Page 16 of A Copenhagen Snowmance

Chapter Eleven

Anna can’t believe she’s doing this. It’s absolutely not what she’s here for.

The wind is rushing through her hair, which for once is not under her hat, due to her being worried about being seen in it.

It’s stuffed in her pocket, though, just in case.

Thankfully the snow has stopped again. The on–off nature of …

uh, nature, is adding to the frustration of being here, but right at this moment, Anna is rather enjoying herself.

“Are you warm enough?” Jamie asks loudly, from the bike seat. “There’s another blanket in the big bag.”

Anna is currently sitting in the front of Jamie’s Christiania bicycle, a cargo bike with a box on the front, which can carry multiple bags, children or an adult – in this case, Anna.

She’s well wrapped up in her big coat, but she won’t say no to a blanket around her legs, so delves into the bag Jamie put together as she searched her wardrobe for the required attire.

She had noticed the bike in the front yard when she arrived, but not thought much of it.

“You really are getting the full Copenhagen experience with this for transport,” she calls back to him as he pedals hard, the slush spraying after them.

“My company car,” he says. “I don’t need an actual car living here, but I do sometimes have to transport presentation materials and prototypes to clients, so we thought this was the best thing.”

Anna thinks of her old bike in the basement.

She’s missed it. London is not nearly the biking city Copenhagen is – to be honest, the idea frightens her, as the drivers don’t consider cyclists in the same way, if at all – so she stays safely on the Tube.

That said, there’s something very lovely about being ferried around under someone else’s steam, while she sits like a princess in a wooden box.

It makes her think back to Signe’s wedding, where her friend arrived at the Town Hall in a Christiania bicycle festooned with gypsophila, white gerberas and strings of Danish flags.

Her husband-to-be was riding the bike, followed by an entourage of family members on their own decorated bicycles.

It was a gorgeous sight, happy and romantic.

Not that that is anything like her current position, she reminds herself.

This is simply Jamie driving them to meet his colleagues for their monthly social.

Totally normal. Except that she is faking being his girlfriend. That kind of “totally normal”.

“It’s like this,” Jamie had started. “I’d like a certain woman to think I’m involved with someone else, and therefore not romantically interested in her.

Which for the record, I’m not. Not in any way.

We work in the same field, so if word gets about, which it invariably will, then hopefully it’ll make things less awkward between us. ”

Anna had stared at him.

“You want us to fake-date?”

“Um… Yes. I think that’s what it’s called.”

“Outside of this house.”

He slow blinked at her. “Well, obviously. Fake-dating inside isn’t really going to have the desired effect.

” No, she could see that. “Look, you’ve already been outed.

People will know you’re here, and maybe it can work in your favour, too, with regards to your ex.

If he thinks you’ve moved on, with me, then he might leave you alone. ”

That sounded far more positive.

“And you’ll be gone soon,” he’d added, “so no harm done.”

There was that, too. She’d just walk away from it.

Jamie had watched for her answer.

Could she fake being his girlfriend and loved-up?

Gazing at him, his jawline, his rumpled hair, his forearms, she’d suspected this would not be too much of a hardship.

They’d already got a trial kiss out of the way, and boy-howdy, what a kiss that had been.

They were clearly attuned in that department.

Amid her gazing and contemplating, he’d still said nothing.

He’d explained and she felt it wasn’t the hugest of asks, considering he’d let her stay.

Refusing felt mean in light of his generosity.

And he hadn’t kicked off about her using him, and his face, outside Tivoli.

Aaand she appreciated him not pressing her to agree, and that’s what had convinced her to croak out an “OK, then.” Like he said, what harm could it do?

Then he’d said, “Great. Dig out some swim kit from upstairs. We’re going out later.”

* * *

Which is why she now finds herself swaddled in the bike crate, heading back towards Nyhavn and the bicycle bridge that will take them to Refshale?en, or Reffen as the island’s known, where they’re meeting some of his workmates.

The bottles of beer sticking out of the bag, previously hidden by the blanket, are a welcome sight.

She suspects she’s going to need a little Dutch courage.

“They’re nice guys,” Jamie says, perhaps sensing she needs reassuring.

“I’ve told you, Jamie, it’s a small city, I probably know them already. We might even be related.” This most likely isn’t true – her family is small – but in a city of six-hundred-thousand, who knows.

Jamie scoffs. “I think you exaggerate the danger there.”

She turns to shoot him an admonishing look. “Need I remind you that twice yesterday, I was forced to dodge people I know.” She doesn’t mention the kiss, although she’s suddenly replaying it in her head. Again. “This city is exactly as small as I say.”

Jamie pedals on, over the slim bridge, furiously ringing his bell like a native at pedestrians who’ve strayed onto the cycle path, until they reach Little Siberia, thus known for being the coldest part of this island, previously home to shipbuilding.

Night is setting in and the lights of shipping and wind turbines glow in the ?resund sound.

Jamie parks the bike and offers Anna a hand out of the crate.

In front of them is Copenhot, a complex of outdoor hot tubs and rows of saunas, positioned to look out over the water.

Jamie slings the bag over his shoulder and gives her a “Ready?” as they walk towards the hot tubs and his friends.

Coming into view, Jamie sweeps his arm around her.

His hand on the curve of her waist would be warm, if she could feel it through her multiple layers, but just knowing that makes her self-conscious.

She’s been aware of his scent around the house, but now, this close, against the clear, cold night air, it’s more potent, its masculine notes dancing around her nose.

“Anna?” she hears him ask through the smile he’s sending his waving friends.

Her brain catches up; she has a role to play.

She knows these moves, she’s been a girlfriend before, after all.

Awkwardly, she slides her hand around his waist and leans into him as they walk on.

Anna thinks she must be better than this.

Looking up at him, she supplies him a wide smile, like they know each other well, like they have just come from home, where they live, laugh and make love. Nonstop.

“On it.”

She notices his pupils widen as he catches on to her role-playing and then he plants a kiss on her temple. The deal is sealed.

* * *

“Unbelievable!” says Jamie, with a shake of his head.

“I told you so,” Anna says, feeling smug. Which is daft, as it’s exactly what she’s been worrying about.

There are six of them in the wooden tub, the wood-burner heating it just by their side. The water is gloriously hot, in beautiful contrast to the frigid air and also the cold beers they are holding at the tub’s edge.

Jamie’s colleagues, three men and a woman, had already been submerged when they arrived and introductions were swift, to get them into the water without freezing to death in the interim.

The others are Danes, and all of the men Copenhageners like Anna.

It only takes a couple of questions of where they live, work or went to school to shock Jamie.

As it turns out, Stefan is a grandson of Anna’s erstwhile and retiring vet; she’s worked with Anders’ photographer brother, and to top it all, Emil’s mother taught her at high school.

Anna and the three men clink their bottles in an alliance of linked Danes.

Smilla, who Jamie says joined the company at the same time as him, is apparently from Jutland, the mainland, but has come to Sjaelland, or as she calls it the “Devil’s Island”, to experience the bright lights of the big city.

Really, she’s well aware Copenhagen is far from being a big city as capitals go and they all share stories of crossing the city several times in one night for parties, bars or clubs.

They’re a welcoming bunch, although she suspects that’s down to the way Jamie’s behaving around her.

He offered her his hand to get up the steps into the hot tub and sinking in beside her, draped a relaxed arm around her immediately.

If the others spotted her immediate blush Anna thinks they’ll have put it down to the heat of the water shocking her skin after their cold ride in. Fingers crossed.

After that, there’s a couple of minutes where Anna is uber-conscious of sitting close to Jamie, him in just his swim shorts and her in, well, not a lot.