‘You couldn’t make this up.’

‘Nope. Okay, no time to waste. Operation window leading to operation evacuate invalid wife imminently commencing.’

I smile at him and he smiles back, and in spite of everything it feels good to be here, alone with my husband.

*

It was his determination that won me over. Back then, when we met at the student union bar at Oslo University, he wasn’t so special. He didn’t yet possess that easy authority that he does now – that came with money and power and age, but he embodied a grittiness I hadn’t seen before in a Norwegian boy my age. When you grow up in one of the richest countries in the world, where the school system is rather relaxed, and you’re statistically speaking unlikely to have faced any real challenges in your early life, it’s perhaps understandable that Norwegians often seem to be unusually laid back. Some might call it lazy, but it isn’t that, exactly; it’s more an ingrained belief that life doesn’t have to be a struggle and so why sweat it? It’s an easy enough attitude to cultivate in a country that has organized itself in a way that means life isn’t too much of a struggle for most people. A lot has been achieved in terms of gender equality and bridging the class divide. People are fairly compensated for the work they do, there is little unemployment and a livable minimum wage. We leave work at four on the dot and most people have access to nature and use it frequently for recreation. There is no reason to be fiercely ambitious, or work into the early hours – those qualities aren’t expected or particularly celebrated. And yet, that is what my husband is like.

He needs to be top dog and best at everything. Those qualities could have impacted Eirik’s likability but the reason they don’t, at least not in my eyes, is that he only compares himself against himself. He doesn’t gloat or make unfavorable comparisons to others, he merely acknowledges his victory and moves on. I wonder what he will do once he breaks through the ceiling of his own ambitions. Will he be able to just enjoy it and not chase the next achievement, or will he always be chasing the next thing?