Page 25 of Viktor at Sea

I was glad to see Crosby go, but his presence had rubbed me up the wrong way. And not just because he was another man who intended to propose marriage to the woman I loved but because he had the nerve to question my love for her.

If he dared to question my love, then what stopped other people from questioning it as well?

What stopped Astrid from questioning it?

Once again, I mentally cursed myself for not coming forth with my truth earlier. I had known that I was in love with Astrid for a long time, and I had denied my feelings for even longer than that. If I had been honest with myself the whole time, perhaps Astrid and I would have been married by now, and no one would dare to question my love for her.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Today, I was on a mission.

It was not my usual type of mission out at sea, but one where I got Astrid to fall in love with me. I didn’t expect it to happen overnight as we had a long, colourful history, but I was hopeful I stood a chance.

Like I told Crosby, there was a thin line between love and hate. And in mine and Astrid’s case, I suspected that line was very, very thin.

Perhaps it was a little radical in thinking, but if I was going to get Astrid to fall in love with me, I needed to be on her mind. And what better way to be on her mind than to be everywhere she was?

I was aware that this could easily go in one of two ways. One: I won over Astrid, and she fell in love with me or two: she decided that I was a creep she wanted nothing to do with.

If I wasn’t a fool in denial these past few years, I wouldn’t need to go to such efforts now. Perhaps I could have just approached Astrid and confessed my love, things would be very different between us right now, but alas, I wasn’t as mature and forward-thinking back then as I liked to think I was now.

The first step in my plan was to take Astrid some flowers.

I woke up early to catch the florist before she set up her stall for the day and purchased the best flowers she had. They were a mixture of warm colours: red, orange, and yellow. For the life of me, I couldn’t tell you what type of flowers they were, but they looked pretty, and I hoped she would like them.

This time, instead of heading over to the Skau hut and waking her by throwing pebbles at her window shutters, I decided to wait outside the front door until she came out. As she helped out the local school–the school was hosted in one of the many huts that Barden and Josephine owned all over Jorvik–helping young children with their reading and numeracy, I knew that she would have to leave the house sometime soon.

I just hoped that either Daewon or Katarina didn’t leave the house before she did, as that would be a little embarrassing. But of course, that’s exactly what happened.

“Do I even want to know why you’re sitting on my doorstep, Viktor?” Daewon chuckled when he stepped out of the hut and spotted me.

“You probably don’t, no,” I laughed and held out the flowers for him to see. “Do you think she’ll like them?”

“I think she will, but she probably won’t admit it.” His eyes lingered on the flowers for a second longer before he walked down the steps. “Don’t be too disappointed if she’s rude to you. While I’m sure that’s nothing new for you, she’s awoken in a bit of a funny mood this morning,” he chuckled. “She snapped at me when I took a sip of her tea by accident. I thought she was going to bite my head off.”

I chuckled quietly to myself and watched Daewon walk away. His words had me a little on edge. I wanted Astrid to like the flowers and think fondly of me whenever she looked at them, but I didn’t know if that was possible if she was already in a bad mood this morning. Before I could double-guess myself, I heard the door open behind me again.

“You’re blocking the way,” Astrid huffed from behind me. “I don’t even want to know why you’re sitting on our steps so early in the morning.”

“You probably don’t,” I agreed sheepishly and turned around to face her, showing her the beautiful bouquet I especially picked for her this morning. Her eyes lingered on them.

“Who are the flowers for?”

“You.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Me?”

“I got them for you,” I said, sounding more nervous than I cared to admit.

What happened to the old Viktor who never got nervous? Even when I stared a pirate in the eye, and he made me choose between having my neck slit or walking the plank to become shark food, I kept my cool. But right now, with the love of my life staring expectantly at me for an explanation, I couldn’t think of what to say.

Where was all that confidence now?

“Do you like them?” I asked quietly.

“I guess they are quite nice.” Astrid shrugged and reached out to take them from me. “But you didn’t need to get me flowers. You already apologised for making Kis sick with the carrots by giving me that bracelet which you didn’t have to do. In all honesty, I overreacted but was too embarrassed to admit it.”

“Maybe you overreacted a little,” I agreed, my tone teasing. “But don’t worry about the flowers. It’s a gesture of goodwill. I’m just glad you like them.”

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