Chapter 10
Mats spent the afternoon watching the clock and not getting much else done at all.
He’d never known a day go so slowly and since he couldn’t settle to anything, that made it worse.
Lotta, right now, was on a flight from London, and in twenty-three minutes a car was picking him up from outside his office, and he was going to meet her at the airport.
She didn’t know any of this. As far as she knew, they were meeting for dinner later that evening.
But he wanted a second shot at their first meeting now that he’d stopped worrying she might be after him for his money.
Less than an hour later, Mats was inside the terminal building.
He’d been informed by the driver that the flight had landed twenty minutes earlier.
He kept his gaze on the doors that led through from baggage reclaim, checking every person who came through.
After ten minutes or so, he spotted her hair, bunched on top of her head as it had been every time he’d seen her in person.
He kept his eyes on her as she walked through, steering her case with one hand while her other was on the enormous bag she had on her shoulder, which also had her coat slung through the handles.
She bent down, placing the bag on the floor. Her hair made a break for it and tumbled down around her shoulders. He walked towards her while she wasn’t looking and heard her slight harrumph as he stood there, waiting for her to lift her head and see him.
‘Mats!’ She had both of her hands in her hair and a hair elastic gripped between her teeth, but he could see she was pleased and surprised to see him. In a swift movement, she coiled her hair back into a messy bun and pulled her coat on while Mats picked up her bag and slung it over his shoulder.
‘Hey, how was your flight?’ he said, as if this was something they did all the time.
‘Good, thanks. I had the whole row to myself this time,’ she said, laughing. ‘What are you doing here?’
Feeling brave since she was so pleased to see him, he held out his hand. She took it, and together they walked to where the car was waiting outside.
‘Last time we were here, I was going to offer you a ride into the city. I didn’t, and I wanted to put that right.’
‘It’s so great to see you,’ she said, looking at him with her deep blue eyes.
She squeezed his hand, and he felt as if his heart might explode.
The driver was looking out for them and loaded Lotta’s luggage into the boot of the car while Mats held the door open for her to climb into the back seat, then he went round the other side and let himself in.
‘I’ve been looking forward to this,’ he said, taking her hand again.
‘Me too.’
‘Better than text messages.’
She twisted slightly in her seat so that she was facing him. He watched her eyes drop to look at his lips. His breath hitched. He badly wanted to kiss her, but he also wanted their first kiss to be perfect, and the back of a car wasn’t the place for it.
‘Later,’ he murmured.
She nodded and sat back in her seat, closer to him than she’d been before.
He could almost feel the heat of her against his arm, although it was impossible because they were both wearing too many layers.
He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed his back in a wordless agreement that they both felt the same way.
It seemed no time at all before they were in the city, and the driver cleared his throat to announce himself before checking the hotel that Lotta was staying at.
‘Do you want to come up?’ she said when they pulled up outside.
Mats shook his head. The magic was real, and he didn’t want to ruin it by going too quickly. ‘I’ll let you get settled and then meet for dinner, like we planned.’
She smiled at him. ‘That sounds perfect.’
The driver opened the door for her and unloaded her luggage while Mats lowered the window and waved goodbye, feeling as if he’d be unable to survive the next hour without her.
‘Thank you, that was a lovely surprise,’ she said.
He smiled. ‘See you later,’ he said.
‘Bye.’ She kissed her fingers and then blew him the kiss before he closed the window and was driven away.
An hour later, Mats waited outside her hotel as they’d originally planned. He’d changed out of his suit into dark jeans and a soft grey sweater. He wore his favourite black boots that were ancient but always looked smart enough if he kept them polished, and his navy blue wool coat.
‘You look beautiful,’ he said the moment he saw Lotta.
She was wearing a plaid skirt that came down to just below her knees and chunky black boots that gave her an edgier look than the skirt and cardigan combination would normally make.
Her hair was around her shoulders, with some of it tucked into the neckline of her coat and blousing out.
‘Thank you,’ she said, blushing. ‘I was trying to strike a balance between being warm and cosy and looking smart for going out to dinner.’
‘I think you’ve nailed it,’ he said, taking her hand now and feeling so much satisfaction at being in that place. Being able to take her hand because that’s what they did as a couple. They were a couple.
‘Where are we going?’ She leant into him and he felt her other hand wrap around his arm.
‘I’ve booked somewhere with a view, and we can either walk there now, or get a drink and then take a tram.’
‘I’d like to walk. Take the opportunity to see the city with a local.’
That was his preference too, and he wondered whether all of this was going too well. Then he looked down at Lotta. She was looking around as they walked, taking everything in, her expression open and happy. Why was he trying to find a problem when there wasn’t one?
‘So, what are your plans for the next few days?’
‘I have some meetings set up tomorrow with makers, then the following day with a couple of influencers and then hopefully, if I can pin down which maker we want to go with, I’ll go to the Folk Museum with them to do some brainstorming.’
‘What kind of makers?’ He wasn’t entirely sure he’d understood what her brief for the project was. She’d shared it with him over a few text messages, and he thought it might have got lost in translation.
‘I’ve found a textile artist who specialises in free-machine embroidery, a woodworker who makes kitchen utensils, and a glassblower.’
‘That’s quite a mix,’ he said, having no idea what free-machine embroidery was and not wanting to find out right now.
‘It is,’ she agreed. ‘And the challenge is going to be in finding out what they can do that my influencers will be excited about, and that is also linked to Norwegian heritage.’
‘And that is all going to happen in the next three days?’
‘Yes,’ she said confidently. ‘And if it doesn’t, I’ll just have to come back.’
They walked through the city, past the station and onwards until they came to Kongsveien, a road that began at the foot of the hill in front of them and wound upwards.
‘We’re going up here,’ Mats said, pointing to a string of lights that showed a pathway through the trees leading uphill.
