“I do want you to feel at home, though. This has the potential to be somewhat long term. I don’t want you to feel like a guest the whole time.” He paused, remembering something. “You’re going to have to speak with my lawyer about immigration forms. He emailed me yesterday. You can stay in the country for up to six months as a visitor. After that you’ll have to apply for something more official. But he’ll take care of everything.”
“Six months in a different country. That’s exciting,” I said, then fell quiet. I got a lost in my thoughts as I ate. Neil and I were moving in together, in a totally different country. It was beyond insane, but since everything else in my life was insane, too, it seemed like a sensible plan to me. I looked up and said, “This is kind of a big step we’re taking.”
“I was just thinking that, myself,” Neil admitted. A cloud of uncertainty shadowed his eyes, his brow drawing down as his gaze fixed on some invisible point between us. “I’m worried that you’ll get tired of me. Or that you’ll feel neglected. I do tend to spend a lot of time on my own, working or reading, or what have you... I like my space. I know we get along when you spend the weekend with me, but even the people we love can become unbearable when we’re getting used to being with them.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of, too.” I sat up a little straighter. “I like to spend time alone. I’ve honestly had doubts that I would ever live with anyone in a non-platonic way.”
He considered. “I suppose if we have our own doubts, we’ll be more conscious of each others’ feelings. At least, I hope we will be. I want to do this right, Sophie.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “But hey, look at us. One crisis out of the way, and I think we handled it pretty well. Next up is—”
“Christmas with my family.”
“I was going to say your cancer, but wow, is Christmas really going to be that bad?” I laughed, my stomach all jumbled. Meeting Neil’s family. This was going to be weird, when he’d only gotten divorced a few months ago.
He looked like he was mentally revising his opinion as he said, “No... I don’t think it will be. I will warn you that Emma’s mother will probably not care for you. I get the sense that Valerie is not pleased that I was involved with someone in the company, and especially with what she’s heard from Rudy.”
“Oh, yikes, I hadn’t even thought of that.” Now I was really not looking forward to the festivities. That, and I wasn’t sure how Emma felt about me. Sure, she’d called me when Neil was in the hospital, but that had been a decent thing to do, whether she liked me or not. All her actions proved was that she was a good person.
“But don’t worry. It’s going to be a small gathering, I’m sure my sister will love you. My mother can’t wait to meet you, now that she knows you’re coming, although that might change by the time we arrive. She has difficulty remembering things, since her stroke. My brothers and their families aren’t coming over this time. They still live in Reykjavik.”
The concept of siblings was so utterly bizarre and foreign to me. My mom was close to her sisters, but it wasn’t the same, watching a sibling relationship from the outside. I did know that I couldn’t imagine one of my aunts not coming home for the holidays. None of them had ever moved further away than Houghton/Hancock, and my mom could get all of her sisters together for Sunday lunch, if she wanted to.
“Do you ever go and visit them?”
“Occasionally. I do like the city. I went to school there.” There was a touch of homesick pride in his voice that was adorable and endearing. “I go back once or twice a year for stockholder meetings. I’m on the board of my father’s company, but my brother, Runólf, is the managing officer.”
I laughed and almost choked on my burger. “Oh, wow. You really lucked out with ‘Neil,’ didn’t you?”
“My parents took turns naming us. I was born on mother’s turn.”
I tilted my head, considering. “Where does Elwood come from? If your father was from Iceland?”
“My father’s father was an Englishman,” he explained. “So my family has had generations of practice at blending the two different cultures.”
“Do you have different traditions and stuff from us? Besides being English?” I’d never been in a relationship with someone from another country before. I keenly felt the pinch of my isolated, arrogant American upbringing.
He looked amused at my ignorance. It reminded me of the first time we met, when I’d blatantly asked him if he was into “stupid girls,” because he had responded so positively to my fumbling conversation attempts. Ten minutes after that, he was in love with me. At least, according him.