Page 55 of Adrift in Iceland
‘Do you mind if I shower?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Are you sure I should stay?’
‘Yes. I want to fall asleep in your arms.’
‘You don’t think today has been the universe telling us we shouldn’t be together?’
‘You believe in that kind of thing?’
‘I don’t know. It feels like a conspiracy.’
Astrid abandoned her soup prep and came to sit on his lap. ‘We might have been thwarted once or twice today, but don’t be put off. I still think you’re sexy as hell, even if the universe wants me to think otherwise.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Sexy as hell?’
‘Shall we have the soup in a bit?’
23
SUNDAY EVENING COULDN’T come soon enough for Leifur. After four days, part of him was beginning to enjoy the repetition of the days, the structure that it gave back into his life and the purpose he finally had again. But the rest of him was exhausted. It was unfortunate timing that he and Astrid couldn’t keep away from each other, and she had quickly caved in on her decision to spend a couple of nights apart. They hadn’t had a night apart this week, but tonight, she was holding him to his promise of having her over to his place for the evening, and then they could have a lazy start to Monday, their day off.
He and Astrid arrived onBrimfaxion Sunday morning shortly before Eva — a tactical decision so that she wouldn’t see them arriving together every morning. Leifur’s truck hadn’t moved from the parking space in the harbour car park for four days, but perhaps no one was looking out for things like that as much as Astrid thought they did.
‘If my sister ever came down to this part of town, you can bet your life she’d notice that your truck was in the same place. Even if you told her you just pick the same spot every day, she’d still know whether it had been moved or not.’
‘She didn’t seem like the intense stalker-type,’ Leifur said.
‘She has a very keen sense of what’s going on between people before they know themselves. I can’t explain it.’
Fair enough, if Astrid wanted to keep their relationship quiet for now, he didn’t mind. He knew it was nothing to do with how she felt about him, and more to do with the fact that other people would have expectations of where their relationship might go which could put undue pressure on them when they’d basically decided it was going to be a summer fling.
‘The weather doesn’t look too good today,’ Leifur said, having checked the forecast before they left Astrid’s apartment. ‘The seas are going to be rough. Make sure Eva offers everyone a seasickness tablet if they haven’t taken one already, and maybe you could give some tips when you do the safety briefing. We don’t want to be clearing up sick later.’
‘Definitely not. Our day off starts the moment we see the guests off the boat after the last tour today.’
Astrid and Eva set out small piles of sick bags, just in case, and Eva had the tablets ready in the galley and would offer them to the guests when they came downstairs to get their weatherproof suits on. When they went back on deck ready to welcome the guests, there was a steady drizzle and the cloud had dropped so low that you couldn’t see much further than the harbour entrance.
‘This weather is a shame,’ said Eva.
‘It’ll be okay as long as we make sure the guests are prepared. They’ll probably come on board wishing they’d chosen a different day to sail, and we need to turn that around for them,’ Astrid said.
Leifur loved hearing her talk like that. It made him feel they had a connection through their shared values. Icelandic people were hardy when it came to bad weather, whereas tourists came expecting stable, seasonally-accurate weather patterns, a forecast you could count on and neither of thosethings were often the case. The weather in Iceland was so changeable in such a short time and as a fisherman, he’d had to go out whatever the weather, unless it was too dangerous. Astrid, on the other hand, hadn’t lived in Iceland for a long time, and even in Norway, because the weather was more settled, there wasn’t the same mentality that as long as you had the right clothing, it wasn’t a problem.
Of the thirty guests they had booked, the number had dwindled to twenty-three where people had postponed their tour to another day because of the weather. It was their choice, but Leifur knew that there might not be a better day if their holiday wasn’t very long and they could risk missing out altogether. But the guests who had braved it were all standing on deck in their weatherproof suits, hoods up and gloves on, listening to Astrid do her safety briefing as he tookBrimfaxiout of the harbour.
Once they were out in the open water, the sea was tossing them around a fair bit. It didn’t feel too bad to him, but he knew that for anyone unaccustomed to it, it would feel like the roughest sea in the world. He heard Astrid advise them not to look at the surface of the sea. It would help to focus on the horizon if anyone felt peaky. She also advised them to stay on deck because the fresh air helped. It was true, but he knew it was also so that it would hopefully stop any mess inside.
They headed out to the same place they’d been every day so far. By the time they got there, Eva had come up on deck and was gripping the rail, staring determinedly at the horizon, taking deep breaths. He opened the door of the wheelhouse.
‘Hey! Eva, are you alright?’
She turned, looking pale but smiling, and gave him a thumbs up. ‘Feeling better now I’m up here,’ she called. ‘I think it’s worse below deck.’
That was almost certainly true. Not long after, they had their first sighting of a humpback, and Leifur could tell by the enthusiastic taking of photos and the excited chatter carried on the wind that the whales were probably the best cure for any hint of seasickness.
It was an exceptionally good turnout by the whales. They even saw a fin whale, which Astrid could hardly believe. Her voice rose in excitement as she told the guests how unusual it was, then he saw her turn around to catch his eye and her face was a picture. He loved that this thing they were doing together could make her feel like that, and that they could share it together. And in his heart of hearts, he wondered whether it might be enough to make her decide to stay.
