to stand them down. There was no point in starting anything like this now.
‘Can we come and hang out?’ Fredrik asked. ‘I’m working from home next week and will be craving adult company by Friday.’
‘You can’t stay, there won’t be room,’ Ida said. ‘But you can come for dinner.’
‘Thanks,’ Fredrik said, looking at Mats and doing a small eye roll.
‘I saw that. You’re uninvited,’ said Ida.
Fredrik leant over and ruffled Ida’s hair.
‘Fredrik! How old are you?’
The following morning, Mats was at Eplehuset, the electronics store in Bergen, at opening time. Last night had helped, talking everything through with Fredrik and Ida. Admitting to them that it wasn’t going well and having their acceptance and support. He was unaccustomed to feeling out of control and having no backup plan. When he’d worked at the bank, it had been rare for things not to go the way he planned — that was literally his job, so it was hard to take the fact that he’d been unable to keep his own project on track.
It took over an hour for him to buy a new phone and for the technician to help him get into his account and transfer everything over to his new phone. ‘It happens all the time,’ the guy said. ‘So many phones in the fjords, it’s crazy.’
‘Hey, I’m heading over to the island,’ he said as he walked into the kitchen back at Ida’s.
‘Lotta! What are you doing here?’
Lotta and another woman were sitting at the kitchen table with Ida.
‘Hi, I’m Lotta’s sister, Freya.’ The other woman stood up and hugged him. ‘It’s great to finally meet you.’
He was so confused. What were they doing here? ‘You too,’ he said, looking at Lotta over her sister’s shoulder but getting nothing from her. There was something wrong.
‘You two, outside,’ Ida said, pointing at him and Lotta. ‘I’ll bring you both a coffee.’
Mats led the way out onto the terrace. He grabbed a couple of blankets from the wooden chest next to the door because it was too early to be warm enough to sit out.
‘I needed to talk to you and I couldn’t get through, so I came instead.’
