Page 25 of Entwined in Norway

It was a joy for Ida to take the train up to Fløyen on such a beautiful evening, and for the first time in her life with someone other than her family.

Standing with Erik at the top, looking out over Bergen, seeing him so delighted with the view was something so special that she found it hard to believe they’d only met for the first time a couple of days ago.

He’d taken her hand as they waited and squeezed it so hard, while at the same time not being able to do anything other than nod. He seemed to know that she understood. And her friendship with him was far too new to ask questions about why that was the case. People broke their legs and recovered all the time, so perhaps it was more to do with not being able to compete anymore. Perhaps normal snowboarding didn’t hold the same appeal for him, and she certainly wouldn’t start suggesting it was better than nothing, even if on the face of it that would be her take on it.

And they were still holding hands now as they looked over the city, while Erik pointed out places he could identify. Could they see the island from here? Not quite, but it was fun trying. They strolled further up the hill into the woods.

‘What’s that?’ He screwed his eyes up, trying to see the figure that was in the shadow of the trees.

‘It’s a troll. There’s a troll garden.’

He looked at her, his eyes wide. ‘Let’s go see the trolls.’

Ida had a soft spot for trolls herself. Aside from the ones Lotta had used in the hotel, she had a few that she’d rescued from the farmhouse when they cleared it out. Her grandmother had a vast collection of them that had been on a shelf that ran all the way around the dining room. Mats knew she’d taken maybe ten or so back to the house, but he didn’t know that she’d kept all of them. They were in boxes in the garage. She’d moved them from the warehouse they’d used for storing everything during the hotel renovation while Mats had still been living in Oslo.

Once they reached the troll Erik had seen, the rest of the troll garden presented itself. There was a small clearing in the trees where several statues, if you could describe them as that, all in different styles but all unquestionably trolls, were dotted around.

‘Wow. This is crazy,’ Erik said, as they stood in the middle of the first few trolls.

‘It’s our heritage.’ Ida tried to keep her face serious because, of course, she was winding him up. And because they didn’t know each other very well, of course, he fell for it.

‘I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun…I think they’re amazing, obviously. Tell me the origins —’

‘I’m joking,’ Ida said, laughing and hoping she’d assumed correctly that Erik had a sense of humour and could take a bit of gentle teasing when he wasn’t in a grump.

He grinned and rolled his eyes. ‘You got me.’

‘I mean, they are our heritage in that there are stories about them, but they’re just fun, nothing serious. We love them.’

‘But you do see that they’re weird, right?’

‘Yes, but at the same time very attractive.’

Erik barked out a laugh. ‘Attractive? Okay. I can’t say the one in my room is attractive, but I guess maybe it’s not representative.’

It perhaps wasn’t the time to share about her hoard of trolls, or to admit to Erik that the troll in his bedroom was no longer there. The fact he hadn’t noticed it was missing made her feel that she did the right thing by removing it.

They continued their walk around the troll garden, choosing their favourite troll. Ida’s had always been the witchy troll near the entrance. Erik chose a troll that Ida wouldn’t have counted as a troll because it had none of a troll’s distinguishing features: ugliness, bulging facial features, unkempt hair. Erik’s choice was a wooden carving of a face, from a piece of tree and still had a cylindrical quality, almost as if it were part of a totem pole. Then, it was time to catch the train back down.

‘One more look at the view while we wait?’ Erik suggested.

He took her hand and led her down the steps to the fence that kept them from tumbling down the side of the mountain. Some of this was new since she’d last been here. One thing that caught her eye was right next to their feet. Erik glanced down at the same time she did. A square of slate was etched with the outline of two pairs of feet, facing each other. “Kissing Point” was written underneath. A complete tourist trap, Ida thought, especially since it was written in English.

‘That’s cute,’ Erik said. He looked at her and then very deliberately moved his feet so they were over the top of one set of footprints.

Ida’s heart was fluttering. He wanted to kiss her? Now? She moved her feet but once she stood on the feet outline she was too close to Erik and lost her balance. But before she could step away, she felt his hand on the middle of her back, steadying her. Her eyes were staring at his chest. Right at the part where his last button fastened. She trailed her eyes upwards, past his Adam’s apple, up his chin, which was somewhere between stubble and a beard, and finally met his eyes.

‘I’d love to kiss you, Ida. Is it too soon?’

She shook her head before she could say anything stupid to ruin the moment. Because this was one of the best moments of her life.

She raised up onto her tiptoes and met his lips with hers. It was no exaggeration to say it was more than she could ever have imagined. He was gentle, testing the waters for a moment before he went in for a proper knee-weakening kiss. It was a good job his arm was still around her waist otherwise she’d have been in a pool of happiness on the ground.

They were interrupted by someone calling that the train was about to leave. They looked at each other, both with a bashful smile on their faces before Erik grabbed Ida’s hand and they ran to the station.

There was very little talking on the way back down. They sat as close to each other as they could, holding hands, and Ida wrapped her other hand around Erik’s arm, wanting to be as close to him as they’d been at the kissing point.

‘I’ll walk with you to the boat,’ Ida said, when they got off the train and were heading back down the hill to the harbour.