Fran sighs irritably as she opens the door to the hot tub room and finds it empty. She must have just missed them. Although, actually, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. It would have been tricky getting Renata on her own while she had company. Fran heads back through the door, pauses as she hears splashing from the hot tub and turns to see Renata’s head break through the surface of the water, her blonde hair clinging to her face.

‘Hi.’ Renata reaches for her towel and dabs at her face. ‘I was practising holding my breath. There’s not much else you can do here.’ She laughs. ‘Want to get in?’

‘No, thank you.’ Fran closes the door and moves closer. She perches on a hard wooden chair beside the tub. ‘I just wanted to say hello.’

She smiles in what she hopes is a warm friendly manner but suspects might look more like the fixed grimace of a fairground clown. ‘One of the things that just came up in my session with Tom was that I need to be more open. He’s believes that I’m emotionally repressed. He’s absolutely right, of course. Even my own mother doesn’t know me and … um …’ She stumbles. The conversation is much harder than she anticipated. How do normal people open up to each other?

‘Don’t be nervous.’ Renata smiles at her. ‘I’m not a judgemental person. Anything you share with me won’t leave this room.’

Interesting, Fran thinks. Renata’s parroting some of Tom’s favourite phrases. She shifts on her seat, her awkwardness and frustration increasing as she tries, and fails, to think of something to say.

‘I might be a bit of a lost cause,’ she says finally. ‘I think perhaps I’ve embraced self-help too late in life. Is this your first retreat?’

Renata shakes her head. ‘On no, I’ve been on loads, but Tom’s the best. He’s so incredibly warm and approachable, you know? I flew to America once to see one of their superstar motivational speakers but it was awful. I felt like I was at a rally or something. And any downtime you had you were hassled by sales people to sign up for this course or that. Tom’s not like that at all. He does this to help people, not to make money.’

‘Oh yes,’ Fran says. ‘Tom and Kate, the … goodness … just seems to flow out of them.’

Too much, she wonders? But her words have an almost transformative effect on Renata.