“Did he miss doing it? Squeezing the baubles, I mean?”

“I don’t know,” said Ava. “I never asked.”

In the end, the shore was closer than it had seemed. Fifty strokes more, and they felt sand beneath their feet and cold air against their skin. Alicia slipped and shivered her way up the beach on feet too numb to feel the pebbles. Ava put an arm around her shoulder.

“It’s all right,” she said. “This is the worst bit. Get a couple of layers on and you’ll start to feel better. Then you’ll be all high and giddy for at least the next six hours.”

“I wish we lived somewhere warmer,” said Alicia. Her teeth chattered so hard she could hardly speak. “Can’t I come with you when you go?”

“Go? Go where?”

“To Thailand,” said Alicia, struggling with her t-shirt. “To the beach, and the place with – ow, my fingers hurt – with the beach huts with straw roofs and the cocktails in coconuts.”

“Alicia.”

“I’m not asking you to pay or anything. I’ve got savings. How much is a ticket?”

“Far too much.” Ava picked up Alicia’s jumper and pulled it over Alicia’s head. Then she helped Alicia get her hands down the sleeves and out again, before grabbing her own clothes.

“More than a thousand pounds?” She hadn’t got a thousand pounds, but her dad kept a stack of cash in a box in the bottom of his wardrobe.

“I can’t take anyone. I’m sorry.”

“But Finn said he didn’t think it would be long till he came out… ”

“It will be,” said Ava, her voice suddenly fierce. “A very, very long time. His book’s coming out soon, he’s got to stay for that, and then afterwards… ” she stopped. “He needs to get old first. Like me.”

“You’re not old.”

“I am. Old and dried up. I’ll frighten all the locals when I walk out onto the beach in my swimming costume.”

“That’s stupid, you wear your swimming costume all the time and you don’t care what anyone thinks. I don’t have to share your hotel room, I could sleep on the beach.”

“Damn it.” Ava put her arms around Alicia and held her tight. “I’m sorry. But no.”

Alicia let her arms fall to her side and went stiff and rigid. After a minute, Ava let her go and tried to look into her face. Alicia sat down to put on her trainers.

“Are you warming up yet?” Ava sat down beside her.

“A bit.”

“Want to borrow my jacket?”

“No thanks.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Alicia,” said Ava patiently, “don’t sulk.”

“I’m not sulking.”

“Yes, you are. I hate it when people tell me no as well. But – oh look, there’s Finn.”

Finn shambled across the beach with his hands in his pockets and his trainers hanging around his neck. Ava waved, and Alicia saw his arm go up in response.

“You two are like sea goddesses,” he told them. “I had to paddle to the cave and it was so cold it hurt. How do you do it?”