Page 25 of Meet Me Under the Northern Lights
REYNISFJARA BLACK SAND BEACH
This place was somehow a perfect combination of beautiful, wild and rugged.
From the black sand on the ground to the towering basalt columns and the sea stacks set against a bright blue sky it was a winter postcard waiting to be admired.
And admired it was being, by all the passengers on the south coast tour being noisy, taking videos and getting much too close to the white ferocious froth Gunnar had warned them about.
Chloe wondered what it would be like here completely alone, just her and the elements, hearing only the waves and the birds overhead.
Then she contemplated how the Sinclairz Chairs group would fit here.
Black volcanic sand did not mix with anything pale and she remembered Lincoln Sinclair was very much a cream chinos and Ralph Lauren kind of man…
‘What do you think, Kat?’ Chloe asked. ‘What could I do here for Sinclairz Chairs if we do cheese and mulled wine at the waterfall?’
‘Chocolate fondue,’ Kat said immediately, picking up a pebble from the beach. ‘Or, stack up mini cakes that look like those columns by the cave. Everyone loves cake. Ooo, how about Christmas cake?’
It was too much food and not enough pizzaz. If she was going to convince Michelle that she was partnership material then she needed something as dramatic as this backdrop. Fire.
‘What about some dancers doing a traditional dance with fire?’ Chloe suggested.
‘Oh… fire dancing… oh, I don’t know about that,’ Kat said, words seeming to get all caught up with each other. She dropped the pebble again.
‘Really? Because Iceland is all about fire and ice because of the landscape – the glaciers and the volcanos and?—’
‘I just, you know, fire dancing, it threw me for a minute. Ignore me.’
Kat was beaming now. Too much overplaying of happiness. And Chloe was suspicious.
‘Kat, what’s going on? You’re hiding something from me.’
‘No. No, I’m really not.’
Chloe didn’t need to say anything else, she let her expression and the folding of her arms do the talking.
‘Ugh! Why did you have to mention fire dancing? I mean, literally anything else and it would have been OK.’ She huffed an irritated sigh and let her feet sink into the black sand.
‘Whatever it is, just tell me because I can’t think of anything you could tell me that is going to ruin this wonderful trip,’ Chloe said with utter confidence.
‘You mustn’t let it, Chloe, OK?’
Now Kat wasn’t sounding like whatever she was about to say was not a trivial annoyance at all. She was sounding serious. Chloe pushed her hair back behind her ears and braced externally against the wind and internally for whatever was coming next.
‘Just, whatever it is, tell me,’ Chloe said.
‘OK,’ Kat said, taking a big breath. ‘So, it’s Michael.’
Chloe’s heart dropped like it was a boulder being hurled off the top of the cliff they were standing under. ‘He’s not… died has he?’
‘No,’ Kat said. ‘Not yet.’
‘What?!’
‘He would if I got my hands on him.’
‘Kat, for God’s sake! Tell me!’
‘You were right, you know. Absolutely right.’ She took a deep breath and then blurted it out. ‘Michael has a new girlfriend.’
Chloe let that sentence settle, first on the surface and then, after a few milliseconds, she let it creep inside, waited for her mind and her heart to process it.
It was fine. It was to be expected. She had expected it.
Why wouldn’t he have moved on? What else was there to do?
Except maybe dwell and be too scared to move on like her…
‘OK,’ she said in a tone that definitely gave away that she was, in some way, moved by the news. She hated that.
‘OK?’ Kat clarified, giving Chloe the large eyes seeking confirmation she thought might be detected better if the eyes were made bigger.
‘I mean, yes, it’s been a while, like I said and?—’
‘And… Chloe…’
‘What?’ Chloe asked, heart racing suddenly.
‘I’m just going to say it.’
‘OK.’
Kat gripped her arm and held on tight. ‘She’s pregnant.’
And that moment was the moment she realised that it felt like it wasn’t just her feet sinking into the black sand, it felt like it was her entire being. Pregnant. Michael had a girlfriend. And Michael’s girlfriend was pregnant.
‘That’s why I’m here, Chloe,’ Kat carried on, still holding her.
‘It’s not because I was stressed about my mother coming for Christmas or whatever else I told you about being disorganised.
As soon as I saw the post I prayed you weren’t still stalking his social media and I booked a flight and I came so that I could be the one to tell you. ’
Pregnant.
‘And I know that telling you on a black sand beach surrounded by frankly very annoying fellow coach trip passengers isn’t the best thing, but when you said about fire dancing, well, I had to tell you.
’ Kat took a breath. ‘Because that’s where they were when they made the grand Instagram announcement.
On some beach in Bali with a blazing arch and a fiery flash mob like it was a weird over-produced Addison Rae video. ’
Pregnant.
Run.