Lotta grinned at him. ‘Okay.’
They headed up the path, the soft glow of the lights leading them up and away from the city streets.
‘This view is incredible,’ Lotta said, pausing to look down. They were already high above the rooftops of the nearby buildings.
‘It gets better.’
‘This is so cool. I can’t believe we’re in the middle of a city.’
They continued up the path and Mats couldn’t help but compare Lotta to other women he’d dated who would, in the first place, have worn shoes entirely unsuitable for this kind of walk and also would complain about how far it was. He smiled to himself. It was another sign that Lotta was different.
At the end of the path, several flights of brick steps led them to a huge, flat area with a curved edge, giving the most wonderful view of Oslo.
It was bordered by a balustrade that was subtly lit to give people enough light to watch their step, but not to detract from the view.
Typically, with things like this that were on one’s doorstep, Mats hadn’t been up here for years, so he was enjoying discovering it again just as much as Lotta was for the first time.
‘Okay, this is more incredible,’ she said, taking his hand and encouraging him to stand behind her. He didn’t need any encouragement, looping his arms around her shoulders, his chin just dusting the top of her head. She fitted into him as if they were always meant to find each other.
‘Tell me some things we can see.’
‘There is the Opera House with the roof that slopes. There is the cathedral.’ He pointed in the direction he was talking about. ‘Then over there are the islands of Oslofjord. The biggest is H?vedoya, that’s what those lights are.’
‘I think we went to one of those islands when I last came here. Something to do with my grandfather’s history, but I forget what it was. How big is your island compared?’
‘It’s longer and thinner,’ he said.
They stood in silence, the only people on the viewing platform at this time of day, and feeling like the only people in the world at that moment.
Lotta turned so that she was facing him. ‘Thank you, Mats. I love this. It’s an amazing first date.’
He bent his head to kiss her. This was how he’d imagined their first kiss. Somewhere they’d both remember, the lights of Oslo twinkling below them.
‘I hope it’s the first of many,’ he said. ‘Although I’m not sure they’ll all live up to this.’
‘You have set the bar very high for the first one,’ she agreed. ‘But really, I think any time we spend together will be just as wonderful wherever it is.’
He kissed her again, her perfect lips warm and soft against his. If they spent the rest of the evening doing this, that would be fine by him. But then he felt her shiver slightly. ‘Come on,’ he said gently. ‘Let’s get some food.’
The restaurant was a short walk from the viewing platform and was fairly quiet since it was a Tuesday in April, so they were lucky enough to have a table that overlooked the city.
‘Tell me more about your island,’ Lotta asked him when they’d ordered.
He told her everything, from how he felt when he first went there to how he’d had to persuade his family that it wasn’t a money pit.
But he stopped short of sharing his fear that his father wouldn’t have approved.
That was too hard to say out loud. He handed her his phone so she could see some photos.
‘But if it’s your money, what does it matter?’
‘It’s everything,’ he said with a shrug. ‘It’ll take every penny I have, and they worry that if it doesn’t work out, where will that leave me.’
‘It will work out,’ Lotta said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
‘I think you have more belief than me,’ he laughed. ‘And I believe it will, yes. But part of me also thinks that they’re right. It is going to be a money pit.’
‘A ridiculously stunning money pit,’ she said, looking through the photos. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘I’d love to take you. Maybe not on this trip, but as soon as we can organise something.’
‘I could tag a weekend onto the end of my next trip?’
He nodded, already imagining Lotta on the island.
At the moment, he was trying not to think about Lotta at the house meeting Ida.
He’d never taken anyone home before. Mostly because he couldn’t imagine them being part of that life, and they wouldn’t have wanted to be.
Until now, it had always been best for everybody to keep things separate. Ida would have a field day.
After dinner, Mats had one more thing he wanted to show Lotta. He’d heard about it from Ingrid, who always knew about the latest cool trends, and it was what he’d built their evening around.
‘We can catch a tram just down there so we don’t have to walk back, but shall we walk our food off around here before we do that?
’ He wanted it to be a surprise and felt stupid suggesting they might need to walk their food off as if they’d eaten a ten-course dinner, but what other reason was there to go into the woods at this time of night?
Luckily, Lotta was happy to go along with it.
‘I’m not ready for the end yet,’ she said, looking up at him, her blue eyes shining and sincere.
They held hands, and he led the way along the path he thought was right, seeing a slight glow through the trees up ahead, which told him it was. Lotta hadn’t noticed, and she was busy telling him about how much she’d enjoyed the Folk Museum.
Once they were closer, it was hard not to notice that something was glowing in the trees. It looked otherworldly the way the trees were glowing purple, which then changed slowly to orange.
‘What is that?’
‘Something cool,’ he said. ‘Magical.’ It really did look magical.
They got closer and found a small clearing in the trees where strings of lights were hanging vertically from an invisible net overhead.
You could walk between the lights and they changed colour not in tandem with each other but in phases, with one section changing before the rest, creating a gradual wave across the clearing.
Sometimes they were all sorts of colours with no pattern, sometimes there was an order to them, and the whole time a gentle sound was playing, like wind chimes.
‘This is amazing!’ said Lotta, walking between the lights.
Mats had to agree. He stood with his hands in his pockets, watching Lotta, watching the lights, wondering whether life could get any better than this.
She came over to him and took his hand, positioning him so that she could stand on an upturned log, giving her the perfect boost to her height so that she could loop her arms around his neck.
‘Thank you for tonight. Every single part of it has been amazing,’ she said.
‘You’re amazing,’ he said so softly that he wasn’t sure if she would hear.
Her eyes filled with tears, and she kissed him before pulling him into a hug and resting her chin on his shoulder.
‘Can we do it again tomorrow night?’