They still had time for a swim before dinner. Luca put on the bikini she had purchased for the occasion. She had only tried it on twice: once in the shop, once while sunbathing on the balcony; and now she put it on for the third time, by the wall the other side of which was covered in shit.

The minibar offered tiny bottles of liquor, small cans of Heineken, and chocolate. Robi took out a bottle of vodka, unscrewed the cap and held it towards Luca. She thought about the afternoon, the holiday, the time she could now spend with herself, with herself and with Robi; she took the bottle and downed the vodka. Robi stepped closer and kissed her neck. ‘Leave me alone, I just showered,’ Luca wanted to say, but remained silent because on holiday nothing matters, only passion, intimacy, the moments to be shared together. The man stroked Luca’s belly, his fingers already groping under the bikini bottom, unstoppable like an approaching storm. Luca peeked at the clock: it was only an hour and a half until dinner and they hadn’t even swum yet, they hadn’t done anything relaxing, and Robi wanted to fuck now! She’d have to shower again afterwards and there’d be no time left to relax at all.

Luca kneeled down and unzipped Robi’s pants.

‘I want it to be good for you too,’ he whispered.

‘It’s good for me like this,’ said Luca, trying not to think of the room next door.

The pools were in the basement. An Olympic-sized pool for the swimmers and several smaller ones filled with hot thermal water renowned for curing a number of chronic diseases. But you couldn’t stay in them for too long; each pool had its own warning sign about how long a person could remain in the healthful water before it turned harmful. Luca made a mental note of the dangers of the thermal pools. In one of the pools an old man spread out like an oil spill, his plump arms floating around him, his eyes closed. To Luca he looked dead, but surely he was only resting. Children were jumping into the swimming pool, their piercing screams echoing from wall to wall, even though a sign grimly stated: JUMPING PROHIBITED.

Robi stretched his arms, looked around the swimming facilities with a smile on his face, then jumped into the pool as well.