Chapter 36: The Oasis of Green Roofs

Chapter 36: The Oasis of Green Roofs

When Saturday morning arrived, as the north wind was blowing hard outside, Ethan came up to me with a cup of coffee and made a calm proposal. He asked me if I was okay with us spending the whole weekend sheltering at home, resting and acclimatizing to be fully ready on Monday, our first official day of work at the publishing house. I looked into his blue eyes and immediately replied that I wanted exactly the same thing. I needed a respite from the outside world to finish digesting so much beauty.

We spent those two days inhabiting our daily lives with perfect harmony. We cooked together trying new combinations, and in the evenings, while the Icelandic cold hit the windows, we took refuge at the foot of the stone fireplace; I lay down to listen to his hoarse and deep voice, reading me the paragraphs of the book he had given me, teaching me the music of his language. If the sky opened up a little, we would go for short walks around the fjord, breathing in the scent of the damp earth.

We even took the time to set up a tiny vegetable garden in a corner of the yard, a space just for the two of us, where we planted the first seeds with our own hands. It was our first physical project rooted in the land of Akureyri, a mute promise that we were going to stay and watch what we were sowing grow.