Helga approaches, hardly able to breathe as she reaches him and touches his arm.

As he turns, it’s as if the whole world has gone into slow motion. She drinks him in, the water droplets dripping from her eyelashes, as her mouth opens in a gasp.

It is him.

Linus.

Time has been kind to him in the way that it is to men. His tanned skin is lined from years in the sun and he has a silver goatee beard, a leather band around his neck with a silver pendant on it. He always wore a necklace. She has the original one he gave her on the photo frame next to her bed.

‘Linus.’ It feels like her body is being flooded with light, just saying his name.

‘Helga?’ he asks, as if he can’t quite believe it either.

She’s aware of the skin on her arms and thighs. How she must look so saggy and old.

‘I was in the water and I thought it was you. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe you’re here.’

‘My daughter’s friend swims here,’ he says, but his blue eyes are locked with hers. And the golden energy is now surging between them.

She nods, as her brain scrambles to catch up with the facts. He has children. That figures. And now she sees a wedding ring on his finger. Of course he has a wife. Who wouldn’t have snared a catch like Linus? She’s always known this, logically, but now she understands that there’s a childish part of her that has always wished he’d been waiting for her.

‘I followed your career. You were so successful. I always knew you would be. It’s no surprise you’re in the water. You always were a mermaid.’

My little mermaid. His nickname for her. His eyes glitter as he says it and her stomach erupts with butterflies – old, girlish emotions that don’t belong in an old woman, but they are there just the same. Just as strong.

‘You’re cold,’ he says, and she realises that her teeth have started to chatter.

‘Yes, let me get my towel and coat. It’s just over there.’

He walks with her as she goes to retrieve her coat from where she’s left it in the changing area. She shrugs it on over her wet costume, knowing that she should get changed, but she can’t waste these moments.

‘Do you live here?’ he asks, as she joins him outside.

‘No, I’m just visiting. With a friend. I live down in Brighton. By the sea. What about you?’

‘I’m over for a visit from Oz. I got stuck here for the lockdown. It’s been a crazy year, but there are worse places to be stuck. I’m going back. Won’t be long now.’

He’s been here the whole time? Her Linus. In easy distance? And now he’s leaving to go to the other side of the world?

She reaches into her coat and takes out her notebook, but she drops it, her hands are shaking so much. He bends down to pick it up at the same time as her and their heads are so close together she can breathe him in.