They gave the waitress their order of beef in mustard and savory sauce for Sören and mango, avocado and pear salad for Anna.
No wonder she´s so thin, Sören thought again. He leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his red wine. Anna was drinking mineral water.
“So Anna, tell me about yourself. Where are you from, what do you like? I´m all ears.”
And she gave him a rather extended account of her past, her likes and dislikes, which were plentiful , her ambitions and her plans for the future. So here at least was a woman who wasn´t afraid or reluctant to discuss her life with him. That made a nice change, Sören thought. Or did it? Why was he comparing Anna to Clarice all the time? Why couldn´t he just relax and enjoy this woman´s company without thinking about her all the time? He was actually annoyed with himself. He tried to concentrate solely on Anna and their conversation, which she seemed to enjoy so much that she switched over from mineral water to wine. In fact she emptied most of the bottle of red that Sören had ordered , since Sören was driving and had to watch his alcohol level. The drink-drive-limit was zero percent in Sweden and Sören was already over the limit with only one glass of wine and he had only recently paid a hefty fine for being well over the limit. He had almost lost his licence when the police had stopped him just short of the Ölandbridge. So he was being careful.
Sören looked at his watch,” Wow, that late already. Where are you staying, Anna? Is it close by?”
“Well actually I haven´t booked into a hotel yet. I was planning to do that after our meeting. But then I didn´t know you´d invite me to dinner. You wouldn´t have a place for me to stay over night, would you Sören?”
She looked at him adoringly out of big, bright eyes.
Sören didn´t really need a more obvious invitation than that. “You know Anna, you needn´t bother with a hotel. I have loads of room at my place. Why don´t I pay the bill and we can leave?”
“Sounds good to me.” On the way to Öland he regretted inviting her home to Rettinge. What if Clarice was still up and saw him arrive with Anna? But she had been without a hotel room and it was late. He couldn´t let her sleep on the street, could he? Why did he actually care what Clarice thought? And why was he justifying bringing a woman home to his house and his bed? He was free and single and not involved in any way with a red headed, single-minded, sarcastic theoretical physicist, was he? Sören didn´t think she´d care anyway, so why should he feel guilty? Except he did.
Chapter 7
Clarice was having a bit of a bad morning.
First she had worked on her M-theory, which was an extension of String theory, till late in to the night, but without making any progress or getting anywhere close to a solution. And then when she had just decided to call it a night she had heard Sören´s Volvo speed up the alley and watched him disembark with a blond woman, dressed to kill and obviously enamored with him.
The two of them had disappeared in to the house together and a couple of minutes later she had seen the lights come on in his bedroom. Actually she only assumed it was his bedroom, since she had never set foot in it herself and wasn’t really planning on it in the near future. She was upset and she didn’t know why.
He was her landlord, not even a friend or anything and that was the way she wanted it. She didn’t want to become involved with anyone, even if he had been interested.
Which he obviously wasn’t.
For a short while she thought she had detected a slight romantic interest in her on his part and had quickly withdrawn to her shell, but he had never acted on it and had obviously moved on. Good, perfect. He could be happy with Blondie, that was fine with her. Then she had woken in the middle of the night due to a recurring nightmare which always left her feeling shaky and vulnerable. As usual she hadn´t been able to get back to sleep.
Of course her thoughts had gone to Sören and his blond femme fatale, who were probably snuggled up tight in the arms of Morpheus. That image did absolutely nothing to improve her mood. Especially not at four o’clock in the morning. But then she grudgingly decided that it really was best for Sören if he pursued other amorous interests, since she was a troubled woman with multiple traumas that she yet had to resolve. Sören didn’t deserve to be burdened with her troubles and as Aimee Mann sang very aptly,”Noone´s got that much ego to spare.” Then again Aimee Mann also sang “It’s not going to stop till you wise up.”
And Clarice was making a lot of progress in the wising up department, especially since she had been living in Vickleby. She felt secure and sheltered on the island and at Rettinge. Her nightmares had receded in the past few months and when she did have them, they were less daunting and powerful.
Still, it was all for the best if she and Sören didn´t get involved just then or ever.
Except that in the morning the water in her shower was cold again and she really, really hated cold showers. The temperature had dropped a little outside and the supermodern, energy saving heatpump always took its time adjusting to the outside temperature. She hadn´t actually managed to study the instruction manual yet, so she didn´t know how to get extra hot water.
And to top of her morning, she discovered Per Nielson peering through her bedroom window. This was not the first time she had caught him peeping through one of her windows or Tilda´s windows. He did it all the time and she had taken to keeping the blinds drawn until she was properly attired. Clarice had not spoken to Sören about this, because she knew he was getting enough trouble from Anna, Magnus and Tilda about Per´s constant and annoying presence on the gård.
She was a little surprised though, that he hadn´t acted more vehemently towards having him removed somehow and she couldn´t really fathom why. Two nights ago she had even seen him come out of the main house when Sören had obviously been at home. It was all a little strange.
There was a knock on her door. She peeped outside. It was Tilda. As usual Tilda looked a little uncomfortable and apprehensive when encountering Clarice. Clarice gave her a broad smile to make her feel more secure.
“Hey.”
“Hey. I was just wondering, I don´t want to bother you, but is your heat pump not working, either? I mean do you have only cold water too?”
“No, it isn´t. It´s a real bummer, isn´t it?”
“Yeah, I had to wash Oscar with cold water this morning and he really didn´t like it.”
“I´m not surprised. Listen, I´m going over to tell Sören. Maybe he knows how to work these things, he had them installed after all.”
“Oh, good. Could you, I mean do you mind asking him if he can fix mine, too?”
“Sure, no problem.”
“Oh thanks, thanks a lot.”
Clarice quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a sweater and purposefully marched over to the main house. She entered the house via the kitchen entrance at the side, as she always did. Nanna, Sören´s housekeeper was busy making more coffee for the happy couple.
“He has company this morning, Clarice,” she whispered, even though there was no way Sören could have heard her from the wide and spacious dining room.
“A dreadfully thin woman who drinks a lot of coffee.”
“Well good for him,” Clarice said.
Clarice had actually taken to visiting the big house and chatting to Nanna while she prepared Sören´s meals on a regular basis. Nanna had been Sören´s nanny when he was small and had stayed on as the cook when Sören got too big for a nanny. She was a cheerful, slightly overweight woman of about sixty withlively blue eyes. She and Sören were very close. Nanna was an excellent cook and Sören had several times invited Clarice to join him for dinner, because Nanna always cooked far too much.