Encounter

I swim at an outdoor pool every day, here in Tel Aviv. I'm an architect working for myself, so have time to choose when I swim, and that's usually midday or a little later at around two, so I can get a morning's work done. I'm friendly with a few people at the pool and make the usual small talk, but it's mostly a short stay in the sun, a two-kilometer swim, and then back to the office for a light lunch and back to work. Last Thursday, my schedule was really changed, and here's the reason why. I was sitting in the sun for fifteen minutes pre-swim, checking some messages on my phone, which isn't easy to do in the sun, its rays reflecting off the small screen. A woman took a chair near mine. I hadn't seen her before and understood that she was a visitor rather than one of the members.

She wore a one-piece costume, which I always find attractive, cut high over the hips, and had the body of a regular swimmer. I'm fifty, in good shape, as I swim every day. I think she was perhaps a few year