Page 36 of Adrift in Iceland
‘Give him a chance,’ Astrid said, laughing.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t scare him off. People love me. Oh, I met your neighbour, Solveig.’
‘Yes, she said. Maybe I should have a housewarming party. I could invite her, and I think she has a partner.’
‘She does. And you could invite Leifur and the rest of the gang.’
A housewarming party was a great excuse to invite Leifur. And although at the back of her mind she worried about commandeering Gudrun’s friends as her own, she enjoyed spending time with them.
‘You think they’d come?’
‘You’re going to be working with half of them. Of course they’ll come. Besides, it’ll help you out in case the neighbours are boring. And I want to see how Leifur behaves in a social situation.’
‘I don’t think that’s necessary.’
‘It is,’ Gudrun said. ‘I need to make sure he’s good enough for you. Today he showed his chivalrous side, and he won some extra points for carrying a suitcase in the sexiest way possible. But will he have your back in a social situation? That’s the next test.’
And although Astrid laughed at Gudrun for being too serious about testing Leifur, she couldn’t deny she was interested to see how it was going to go.
16
THE HOUSEWARMING WAS a welcome relief from working onBrimfaxievery day. Not that she wasn’t enjoying it, but there were limits to what she could do without going over and over the same things. Leifur had more to do on the practical side of things, whereas she was helping with purchasing everything they needed, from weatherproof suits for the guests, to sick bags, to supplies for the galley. It was the best way to get to know the vessel though, and by the end of the week, she knew what Leifur was referring to when he said things like the “foredeck port-side cleat” and was pleased that her limited experience of working on research vessels had stood her in good stead.
When she’d left the apartment this morning, she’d met the woman from upstairs. She was in her fifties, Astrid guessed.
She introduced herself. ‘I’ve taken on the apartment in the middle for six months.’
‘Nice to meet you. I’m Ingibjörg. Are you from Reykjavik?’
‘Yes, although I’ve only been back a few weeks. I’ve been living in Norway for the past few years. I’m having a get-together tonight at my place, if you’d like to come? Sol from downstairs and her partner are coming, and my sister and some friends from work.’
‘That sounds great. What sort of time?’
‘Around seven.’
Astrid was pleased that she’d run with Gudrun’s idea of having a party. It was nice to know her neighbours, and it was a good excuse to invite Leifur over.
She called Gudrun and asked her to extend the invitation to everyone.
‘Brilliant. I’m pretty sure Jonas, Rachel, Siggi and Iris will be up for it. The others aren’t around at the moment.’
Jonas was her boss, and Leifur’s, so it was good he and Rachel could come, and after meeting Iris briefly at the bar, they had enough in common for Astrid to feel like she could easily be a friend if they had the time to get to know one another.
‘Looking forward to the party?’ Leifur asked her as they sat on deck eating their lunch together. It wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t raining, and they’d taken to sitting outside rather than in the galley whenever they could since so much of the time they were working below deck.
‘Yes. I only met my upstairs neighbour this morning for the first time, but she’s coming, and Sol and Thor from downstairs. I think it’ll be good.’
‘You don’t have any friends from school here?’
‘No. I lost touch with most people when I went to university, and my best friend lives in Australia now, so we keep in touch but hardly ever see each other. How about you?’
‘I grew up in Hafnarfjörður, and it was much smaller than it is now. As soon as anyone was old enough, they came to live in Reykjavik because it was livelier. I’d always helped out on the boat, even when I was still at school, so it felt like I was the only one left.’
‘You must have been close to your brother then because of that?’
‘Not really.’
‘Me and Gudrun weren’t close growing up because of the age difference. It felt like she was a little kid when I left for university. We had nothing in common then.’
