Page 8 of Common People

‘Why you are the way you are. Your parents are perfect, Max. They’re like the parents everyone wished they had. It makes sense why you’re so bloody lovely.’

‘Stop it,’ said Max, reaching down, holding her hand and then pulling her into a hug, before he kissed her as the train pulled into the station. They boarded the train, and found two seats. Max took the aisle and Emma the window, and the train slowly pulled away, back into London.

‘Do you think we’ll be like your parents one day?’ Emma asked, a searching curiosity in her eyes.

‘I hope so,’ he replied, before he leaned across and kissed her again. ‘I really hope so.’

Nothing ever changes if nothing ever changes

Before he left the flat, Max did a brief Google search on cold plunging, and to be honest, it looked awful, and so as he walked to Clapham Common, he couldn’t help but feel a certain amount of trepidation. He also wondered why he had agreed to do this without giving it much thought. Why did he think he was the sort of person who could just jump into ice cold water with no prior experience? He was the type of person who wouldn’t get into the shower until it had reached optimum scorching hot temperature, and after a quick deep dive, he discovered that the water in the cold plunge would be about 10°C, and the heat in the average sauna was between 65°C and 90°C. Surely the cold plunge would give him hyperthermia, and the sauna would cause severe overheating. The combination of the two sounded like the perfect storm for some sort of medical emergency. At his first run club, everyone had watched him throw-up, and now they might witness him having a full-scale medical incident. He had wanted to step outside of his comfort zone and have new experiences, not end up in the local A&E!

Max walked to the meeting spot, just outside the cold plunge sauna experience on Clapham Common, and Bethan was the only one there. Despite his hesitation about what they were about to do, he was still fifteen minutes early. He walked towards Bethan, slightly nervous to be alone with her. He definitely found her attractive, and it was clear she was smart, bright, and after what had happened at run club, kind. Unlike Charlie, who had revelled in mocking Max for throwingup mid-run, and had quickly given him the nickname ‘Chunder Boy’, Bethan had just made sure he was OK. The problem was, Max knew he was in no fit state for romance. After Emma, he needed time to work on himself, and make sure he was at least something like the best version of himself before he dipped his toe in the dating pool again. Despite knowing this, there was something about Bethan that sparked something inside of him.

‘Hi,’ said Bethan brightly, as he walked over. It was a warm day and she was dressed in denim shorts, and a tight white lace top with quite a sunken neckline, which against her olive skin, looked stunning. She had a Cotopaxi duffel bag, which he imagined had all of her things for the cold plunge and sauna. Max was carrying an old Jack Wills backpack he’d had since university.

‘Hello, and before you say anything else, I want to apologise again for what happened at run club. You were great, so helpful, but again, sorry.’

‘Max, it’s fine. It’s hard to start exercising again.’

‘True, but I bet I’m the first person to have ever puked at run club. I’m right, right?’

Max looked at her, waiting for her response, and then she smiled at him. ‘Fine, yes, you’re the first, but like I said, it’s fine. No judgments here.’

‘So, you aren’t going to be calling me ‘Chunder Boy’ from now on?’

She giggled. ‘Unlike Charlie, I am not only, “in it for the bants”.’

Max laughed. ‘You are not. You are very sweet.’

‘Thank you,’ she replied, blushing ever so slightly, and she looked away from Max for a moment, and then the other members of Common Peopleappeared. Max had a strange mixture of relief that everyone else had turned up, and also sadness because he was enjoying his time alone with Bethan. Hefelt comfortable with her, and there was definitely a little spark of something, wasn’t there? An agonising tension that caused a frisson of excitement whenever they were within a few feet of each other. You couldn’t fake feelings like that. The problem with Max was that he’d had so many feelings over the past eighteen months, so many ups and downs like a rollercoaster, he wasn’t sure of himself anymore. He wasn’t confident in his ability to make decisions, and to know exactly what he was feeling. Whereas before the accident, his emotions and feelings were solid things, since they had been like snowflakes, and despite trying to grab hold of them, they just melted and slipped through his fingers, lost to the ground beneath.

