Atonement(40)

Colin winked at me. “Well, I can’t say the same for myself but I will do my very best to try to live up to your standards.”

“Oh my God. What standards?” I questioned out loud. “I’m not that hard to please, really!”

We both stopped walking at the same time and he cocked his head to the side. “Believe me, Ms. Bardot, you definitely have standards or you wouldn’t have been alone all this time. I know in a lot of ways, we are alike. In others, we’re different but know it was you who gave me the idea to start my own business and make something out of myself. Your standards are very high indeed but I don’t mind working towards them at all.”

“Spoken like a true gentleman.”

We walked inside and discovered his grandparents’ had gone off on one of their afternoon excursions into the woods. They kept active and spent a lot of time with one another. I hoped to be like them with the man I loved when I was their age. Relationships took time, work and energy but when you truly believed in someone, it made it all the more easier to do what ever it took to keep it going and alive.

I sat down at the table as Colin unpacked the alcohol and decided to make us lunch as we hadn’t eaten yet and it was shortly after two in the afternoon. I would have called my sister but it was still too early in the morning Pacific Standard Time, and I didn’t want to wake her.

“By the way, have you spoken to Liam?”

Colin brought our lunch to the table, open-faced sandwiches which consisted of brown goat cheese and smoked salmon. I dug in as I had quickly become quite a fan of smoked salmon though it had never been a favorite when I was in the States.

He then brought two lagers and poured them into glasses for each of us while coffee brewed. My main drinks of choice since we’d been here had been a lot of coffee and lager along with water. However, there wasn’t a wrong time to drink coffee so I was in heaven regardless.

“I spoke to him yesterday,” he said after he swigged from his lager. “He’s doing pretty good. The company is making money, he’s having fun and he finally persuaded Caitlyn to go out on a date with him.”

I almost choked on a piece of my sandwich. “I’m sorry? Did you say he asked Caitlyn out on a date? And she said yes?”

“Well, not at first. Apparently, he had to really turn on the charm but he said she was so sweet about it the first couple of times she turned him down before she said yes. He went all out and sent a dozen red roses to her desk at work and she called him back and said they should definitely go out to dinner because obviously, he knew how to treat a woman.”

I smirked though I knew it was completely immature. “Interesting. Have you seen him into someone like this before?”

“Not really but maybe he just thinks it’s time. He is in his thirties and perhaps he’s ready to finally take that step. As you’ve said on countless occasions, we’re not exactly twenty-two anymore.”

“Speaking of,” I began before I finished the first half of my open-faced smoked salmon and goat cheese sandwich, “we’re not exactly pushing up daisies either. How about we go into the city tonight and experience Oslo properly? Know of any clubs or happening bars where we can have a drink and relax? I feel like a married couple and as we haven’t actually had any real fun since we’ve been here, we can look at it as an educational experience.”

“I’m game,” Colin responded with a smile. “Let me do some research. I am sure we can find a place that will be perfectly suited for the both of us.”





COLIN, EVER THE gentleman, and always looking out for his own interests as well as my own, took me to a place appropriately called the Beer Palace which was conveniently located in the Aker Brygge section of downtown Oslo. We both decided to try what they had on tap and settled on a Norwegian lager that was actually quiet good.

Although they had outdoors seating, I assumed we would be more comfortable inside. The weather definitely wasn’t warm enough to enjoy our time out there until I almost forgot the reason why the outside beckoned for Colin.

“I could really use a ciggie. I have been extra good at my grandparents’ and I swear to God I am trying to quit but these withdrawals are doin’ my head in,” he explained.

I merely smiled in return. “I’m just glad I brought my sweater coat. Come on, we can sit outside.”

We walked to the patio and although I really thought it would be a place full of twenty-something slackers, the crowd was all very well-heeled, mostly businessmen and women who worked in the area and most had plenty of money. The place smelled like money. We were definitely in our element.