Page 87 of A Winter in Wonderland
Esteri, as usual, was naked and I in my bathing suit. She let out a big, deep sigh from her end of the sauna. ‘It’s pretty nice, isn’t it?’
‘How long do we have?’
‘In the sauna? We should limit to fifteen minutes. So relax, shut up and enjoy.’
I’d been told, and I closed my eyes with a chuckle.
The skin on my legs and arms began to warm and tingle. A rivulet of sweat trickled its way from my forehead and down my temple. My breathing became long and deep. And as the scent of frankincense entered my nose, a memory of that party, Callie’s party, back when I was twenty-five and nervous and pulled down the Christmas tree, entered my mind.
As quickly as it came, I forced the memory away again. That wasn’t what I wanted to think about now. If I went down that road, I’d be punishing myself all day. So after some calming breaths, I began to settle on happier things.
My thoughts drifted to Josh, to our kiss and to all our near-kisses. To the time we met on the plane. But theyalso danced past memories of the first time I managed to drive the snowmobile, plus, of course, the problems I’d had getting it back. But, I had got it back, hadn’t I? Not really what I’d class as a disaster. I thought about my reindeer and husky friends. The trip to visit Esteri’s family. The Christmas party.
This sauna was lovely.
At least it was … until Esteri suddenly sat up and shouted happily, ‘Time’s up!’
I opened my eyes, wiping the sweat from around my neck, having let myself be thoroughly baked. ‘Already? We have to go home already?’
‘Not quite,’ she said in a voice that was both mysterious and a little dark. ‘Follow me.’
With a heave-ho I hauled myself from the bench, sweat beads shimmying their way down the backs of my legs, and followed her to the door, allowing myself one last inhale of the aromatic steam.
With her hand on the door, Esteri said to me, ‘You’re feeling pretty hot, right?’
‘Very,’ I replied.
‘OK. Just remember that.’
‘Why?’
‘You’ll see.’ Esteri flung open the door to the sauna and took my hand, and began running across the snow.
‘What in the actual—’
‘Trust me!’ she shouted.
I barely had time to register the chill of the packed snow beneath my feet, nor the flicker of fire from inside icelanterns that lined the path we were following, nor the millions of stars overhead, because all of a sudden I was faced with a drop. A jacuzzi-sized rectangle of inky black water carved out of the sea of snow. In the dawn light I could make out slivers of ice clunking about atop of it.
And then Esteri released my hand from her vice-like grip and jumped in.
I started to back away. ‘No, no, no, that’s not a nice warm jacuzzi, I see ice in there.’
‘Yes, it’s ice swimming, come in, it’s amazing.’
‘You liar. I’m going back to the sauna.’
‘This is the best thing you can do for yourself in Scandinavia,’ she protested, while I stood on the sidelines getting chillier by the second. ‘We do it all the time, it gets your blood circulating, your endorphins pumping. Get in.’
‘Wait, I wanted to ask you something.’ I stalled, and held out my wrist. ‘This bracelet, I thought it was from you, but was Josh my Secret Santa?’
‘It’s not a secret if I tell you, now get in,’ she replied.
‘But I need to know. And did you ask to swap with him or did he want to swap with you?’
She regarded me and then gave in. ‘He wanted to swap. He asked around everyone until he knew who had you. He said he had a great idea, something that might make you laugh. The way he was talking, like it was some hilarious inside joke, I assumed you’d have figured it out by now.’
I smiled down at my bracelet. It was funny. He knew I thought he dressed like a permanent Gap Christmas advert, and now, he’d sneakily got me to do the same.
