You're Mine Now by Koppel Hans Page B

don’t need to worry about that.’
    ‘Good, glad we agree.’
    Sissela turned to Anna.
    ‘Well, we’ll leave you in peace then. Don’t want to disturb the creative process, do we?’
    Sissela left them in a good mood. Anna pointed.
    ‘Let’s sit down in the meeting room.’
    She walked in front of him over to the glass box where Erik and his older colleagues had presented their slightly sad subscription campaign the week before. She held the door open, let Erik through, then went in and closed the door behind her. Erik was carrying a tablet instead of a briefcase. He put it down on the table and looked at Anna.
    ‘Sit down,’ she said, indicating one of the chairs.
    Erik settled and glanced out at the editorial office on the other side of the glass. Anna had her back to the open-plan office.
    ‘They can see us, but can’t hear what we saying,’ Anna said with authority. ‘Everything we say has to be said calmly and quietly, no agitated waving of the arms. Understood?’
    Erik nodded.
    ‘We’re two adults talking in a normal voice,’ she continued. ‘You’re here to discuss various proposals for the campaign that we both know is not going to happen.’
    Erik turned his head to the side and looked at her in amusement. Then he looked past her out into the office. Anna felt uncertain.
    ‘What are you looking at?’
    ‘Nothing,’ Erik said, without moving his eyes.
    Anna turned round and saw that no one outside the glass box was paying them the slightest bit of attention. She looked at Erik, who was smiling. He’d taken control without any effort whatsoever. Anna didn’t understand how that was possible. It was her workplace, her territory. She straightened up, changed position and took a deep breath.
    ‘You phoned me when you were drunk,’ she accused. ‘On a Sunday, when I was at Väla with my family.’
    ‘Have you never been drunk?’ Erik asked.
    ‘In the middle of the day on a Sunday?’ Anna asked, with contempt. ‘I don’t think so.’ Erik didn’t seem bothered.
    ‘I was over in Denmark,’ he said. ‘Had a couple of beers, felt lonely.’
    Anna stared at him, tried to force him to look away. Erik had no problem meeting her gaze. She lost and was forced to shake her head so she could carry on.
    ‘What are you playing at?’ she asked.
    ‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand.’
    ‘You turn up just a block away from my house in the middle of the night, you call on a Sunday when I’m with my family, come here when nothing has been arranged. What is it you want?’
    ‘I thought you said we were going to talk with normal voices.’
    Anna forced herself to breathe deeply three times.
    ‘What do you want?’ she said. ‘Please tell me.’
    ‘To start with, I want to know what you meant when you said that there won’t be a campaign.’
    ‘I mean, what do you want from me?’ Anna interrupted.
    ‘What do I want from you?’ Erik repeated. ‘Why?’
    ‘Don’t you understand that there can never be anything between us?’
    Erik struggled to keep a straight face. Anna felt her temper rising.
    ‘What are you doing here? What do you want?’
    ‘Well, I partly wanted to talk about the campaign and I partly wanted to see you.’
    ‘I don’t want to see you,’ Anna said, unemotional and clear. ‘I’m not interested.’
    ‘Since when?’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    Erik sat up.
    ‘What’s changed?’ he asked. ‘You wanted to last week. Why not now?’
    ‘I’ve got a family.’
    ‘You’ve had one all along.’
    ‘Erik, it was in the heat of the moment.’
    He looked at her.
    ‘That sounds good,’ he said. ‘The heat of the moment. But there were more moments, weren’t there?’
    Anna clasped her hands on the table and leaned forwards.
    ‘Erik, listen to me.’
    She looked him straight in the eye.
    ‘There can never be anything between you and me. I am not interested. Do you understand what I’m saying? What happened happened. And until yesterday, I thought it was something