Lost in You

Chapter 4

We're swept away in work the next day once everyone has left for the hill. I feel like an elf that comes out of the walls and cleans before vanishing again without anyone seeing me. A little bit of magic would have surely helped, I think when I unlock the next room that looks like someone threw their open suitcase through it. "Won't you at least give me a little tip?" Maja asks and goes into the bathroom. We've changed strategy in favour of us being still able to talk. While before we each started at opposite ends of the corridor and met in the middle, now we take the room together and switch between who has to take the bath and who the bed. "No. You'll have to find your own strategy, but don't worry, it wasn't that hard," I say with a grin and think back to my encounter with the ski jumper. I wonder if he'd do the same favour to Maja. "But you totally killed it if you didn't lie to me." She comes out of the bathroom to shoot me a testing look. I laugh. "Of course I didn't lie. Three people as we said." She still squinted at me. I hadn't told her about the little girl or the ski jumper. Only boasted how easy it had been to make someone eat salad in the morning by telling him about made-up research that tomatoes in the morning are good for the gut. I did feel a little bit bad when I left, but I kept telling myself that I wasn't harming anyone, simply encouraging them to try something new for breakfast. That ski jumper definitely could not complain. He'd gotten away the best with his cookie. "And now keep working, we still have a few rooms to get done before they come back," I say and go back to making the bed. Instead of returning to the bathroom with a fresh trash bag, Maja stops in the door frame to check her phone. I straighten and watch her frown over the display. "What are you doing? We really have to get this done. I thought we were doing the longer ski tour today," I hiss, knowing that our plan would only work if the rooms were done within the next hour. Maja looks up and gives me an apologetic glance. "I might not have thought you'd make it this morning and tried to learn a few names of the athletes instead of the ingredients of the jam." Instead of telling her to stop and being uninterested, I come closer. I tell myself that it is very normal to want to know the name of someone I talked to over the past two days. "Are you checking the results?" I ask when glancing over her shoulder and running my eyes over the table that she's opened. Maja nods. "Look we're winning," she says and I sink down again. There are no names. "But who?" I ask, hoping she'll open another page. Maja giggles. "It's a team competition. So right now, before the second round, Germany leads," she explains patiently like I'm a little child. "Oh. Right," I mumble, remembering those from grey afternoons I spent cuddled in a blanket with a cup of tea in my hand in front of the TV of my parents. Thinking back to it now, I wonder why I haven't done that more often. It had been so cosy and I'd know more names now. "Why do you sound so disappointed? That is great," Maja laughs and finally pockets her phone again to go back to work which thankfully makes me get around an answer. Once we've found our working rhythm, we get quickly through the rest of the rooms. Partly also because Maja doesn't need to check her phone during the break and the second round. Still, by the time we cleaned out our carts and are back in the room to change, I hear the first people coming back from the hill. Maja checks her phone again while wiggling into fleece-lined pants. I have to hold back to not do the same. I'll figure out his name tonight when we usually scroll through our phones and she won't ask questions. At the same time, I'm not sure why I haven't told her about my encounter. Maja would have surely found his name in a few seconds and then analysed his behaviour for the rest of the night with me. Right now she's stopped wiggling and looks sulky at the screen. I giggle. "What happened?" "We didn't win. Norway did." She actually looks a little upset about it which makes me burst out in laughter. "A day ago you didn't even know a single athlete," I get out between waves of laughter. "Well now that they're around, I'm invested," she says, but already smiles again. "Should we stay here then, or will you be able to ski after the disappointment?" Maja sighs theatricality, before laughing as well. "I think I'll cope." Then she throws on a jacket and we grab our skies that seem to take up half the space in the small room, but it's worth it. It means being able to ski whenever we can instead of having to watch the opening hours of the renting store. The hotel has gotten louder by the time we go to the lift. "Do you think they're doing a big celebration?" I already dread the state of the rooms at the thought of it. Maja shrugs. "My guess is as good as yours. The competition tomorrow is rather early, so maybe we're lucky and they won't have time." The lift rings to let us know that we've arrived at the entrance hall. A full entrance hall. "I'm glad that we get to leave now," I mumble and Maja nods agreeing, but her eyes travel curiously over the people entering the entrance hall. I almost expect her to tug on my sleeve and start telling me the names she's learned. Instead, she pulls me closer to her when I almost run into a group of people entering. When I lift my eyes, he's already looking at me while walking past. I feel like I walked into a film and someone pressed slow-motion when our eyes lock and he smiles. I smile back before I can think better of it. Then he looks away because someone talks to him and the world starts moving at a normal speed again. Which means I get the hit from Maja with full force. "What was that? Why was he smiling at you? And even more important, why were you smiling back?" "Ow," I rub my arm where she hit me with her ski pole. "That was Marius Lindvik, one of the main reasons we lost today. You're basically flirting with the enemy." Despite her words, I could tell that she wasn't actually mad, more curious and trying to figure out what she missed. I only feel my heart skip a beat at the sound of his name. Finally, I had a name. Without knowing it, Maja had saved me a lot of time on Google tonight. "I wasn't flirting. We only met twice. Until a minute ago, I didn't even know his name and he surely doesn't know mine. So I have no idea why he smiled at me," I give Maja the answer she's still waiting for. "But you were smiling back. In fact, you looked like you forgot I was even there at that moment." I can tell that I'm blushing, so I lower my head and pull her out of the entrance hall with me that still keeps filling. "Of course I was. It's a reflex when someone smiles at me, I'll smile back," I say. Maja scoffs. "As long as you're aware that he's going to be gone in two days and crushing on one of them will only make it worse." "I'm not crushing on anyone," I snap, but I realize that I hadn't considered that the weekend is almost over again. Or that I could possibly be sad about it.