22
AS THEY WAVED the last of the guests off the boat at the end of the third tour of the day, Astrid wondered whether she’d bitten off more than she could chew.
She’d never had a job that was rigidly timetabled, or done anything that had a customer-facing role before.
The time between each tour had seemed as if it would give them all a chance for a break, but by the time they had tidied up, restocked the galley, made sure the weatherproof suits were hanging ready for the next tour, or in the drying room if they were wet, the next guests arrived and they started all over again.
‘That was amazing,’ Eva said, full of the enthusiasm Astrid and Leifur had had after the practice run.
‘They all seemed pleased when they left,’ Leifur said wearily, although being in the wheelhouse for most of the time meant he didn’t have a feel for how it had gone.
‘We’ll know when they start leaving reviews,’ said Astrid.
‘They all saw whales,’ Eva said.
‘That’s true, although it was a shame that the last group didn’t see the minkes.’
‘Minkes are fly-by-nights,’ said Leifur. ‘They’re here one minute and gone the next. The humpbacks are what people really want to see. Slapping their tails and blowing bubble rings, they know how to impress people.’
He unzipped his weatherproof suit and pulled his arms out, knotting the sleeves around his waist. Astrid was surprised by how sexy it was.
With his hair tousled and a smile in his eyes now that he was relaxing, she was suddenly desperate to pull the rest of his clothes off and run her hands over him.
Eva laughed, snapping Astrid out of her daydream.
‘Exactly! And at least everyone saw that, even if it wasn’t as good as we saw this morning. It’s nature. Everyone knows that.’
‘Hmm, I’m not so sure,’ said Astrid. ‘One woman asked me when we were going to see the fin whale and the blue whale, as if she was on an outing to the zoo.’
‘What did you say?’ Leifur asked, amusement in his eyes.
‘I told her we can’t predict which whales will show up.’
‘Ha! She probably went away thinking she still has a chance to see them in Faxaflói Bay.’ Leifur chuckled to himself.
‘It’s too shallow, right?’ Eva said.
‘Yes, it’s only thirty metres deep. Nowhere near deep enough for a blue whale, although I did hear that a blue whale brought her calf here to keep them away from some orcas who were further out in the ocean,’ said Astrid.
‘I saw that,’ said Leifur.
‘Really? That’s incredible,’ said Eva.
Astrid thought so too and waited for him to elaborate.
‘It was about six years ago,’ he began, settling himself down on a bench and taking a swig of the bottle of water in his hand as if it were a bottle of beer and he was a salty old sea dog of a fisherman telling stories in a dimly-lit seaman’s bar.
‘I heard it was ten years ago,’ said Astrid, grinning.
‘Who’s telling this story?’ Leifur said, raising an eyebrow .
It was very sexy, so Astrid sat down on the deck, leaning back on her arms and with her legs out in front of her to listen. Eva did the same.
‘I was out on Brimfaxi on a frosty February morning. The sun was barely up, but I heard a noise I’d never heard before.
It was like the sound the humpback whales make, but deeper.
It felt as if it was vibrating through the boat.
I cut the engines because I had a feeling it was something out of the ordinary, and I waited.
’ He paused for dramatic effect. ‘All of us were standing on the deck and it was eerily quiet, then we heard the sound again and this time, we saw the calf breach. That calf was bigger than a humpback. Bigger than anything else I’ve seen in these waters.
Then the mother came up beside it, and she was huge.
And when she dived, her tail in the air, it was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. ’
‘You never told me about that,’ Astrid said.
Leifur shrugged. ‘I haven’t thought about it for a while.’
‘Incredible,’ said Eva, shaking her head.
‘Eva, thank you for today. You can go. We’ll see you in the morning,’ said Leifur.
‘Are you sure? I don’t mind staying to help.’
‘No, you’ve had a long day. We can finish up,’ Astrid said, hoping that Leifur was thinking the same as her. ‘Thank you, you’ve done a great job.’
Eva blushed with pride and headed off, waving as she walked along the quay.
