She’d finished her fifteenth length when she saw that she wasn’t the only one who’d had that idea: she’d just got there first.

Noah’s trunks were royal blue and came to midway down his thighs, like surf shorts. He had one of the hotel’s fluffy towels slung around his shoulders, but other than that, it was all Noah. She saw those strong arms, the muscles fully on show; his legs looked equally powerful, and his chest and stomach were toned, with a smattering of dark hair. Hannah’s thoughts might have already wandered into what he looked like under his clothes, but they hadn’t done him justice.

She was at the far end of the pool from him, and she sank down until only her eyes were above the water, self-conscious in her watermelon-print costume. It was the nicest one she owned, but it was far from new.

Noah draped his towel over a free lounger, folded his glasses on top of it and strode to the pool edge, crouching and sliding into the water in one smooth motion. He swam towards her and Hannah wondered how bad his eyesight was, whether she could glide past him without him noticing. But it was irrelevant, because she was suddenly unable to move. She pressed herself against the side of the pool as the dark curls got closer, and then there he was, beside her.

He pushed his hand against the tiles, was halfway through a turn when their eyes locked. He did a double-take, pulled himself up short and splashed her fully in the face.

‘Shit, Hannah, sorry. Sorry, I …’ he reached out, his hand hovering inches from her cheek.

Hannah wiped her eyes and smiled at him. ‘It’s fine. Hi, Noah. Fancy seeing you here.’

‘It’s not exactly running weather, so.’ He hitched a shoulder up, and she dragged her gaze away from his collarbone, the smooth skin covered in tiny water droplets. ‘You said you swam a lot, back home?’

‘I try to go at least three times a week. It’s good for my head space.’

‘Running’s the same for me: it’s as much about my mental health as my physical. It feels like the ultimate freedom, as if I could keep going forever if I wanted to.’ He was looking at her intently, and she wondered if that was because he didn’t have his glasses on.

‘I love that freedom,’ she replied. ‘Though of course you run out of pool after a bit. Have to turn round and come back the other way.’ She smiled, and Noah returned it. ‘Perhaps I should take up running.’

‘There are a lot of hills in Edinburgh.’

‘Cornwall’s not exactly flat,’ Hannah laughed, gesturing out of the window.

Noah turned and leaned his arms on the side of the pool, then rested his chin on his shoulder, looking at her. ‘Do you ever want to keep going for ever?’

He said it casually, but she could hear the weight behind his words. She copied his posture, their elbows grazing, legs treading water behind them. ‘No, not really. But coming away always makes you reassess everything, doesn’t it? It’s like hitting the reset button. You can see your life from a distance, so you can see more of it, somehow.’