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Still thrown by my unfortunate yet thrilling daydream, I couldn’t seem to come up with a suitable response other than:Please kiss me right now.I looked over his shoulder,searching for something solid and grounded, something to bring me back down to earth and to stop myself thinking about how much I wanted to press myself up against his wet, toned body. Then I spotted a pissed-off Justin and Renee opening the gate to the pool.

‘You don’t make any effort whatsoever,’ hissed Renee. ‘It doesn’t matter what I do or what I wear or if I cook you a meal, all you want to do is watch movies or basketball. It feels like you don’t care if I’m there or not.’

‘Bullshit, Renee,’ bit back Justin. ‘Maybe if you spent less time drinking margaritas with your friends we’d actually beableto spend more time together.’

Theo grimaced at me, almost physically recoiling. ‘Come on, let’s get out. Leave them to it.’

I watched Justin and Renee dumping their bags on a sun lounger. She was standing with her hands on her hips, he was sitting, yanking off his trainers.

‘Don’t you think we ought to do something?’ I asked.

‘Like what, for God’s sake?’ asked Theo.

I ignored him, pushing off the wall with my feet and swimming in their direction. I indicated for Theo to follow me, but as I passed him he looked horrified.

‘What are you doing?’ he said out of the side of his mouth.

Confused, I swam back to explain.

‘When people are arguing, sometimes all they need is a re-set,’ I said under my breath. ‘Someone to come in and change the atmosphere and stop them from saying things that they’ll most likely regret.’

‘And let me guess, that person is you?’ said Theo.

‘Exactly.’

‘Stay out of it, Scarlett,’ said Theo, visibly shuddering. ‘If they keep arguing that badly, maybe they shouldn’t be together, anyway?’

‘I’m not sure theykeeparguing,’ I said. ‘And anyway, they clearly want to make their relationship work, otherwise they wouldn’t be here.’

I thought he was being very over-dramatic. It was just Justin and Renee bickering.

‘All couples argue,’ I carried on, although who was I to say? My general rule was to cave in and give people what they wanted and then there’d be nothing to argue about, would there?

‘Oh, I know that all couples clash,’ whispered Theo. ‘Why do you think I don’t want to be in one?’

I sighed, looking over at Justin and Renee again who were now jabbing their fingers at each other, their voices even louder than before.

‘I’m going to have to do something,’ I said, not able to let it go.

‘Please don’t,’ said Theo, sounding annoyed.

I promptly ignored him. ‘Justin! Renee!’ I called out, waving jauntily as though I’d only just spotted them and hadn’t heard them screaming at each other about ten seconds ago. I could practically feel Theo glowering in my direction as I glided towards them.

‘Scarlett!’ he hissed after me.

I pretended I hadn’t heard him and swam over to the side nearest to Justin and Renee. They were looking a tiny bit embarrassed, but at least they’d stopped arguing.

‘Everything OK?’ I asked brightly. ‘The water’s lovely if you’re thinking of coming in for a swim.’

‘Good idea,’ said Renee, pulling off her shorts and jumping into the water.

‘You coming, Justin?’’ I asked, as though I was totally oblivious to what had just been unfolding in front of our eyes.

He shuffled about a bit and then picked up his bag and trainers. ‘You know what? On second thoughts, I think I’ll head up to the room instead,’ he said.

I gave him a thumbs-up, looking at Renee who was shaking her head, irritated. Once he’d disappeared down the path, I turned to her.

‘Hope I didn’t interrupt?’ I said. ‘I thought you could do with a hand, that was all. Things seemed to be getting a bit heated.’