Annie relished how weightless the water made her feel. How when she was under, she could only hear the sound her arms made when they cut through the surface and the rushing of her breath in her ears. She’d missed this and as she pierced through the water, she sincerely hoped Jane was not having too bad a time in the shop.

She couldn’t stop herself from fantasizing for a split second. She dreamed that Jane was enjoying being in the shop so much, that Annie would be able to come to the pool at this time of the day—when no school children occupied half of it—twice a week. What a luxury that would be.

But the shop was her responsibility. It always had been. Having an hour extra per day while making a higher profit had already been a huge gain.

She emptied her mind again, because that was the thing about being in the water, and only having to focus on her turn at the end of every lap. She could do that here. Her mind could become as weightless as her body felt.

Annie didn’t feel her age when she was in here. She forgot that in three short years she’d be turning sixty. Annie didn’t mind aging that much. In fact, she was quite fond of the advantages it held. Gaining perspective was the one she enjoyed most. But she had a wife who was twelve years her junior. And then there was that other reason she’d been looking at herself in the mirror more critically of late. A certain someone who kept popping up in her mind, no matter how hard she swam and tried to empty it.

She allowed her brain to conjure up another fantasy—one decidedly not involving her wife. What if Kristin, for some reason Annie couldn’t be bothered to specify, decided to drop Sheryl off at the university and, while she was in the neighborhood, took the opportunity to have a swim in the Newtown public pool, which wasn’t anything special, but this was just a fantasy so it didn’t matter.

Would Kristin be a one-piece swimsuit kind of woman or would she opt for a bikini? Annie didn’t know her that well yet, and it was hard to gauge. Kristin came across as very functional, which would put her in the one-piece camp. But she was also always immaculately decked out, which meant she found looking good important, which could perhaps persuade her toward donning a bikini.