‘You’re meant to drink it,’ Henrik chided, though the corner of his mouth quirked up. ‘Time is up. You can put the robe back on.’
I couldn’t think of anything worse than putting a heavy, velvety robeback on. I wanted to remove everything, including my hair. ‘No, I… I… can’t. I’ll have to come out like this.’
He shrugged, grabbed his own robe, and we dashed outside.
‘Ye ha!’ Henrik shouted, leaping off the steps to join Will and Celeste, who were lying on the ground doing snow angels. Adrenaline junkies. The cold was absolute bliss for half a second,then quickly plunged me into frostbite territory and I was freezing once again.
The shouting, running and rolling must all be part of distracting the brain. I stood outside the sauna panicking. Too cold to go forward, too hot to go back. It was a temperature rollercoaster and neither option was enjoyable for more than a few seconds. If only the snow could be warmer, and the sauna could be cooler, it would be perfect. Which was probably where the swim came into it.
‘The pleasure is in the extremes,’ Henrik whispered, as if reading my mind, draping his robe over my shaking shoulders. I wrapped myself up, snuggling into his hood. The warmth was orgasmic, running down my spine and making me tingle. He had a point. These little moments of heaven were almost worth the agony either side.
‘Back to the fire!’ Will shouted, and the four of us ran into the heat of the sauna and glared at the egg timer for two minutes, willing the sand to go faster,faster,faster, before going back out into the snow. Back and forth, back and forth, challenging ourselves to sit in the uncomfortable. I extended the number of seconds before putting my robe on each time and it was excruciating. Five seconds suddenly felt like forever. I couldn’t decide if it was getting easier or harder as we dared each other to keep going, but after forty minutes Henrik called it.
‘That’s enough for today. Well done, all of you, an excellent session – most wouldn’t have kept going for so long. You have more than earned your dinner. Go back, enjoy a shower and relax.’
I was exhausted from the adrenaline of being in survival mode and so,sohappy to get into the heat of the changing room and put my woollies back on. Feeling warmer and happier with every layer, like a human pass the parcel. End to end it had been an hour of focus on something completely different; somethingother than Mark and the dogs, and work and what I was doing with my life. It was impossible to think about anything other than the seconds ticking by while running between the fire and the ice.
