Helga sighs, her heart torn. ‘I want to. I said I would, but is there any point in raking over the past? I’m not sure if we’d have anything in common. He’s got a family and …’ She shakes her head. ‘I feel so nervous. Like a silly girl when I’m an old woman.’

‘Oh Helga,’ Dominica says. ‘Don’t be scared. Call him.’

‘You think I should?’

‘Yes,’ Dominica shouts. ‘Hell, yes. Because if you don’t, I will.’

By the time they’re back in Brighton, it’s dark. Dominica drops Helga at the end of the lane, making her promise before she gets out the car that she’s going to go home and call Linus straight away.

Helga puts her notebook in her bag for safekeeping and her keys too, then kisses Dominica before getting out of the car. She’s been a good friend today.

‘Promise me?’ Dominica says.

‘I promise.’ It’s the second promise that she’s made today.

As she walks up the lane, she feels lighter, buoyed up by Dominica’s confidence, like a balloon that might take off. She’s so excited, she starts walking faster towards the hot shower she needs, before she’ll make herself a tea and ring him. She will ring him now because she’s promised Dominica. And they’ll talk for hours. She already knows they will. His blue eyes fill her mind.

She doesn’t notice the man on the corner turn to follow her.

40

Full Moon Swim

Claire is sweating as she parks and bustles across the road to the bandstand. She’s worn far too many clothes under her Dryrobe and, even though she knows the water temperature will be the same as it was yesterday, there’s always the fear it’ll be much colder in the dark, so she’s layered up.

It’s the first time there’s been a mass gathering of swimmers for a full moon swim for a long time. After the shout went out on the chat a couple of days ago, Claire has been excited and nervous about tonight’s swim. There’s the promise of a supermoon when it rises at nine twenty-five, but there’s fairly thick cloud cover and she’s not sure they’ll even see it. Pim was alarmed that she was going out after supper on a Wednesday night and was worried about her swimming in the dark. He rolled his eyes at the boys and Claire knew that, given the chance, Felix would have added to the gesture and twirled his finger by his temple to signify she was mad, but solidarity came from Ash, who, to her surprise, asked her to say hello to Dominica. It felt good to know he was on her side.

She knows it’s because his geography project earned him the best mark in the class and he’s setting up a school beach cleaning team. He’s asked to join the lifeguard training team, too. She never thought he would get into cold water, but he went on Saturday morning in the new wetsuit she’d got him and he came back buzzing. It seems that he’s caught the water bug too.