Chapter 23 #2
She glanced at Mats and caught his look of horror. He hadn’t told them he’d been made redundant? She gave him a look that she hoped conveyed, why on earth not?
He looked at her, dejected, and she felt bad for outing him. But then, why hadn’t he told her it was a secret?
‘I got made redundant.’
‘What?’ Fredrik looked at Mats in confusion. ‘I thought you were the top strategy guy in that place.’
‘So did I. But the bank is being bought out and they chose someone else for my position.’
‘But you were going to leave anyway,’ said Ida. ‘So it’s not that bad, right?’
‘It’s been a shock,’ Lotta said.
‘I’ve put my apartment on the market. It means I have a bit of a cash-flow issue until it sells.’
That was news to her. ‘Even with the redundancy money?’
Mats nodded. ‘That’s already gone on the latest phase.’
‘You can have our share of the inheritance,’ Ida said.
‘No. I’ve already used my own. It’s not what Papa would have wanted. I won’t risk your money as well as mine on a dream that isn’t yours.’ He gulped, and for a moment Lotta was frightened it might be a sob.
‘You can pay us back when you sell your place,’ said Fredrik.
Mats shook his head. ‘Thank you both, but I can make it work.’
Lotta wasn’t sure he could. The fact that he’d kept this from them told her he wasn’t feeling confident about any of this anymore. That he had to use his father’s money, when clearly it had broken his heart to touch it, told her more than he had.
‘You can stay here rent free when you need to move out of your apartment,’ Ida said.
‘Thanks, I was going to,’ Mats said, with the glimmer of a smile that broke the tension.
‘And where are you putting all your stuff?’ Ida asked, her fork pointing at Mats, ready to be used as a weapon if he said the wrong thing.
‘Not here, don’t worry. I’ll use Knut’s warehouse now that most of the materials are on the island. Should be fine until I decide what to do next.’
Ida harrumphed as if she was disappointed there was no fight to be had.
‘What are you going to do when Ida drives you mad?’ Fredrik asked, grinning at his sister while he pushed part of Emil’s food into a pile that had to be eaten before he was allowed to leave the table.
‘I mean, you can’t live in that cabin. Is the farmhouse big enough that there will be room for you? ’
‘Be careful what you say or my offer of living here rent free will be withdrawn.’
Mats smiled at his sister. ‘We need all the space in the farmhouse for paying customers, although until the place is full I could stay there. The cabin is fine in the meantime.’
‘The cabin has a toilet now,’ Lotta said.
‘An unusable toilet until I knock the wall out,’ said Mats.
‘You’ve done so much in a couple of weeks, I bet it will be finished the next time I come,’ said Lotta.
They looked at each other across the table, both suddenly aware that things would not be as simple as they had been.
Why did it feel like it had come out of the blue when all along they’d both known it was going to happen?
Mats was leaving Oslo. Lotta’s work in Oslo would end.
All facts that had been clear to both of them all along.
Except, before she’d fallen for Mats — properly fallen in love with him — she couldn’t have imagined she would have a relationship she could believe in.
She’d walked into this with Mats thinking they’d have a few fun weeks and then naturally drift apart.
Who knew she’d want to fight to be together?
That was the part she hadn’t seen coming.
Even armed with every fact in the world, something can still hit you out of the blue.
Mats was quiet for the rest of the meal, but Fredrik made up for it by telling them all about the logistics of his week, juggling parents’ meetings at Emil’s school with plans for a work project that would take him to Oslo for a week.
‘Do you want me to have Emil?’ Ida asked him.
‘That would be great. I thought Kristi was back for a couple of weeks but apparently not,’ he said in a low voice so Emil, who was playing a game on the TV in the next room wouldn’t overhear.
‘I don’t mind, it’s fun having him around.’
‘Not too much fun. He has homework to do.’
Ida rolled her eyes at her youngest brother.
‘Thank you, Ida, you’re a lifesaver.’
‘It’s nice that you live close enough to each other to help out,’ said Lotta. ‘My sisters and I live nowhere near each other.’
‘I moved back to Bergen when Kristi left so I could get a hand from the family,’ Fredrik said.
He was very open about it as if he knew Mats had told Lotta about his situation, which obviously he had.
‘But I work for a company in Oslo so I have to go back and forth sometimes, depending on what’s going on. ’
‘It’s lucky for you that I’m a single woman with nothing going on in her life,’ Ida said, as if she were making a joke, except Lotta wasn’t sure it was.
‘I think we’ll head into town for a drink,’ Mats declared, without asking either Ida or Fredrik if they wanted to join them.
Lotta had a feeling there was more to it than just a drink. He had a lot going on, too much that he needed to be here for, and wasn’t that exactly the problem? He’d been straight with her from the start that he’d be stuck here at some point, and it seemed like that point had been reached.