Page 54 of Adrift in Iceland
‘I love that plan.’ She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him. ‘But keep your suit on until we get to my place. It’s sexy.’
‘My waterproofs are sexy?’ He pulled back and looked at her with one eyebrow raised. ‘That’s where I’ve been going wrong all these years. I’ve never worn them off the boat before.’
‘Lucky for me that you didn’t.’
He looked at her with something like gratefulness in his eyes. ‘Come on. Let’s lock up. I can’t wait to get out of these waterproofs.’
She quirked an eyebrow at him. ‘Neither can I.’
They both climbed into his truck, and he drove them the short distance to Astrid’s apartment. She unlocked the door to the building, but before they could head upstairs, the door to the ground-floor apartment opened and Sol appeared.
‘Astrid, I am so happy to see you,’ she said. Her jeans were wet at the knees, and her sweater was damp around the cuffs even though she’d pushed them up to her elbows. ‘There’s something wrong with the toilet, and it’s leaking. Thor is atwork, and I don’t have enough strength to turn the main water tap off.’
‘I can take a look,’ Leifur said.
‘Oh, would you? I’d be so grateful. Come in. You’d better keep your boots on.’
On one hand it only made Leifur seem sexier to be saving the day for Sol, but Astrid was going to die of frustration if they didn’t make it upstairs soon. Hopefully, it would be something simple.
She ushered them into the apartment, which was like Astrid’s, but with lower ceilings, which gave it a cosier feel. There was a pile of towels in the bathroom doorway, making a pretty poor job of damming the water of which there was around three or four centimetres.
‘The flush on the toilet is over-running, and it looks as if the overflow isn’t working,’ said Leifur from the hallway.
Sol gave Astrid an impressed look. ‘Can you stop the water? The tap is in the kitchen.’
He headed into the kitchen, which was a separate room rather than open plan with the lounge like Astrid’s. ‘Under the sink?’
‘Yes.’
He knelt down and reached for the tap. ‘It’s stiff,’ he said, grunting.
The tap or you?Astrid stifled a giggle as that thought ran through her head. It wasn’t the time. Her hormones were having a strange effect on her, desperate for release and in the meantime, sending her loopy.
He stood up and brushed his hands against each other a few times. ‘It’s off. Let’s have a look at the toilet.’
With his waterproofs and boots on, Leifur stepped over the threshold into the bathroom and lifted the top off the toilet cistern. He rolled his sleeve up and plunged his hand into it, trying to reach something.
‘Oh no,’ Sol muttered.
‘What’s wrong?’ Astrid asked.
‘Ah, this is the problem,’ Leifur said, holding up a plastic bag containing a box. ‘It was blocking the overflow
Sol hid her face with her hands. ‘It’s my fault. I put that in there.’
‘What is it?’
‘Pregnancy tests. I’m such an idiot,’ said Sol. ‘I hid them in there a while ago, and I’d forgotten.’
‘Look, you don’t have to worry,’ Astrid said. ‘It’s none of our business. Let’s get this cleared up.’
‘You don’t have to do that.’
‘We’re happy to.’
By the time they’d helped mop up all the water, leaving Sol grateful and apologetic, it was late. They hadn’t eaten, and neither of them felt like doing anything except sleeping.
‘I’ll warm some soup and bread,’ Astrid said.