Once everyone was there, they all got changed into their cold plunge, sauna outfits. Max hadn’t been sure what to wear, and was feeling quite self-conscious about exposing his body, especially in front of Bethan, but all he had was a pair of old swimming trunks that he hadn’t worn since his last holiday to Spain with Emma. A last-minute attempt to cheer him up, and help him deal with the overwhelming grief of losing his parents. In hindsight, it had been a lovely thought, but at the time, he just hadn’t been in the right headspace for it. All he had left from that holiday were some pretty depressing memories, a few photos on his phone, and a pair of swimming trunks bought last-minute from TK Maxx.

Max apprehensively left the changing room, and headed out to join everyone else. The first thing he saw was Joe, in a pair of bright orange shorts, his belly hanging over the top of them, laughing at something with Hope. Charlie was in a pair of expensive looking slim navy shorts that clearly had some sort of brand logo, and he looked good in them. Max did envy his body, which was lean, a hint at a six-pack, completely hairless and slightly tanned, and he was well over six-foot. Next to him was Anita, in a pink and yellow one-piece swimsuit, Eve, lookingghostly white in a blue and white polka-dot bikini, and then Hope in a simple black one-piece. Finally, Bethan emerged from the other changing room. She had on a red one-piece swimsuit, and from the moment he saw her, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. She was gorgeous, but he also knew that whatever he felt for her, it wasn’t going anywhere, and for all he knew, she could be happily shacked-up with a long-term boyfriend. He needed to focus on what was ahead of him, instead of daydreaming about a girl that was completely out of his league and off the table for so many reasons. She was a complication he didn’t need in his life at that moment.

‘Right everyone,’ said Hope when they were all ready. ‘We have the whole place for an hour. There are three cold plunges and the sauna. My advice is to frequently switch between them, and Max, if it’s your first time, no longer than a minute or two in the cold plunge, mate, or you’ll be in trouble. Lastly, have some fun!’

‘Hell yeah!’ said Charlie. ‘Ready for the polar plunge, Chunder Boy?’

‘Fecking eejit,’ said Eve. Clearly, she had no patience for his public-school boy banter. ‘Ignore the giant baby, Max, and do whatever it is you want.’

‘Just joshing, old boy,’ said Charlie, slapping Max on the back, before he swiftly hopped into one of the cold plunges, slowly lowering himself in. ‘It’s all about breathing. I just listened to a pod with Wim Hoff.’

‘Whose Wim Hoff when he’s at home?’ asked Joe. ‘Was he the one inBaywatch?’

‘That’s David Hasselhoff,’ said Anita. ‘Knight Rider. Oh, there’s me showing my age.’

‘Wim’s the G.O.A.T. of cold plunging,’ replied Charlie. ‘Practically invented it.’

With the testosterone high outside, Bethan, Eve, Anita and Hope started off in the sauna, while Joe suggested that he and Max try the other two cold plunges. It would be good to get it over and done with before the heat of the sauna. Max agreed and so a couple of minutes later, he was gently lowering himself into the cold plunge, feeling the freezing water surrounding his body for the first time. He had never felt anything like it. His first reaction was obviously to get out, but Joe and Charlie told him to just focus on his breathing, and he would be OK. Joe and Charlie had both done it before because it was something Hope thought was good for them. Charlie, always one to prove himself, would stay in the longest. Joe, despite his size and “extra padding” – his words – said he still found it difficult, but that it was worth it afterwards.

Max closed his eyes and focused on his breath. It was bitterly cold so it felt scorching hot against his skin, almost like it was burning. However, as he sat in the cold plunge tank, slowly breathing in and then out, his eyes closed, he felt something else. The thing about grief was that it was all-consuming. It overtook every part of his body and brain, and so when he drank, it was just to feel something else. To forget for a moment the horrible thing that had happened. Sitting in that cold plunge tank, it was so overwhelming that it made him truly focus his mind. For the first time in a long time, he wasn’t thinking about anything else. He was clear and focused.

‘Right, you’d better get out, Max,’ said Joe, standing up too. Charlie was still going at it in the other plunge tank. He looked cool and in control. Max stood up, shivering, and they got out, immediately going into the sauna, where Hope, Anita, Eve and Bethan were chatting. From the glacial plunge to the steamy heat, it was a real assault on the senses.

‘How did you go?’ Hope asked Max as he walked in, putting his towel underneath him before he sat down. The woodensauna had two benches, one above the other, and the women were all on the top bench, and so Max and Joe sat on the bottom one.

‘Yeah, good. Bloody cold, obviously.’