‘I don’t know about you, but I might need a lie down before I start prepping for tomorrow,’ Leifur said.
‘Oh, so that’s why you sent Eva home.’
‘Think of it as a debrief,’ he said, raising an eyebrow before taking her in his arms. She lifted the bottom of his sweater and ran her hands over the front of his chest, sighing at the release it gave her.
It was hard, even for the few minutes since he’d pulled his suit down around his waist, to sit with the feeling of wanting to rip his clothes off.
All the pent-up frustration came out in that sigh when she touched him.
They headed below deck and into the cabin.
Astrid untied the sleeves of Leifur’s suit and pushed it down his legs.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled her so that she was standing between his legs.
Now it was his turn to run his hands over her, and in one swift movement, he pulled all of her top layers off.
‘Look at you,’ he murmured, his hands on her waist.
He dropped tender kisses onto her stomach, but impatiently she wanted more. She pushed him with one hand on his chest so that he was lying on the bed.
‘Who’s in charge here?’ he said.
‘ Halló ?’
They both froze.
‘It’s Jonas,’ Leifur said, hurriedly shifting out from underneath Astrid, pulling his suit back up, which was still around his ankles. ‘ Hae , Jonas!’ He headed up to the deck, leaving Astrid to pull her clothes back on and follow him.
‘ Hae , Astrid,’ Jonas said when she appeared on deck a minute behind Leifur. ‘How did it go today?’
‘It was great,’ she said, looking to Leifur for input. The details of the day had been so fresh in her mind a few minutes ago but now seemed distant and fuzzy, being replaced with thoughts of what had been about to happen in the cabin.
‘Good sailing conditions,’ Leifur said.
‘And good sightings?’
‘For the first two tours. The third, we did see some humpbacks but nowhere near what we’d seen in the morning. Have you had any complaints?’
‘No, and actually we have the first five-star review on the website. They said they saw minkes and humpbacks,’ said Jonas .
‘That wasn’t from the woman who wanted to know when we were going to see a blue whale, then. I’m expecting a one-star review from her,’ said Astrid.
Jonas laughed. ‘Really? She thought she’d see a blue whale?’
He didn’t seem worried at all about the prospect of a bad review.
‘You’re not upset?’ Astrid asked.
‘I’ve been in this business long enough to know that you can’t account for people who have unrealistic expectations.
If she leaves a review complaining about the lack of blue whales, other people will take it with a pinch of salt.
Besides, we’re very clear in our terms and conditions that we can’t guarantee whale sightings. ’
‘Neither of us are used to dealing with customers,’ said Leifur.
‘None of us were when we started. Don’t worry about that side of things. It comes with experience. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to it.’
Astrid felt herself blush and saw Leifur do the same, although he recovered himself more quickly and shook Jonas’s hand.
‘Thanks for stopping by. I think it’s going to be a great summer.’
‘Me too. I’ve wanted to get into boat tours for a while, and the two of you have made it easier than I thought it would be. It hasn’t been a distraction for me at all, so thank you for that.’
‘No problem,’ said Leifur.
They waved him off, then stood on the deck looking at each other.
‘Let’s finish up and go to my place,’ said Astrid.
‘Almost getting caught doesn’t do it for you?’
‘It was so embarrassing. I’m sure Jonas realised. ’
Leifur shrugged and raised an eyebrow. ‘It doesn’t matter. I’ll come to yours. Maybe we could get dinner? And then I’ll head home.’
Astrid was torn. In the moments before Jonas arrived, she’d been so full of longing for Leifur, and not only was that longing burning inside her even more strongly, she didn’t want it to be over at all.
‘Stay tonight,’ she said.
‘It’s okay, I don’t mind going home. We can stick to the plan.’
‘I don’t like the plan anymore.’
His face lit up. ‘New plan. I take you to bed so that I can show you what was waiting for you before Jonas turned up.’ His eyes flicked downwards. ‘Then we eat and sleep.’
‘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 at work, 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.
‘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?’