Page 50 of Snug in Iceland
“Oh God, you definitely have. Just enjoy yourself and don’t worry so much about things that haven’t happened yet.
“I keep telling myself that.”
“I’m always right.”
Telling Anna everything that had happened in the past week or so made Rachel realise that quite a lothadhappened and given her a brief jolt into her real life away from Reykjavik. Being in London seemed like light years ago and she was finding the idea of going back hard to contemplate.
At 9 pm they called it a night, estimating that they had cleared about a third of the boxes and reasoning that they’d get more done after a good night’s sleep. Rachel was exhausted but too hungry to turn Gudrun down when she suggested a quick bite to eat at Islenski Barinn. Gudrun was such good company and although they’d chatted all day about the merchandising and all manner of other things, they still talked easily together over some fish and chips in a basket with delicious tartare sauce and a beer at the pub.
“Are you and Jonas seeing each other again?” asked Gudrun with a twinkle in her eye.
“He’s away for a couple of days but we’re having dinner on Wednesday night.”
“Olafur’s gone on the trip too. Good timing with everything we have to do at the shop. Not so much for you and Jonas though. You probably want to spend every minute you can get together.”
“Yes, I think our chances will be thin on the ground once everyone flies in from London for the Design Call and the launch.”
“I’m so excited about the Design Call. So many of the postcards have been picked up, we should have lots of people. Will you sit in on it?”
“No, I think it will be you, Luisa and Julia. It’s always brilliant to see what people turn up with, you’ll love it.”
“Anyway, back to business. Have you and Jonas talked about what will happen when you go back to London?”
“No. We just decided to enjoy whatever time we can get while I’m here, not that there’s much time left now, and I’m trying not to think beyond that. I don’t want to hurt him.” And she didn’t want to put herself in the position of being hurt.
“He knows how it is, Rachel. I think he’s willing to take the risk from what Olafur says.”
“But it’s exactly the same situation that he was in before, with Hilde.”
Gudrun shook her head vigorously. “No, it’s nothing like that. In her mind, she had already left him long before she went to America. He was a little in denial but believe me, they were not happy and that is why she decided to leave.”
“Oh right.” Rachel wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or not.
“Olafur thinks this is completely different, for you and Jonas.”
“Do you two spend all your time talking about me and Jonas?”
“Yes, it isallwe talk about. We like a good love story,” she said looking into her glass to avoid Rachel’s raised eyebrows.
“Well, it’s hardly a love story. We’ve only just met.”
“They all start somewhere, Rachel.”
25
WHEN RACHEL ARRIVED at the shop the next morning she could have sworn that there were twice as many boxes to unpack than they’d left the day before. Gudrun arrived shortly after her and came through the door groaning.
“I had eight hours sleep but I still feel like I only just left here,” she said as they surveyed the work they still had to do.
“It’ll be easier today and then the fun part will be tomorrow when we get to do the displays and things. It’ll be worth all the shelf-stacking today. Promise!”
Rachel had had a text from Jonas early that morning checking that they were still on for dinner the following night. It made her feel all warm inside when she heard the notification and then saw his name on the screen. She’d texted back to say yes and had asked what they were doing that day on his excursion. He replied that they were climbing a volcano and visiting a black sand beach which had huge rocks of ice washed up on it. She was sorry she hadn’t had time to see that. Maybe next time. And she felt sure that there would be a next time.
They worked hard but had fun at the same time. The boxes were starting to disappear and the store was taking shape; a lot of the shelves were full now and neither of them could wait until the next day when they could make it all look beautiful. Gudrun was desperate to arrange the cushions and candles in colour wheel order but Rachel was making sure that they had everything unpacked before anything like that happened. She knew it would be easy to get carried away on details so it was better to wait until nothing else needed doing.
At lunchtime, while she and Gudrun were lounging on the window sofa before they got back to work, Rachel rang Luisa to update her on how it was going and to get the final arrangements for the rest of the Snug team’s visit for the opening.
“I’m glad it’s going well, Rachel. I’ll admit I was worried about how you’d cope with the delivery with it just being the two of you at the moment but it sounds like you’ll be ready for us.”
