When she’s almost out of sight, it occurs to me that maybe I should have offered to walk her back to her van. I watch as she strides away, wondering what in the world just happened.
Chapter 17
Harper
The original plan for the night was to go to the Perlan, Iceland’s natural history museum, and then out for dinner. Instead, Luke brought me dinner and then disappeared into the night with Cassie.
So rather than wonder what Luke is up to, I finish my meal and grab the keys to the rental car and go to the museum.
I was going for two reasons. It was a part of my original plan, and I’m a stickler for plans. And if I stayed in the hotel room, I was going to obsess over the fact that Luke was on a date. I haven’t been to a museum since I was in middle school on a field trip, so I’m not sure if I will enjoy the Perlan, but the moment I step through the doors, I feel like a kid again.
The Perlan is what happens when you try to shove a country inside a building. There are exhibits recreating the magic of volcanic eruptions, glaciers, and of course the northern lights. In one exhibit, the floor is covered in a metal grate, but the walls are ice, making it necessary to dress as warmly inside as I would outside.
I quickly decide that my favorite exhibit is this man-madeice cave, recreating the ones formed by melting glaciers.
I round a corner and find an ice sculpture made to look like a chair. There’s even a fur pelt on the seat to keep your butt from getting cold when sitting on it.
A girl sits on the ice chair, holding her hand out for a guy to sit with her. From the back, he almost looks like Luke, and it makes me do a double-take, afraid I’m accidentally crashing their date.
The two of them kiss, and I look away, suddenly self-conscious about how alone I am. Since I’ve already seen most of the museum and it’s getting late, I make my way back outside, which is arguably just as good as the museum itself.
The Perlan sits on a hill overlooking Reykjavik. From up here, I can see the entire city, the ocean, and the snowy mountains circling the city. The sun is just beginning to set, coating the sky with orange, yellow, and even a soft pink on the horizon.
A few others stand nearby, taking in the view. One man photographs the sunset with a large camera. Another couple, wrapped up in their coats, hug each other as they watch the colors shift.
I hug my own coat tighter around myself.
I’m fine being here alone. I almost went on this entire trip alone, but now that I’m here and Luke is somewhere else out there, it all feels a little silly. Why did I insist he ditch me to go on a date?
I’m happy for him going on the date, but what am I supposed to say when he gets back? Hey, how was the date?
Luke and I have an upspoken no-discussion rule when itcomes to our dating lives. How am I supposed to stick to that while we’re sharing the same bed?
This situation is too weird. Luke’s out with another girl while I—the woman our hotel thinks is his wife—am at the Perlan alone. What’s Luke going to do after his date? Kiss her goodnight and then crawl into bed with me?
My stomach does another flip.
The thought of Luke kissing Cassie makes me uneasy. I can’t pin down if the feeling comes from protectiveness or something else entirely.
When the sun disappears behind the mountaintops, I get back into the rental car and head to the hotel. When I step into an empty room, I’m not sure if I’m relieved or annoyed that Luke’s still out on his date.
I go to bed early that night, tucking myself into my side of the bed before I have a chance to overthink anything else. At some point, I wake up when Luke comes into the room, but I try to pretend to be asleep.
He disappears into the bathroom, and I have to fight the impulse to pull my phone out to check the time.
If it’s late at night, I don’t think I want to know, because I know my brain will try to figure out what he and Cassie have been up to all night.
The bathroom door opens again before I have the chance to talk myself into checking the time.
I stay still, willing myself not to move a muscle as if Luke’s a monster that’s going to strike at the first sign of life.
He pulls back his set of covers, and I feel the mattress shift beside me. With a quiet grunt, he shifts deeper into the mattress.
I’m stiff as a board beside him, tempted to roll over to look at him. But I don’t trust myself, so I stay still and tense until my body finally relaxes and I drift off to sleep.
§
We leave brightand early the next morning to venture out of the city and start exploring what I’ve been looking forward to most—the waterfalls. The first on our itinerary is one I’ve seen all over social media when I look up Iceland. It’s a massive waterfall so tall that there’s a path to take you behind the waterfall. Every picture looked so perfect that after a while, I began to think there was no way it could look like that in person. Today I get to find out.
