She held her bags in her hands, shaking her head at the men who promised the best rates for a taxi before she even reached the queue outside the airport. With each step she kept her bags close, eyes roving to those with swiftly slick fingers ready to dip into an exposed pocket at the soonest opportunity. The sounds and smells of the airport overwhelmed her senses but she kept herself focused on the signs that indicated where to catch the taxis.

"Anna!" She pivoted on the spot, trying to stop her bags flinging out with centrifugal force, and smiled at the sight of an older woman pushing her way through the hoard. "We thought we'd never find you."

"I'm glad you did or I'd risk a Taken moment waiting for a taxi." Anna dropped a bag between them to hug the woman. "How are you Mrs. Hughes?"

"Thrilled you accepted the offer."

"Turn down a chance to spend the summer in Nice studying the ocean?" Anna grinned at her, "I'd be a fool."

"I couldn't agree more." Mrs. Hughes took one of Anna's bags, hustling them through the crowd toward a tall man with imposing eyebrows waiting beside a car while arguing with the security guard. "Mr. Carson, we need to be civil and not argue with the poor man just doing his job."

"I told him we were waiting patiently and then-" Mr. Carson stopped, leaving the guard with a dropped jaw, and extended his hand for Anna to shake. "It's been too long Anna."

"It has Mr. Carson." She lifted her bags into the small boot of the car before taking the rear seat. "I think we'll make his day better if we leave now."

"Right." Mr. Carson left the security guard with a final glare before wedging himself between the steering wheel and his seat to drive them away.

Anna tried to restrain herself from pressing her face to the window as they drove the road edging the coast. The deep blue of the water called to her, beckoning with the wafting breeze as its accomplice through the windows of the car. She smiled to herself and almost did not hear Mrs. Hughes calling out to her.

"Sorry?"

Mrs. Hughes laughed, "You were miles away dear."

"Just thinking of the difference between the beaches here and back home."

"Leeds doesn't have beaches." Mr. Carson barely avoided hitting a smaller car as he tried to merge into another lane and Anna raised her hand to the roof to steady them. "Bloody drivers on the wrong side of the road."

"Technically it's the right side of the road." Mrs. Hughes shook her head, turning back over her seat to Anna. "I hope you're alright taking that other girl's room."

"It was either that or I have to live in student dorms again."

"I wouldn't wish that on anyone who knew how to get themselves out of those places." Mrs. Hughes shuddered, "Though I've liked the staff at the University so far."

"Anyone promising for our research?"

Mrs. Hughes shook her head, "I've had a few requests put in about teaching aides but none of them want the job. I'm sorry Anna but it'll probably just be you and I all summer."

"I don't mind it." Anna pointed out the window, "We're treating that as our lab. How could I mind more hours spent there?"

"Good point."

They drove to the building where Anna managed her bags with one hand and the door buzzer with the other. The woman who answered spoke in fast French and then even faster English before allowing Anna inside. Mrs. Hughes came in with her, discussing with the landlady the change in arrangement, while Anna dropped her bags in the small sitting room.

The kitchen was no more than an island doubling as counter and bar with a small refrigerator and a few cupboards over a small sink. The bathroom cramped Anna and she left the door open just to not suffocate in the tiny space with an even smaller window when she tested the faucets. Her bedroom held a bed almost too large for her and a tiny closet Anna hoped could fit at least one of her suitcases.

She went back to the sitting room, smiling at the landlady and Mrs. Hughes. "It's perfectly fine."

"She says to warn you that sometimes the people upstairs make a lot of noise at night." Mrs. Hughes cringed, "I hope that doesn't bother you."

"Honestly I'm sure I'll be so tired I won't even notice." Anna shook the landlady's hand after pocketing the key. "I'll have first month's rent to you by this evening."

"Good." She nodded to Anna, then Mrs. Hughes, and left the flat.

Anna opened her arms to the space before bringing them back to her sides. "Not the worst conditions I've ever had. And if we're taking about Uni this is more than fine."

"It was a tight squeeze but on a budget and given the distance between this flat and the University I'd say we got ourselves quite the bargain." Mrs. Hughes hugged Anna again, "I'm just so glad you agreed to come. I'd be lost without you."

"And I you." Anna smiled, "My advisor at Leeds says I need to schedule a time to submit my thesis for review but I want another go at it."

"Tit for tat then. I'll review your PhD and you'll take some of the burden of this research off my back."

"Sounds heavenly."

Mrs. Hughes went to say something before gruffing at the sound of a honking horn. "Mr. Carson has no patience."

"It's fine, Mrs. Hughes." Anna gestured to her things. "I've got to get settled and then I'll probably wander a bit, just to get the geography down."

"Not a bad idea." Mrs. Hughes agreed, "I'd offer dinner tonight but I've got a faculty party that Mr. Carson's just dreading."

"You've already done more than enough."

"I'm still insisting that we do breakfast tomorrow." Mrs. Hughes went to the door, "I'll text you the particulars and take you to a lovely little bistro that I adore."

"I can't wait." Anna waved Mrs. Hughes out of the flat and then turned to her bags. "Time to get sorted."

After what seemed like an eternity Anna finally organized the flat to her convenience. Drawers in the kitchen rearranged while she made a list of appliances and utensils she might need. The bed and sofa moved slightly, the carpets straightened, and the bathroom cabinet emptied of what Anna suspected were long expired prophylactics.

With the key secured on a ring she stuffed in her pocket, Anna locked the flat and followed the map on her phone toward the nearest shop. In one of the moments she looked own at her phone Anna ran into something large and very stationary. She took a step back, covering her mouth with her hand in embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking and-"

"It's no harm done." He held up his hands, "I was taking up the pavement and even if you had been paying attention I would've put you out of sorts."

"I don't know if that's true." Anna shuffled in place, taking stock of the man looking far too professional for a stroll down the pavement. "I am sorry."

"I'm not. I got to meet someone who is not only rather polite but also rather friendly." He waved a hand about, "Not something I'm finding from many of the others in this town."

"Really? I always heard Nice was nice."

He narrowed his eyes at her a moment before they crinkled with his laughter. "You're not wrong there. Nice is nice but I mean the deluge of summer tourists and the exhausted locals."

"I wouldn't be overly pleased if I lost my home to invading armies of demanding foreigners every year either." Anna shrugged, "But I guess we all know who butters our bread."

"Or we think we do." He smiled at her, nodding his head. "Pleasure to meet you."

"But," Anna called as he pivoted to walk away. "We haven't really met, have we? I mean, meeting usually means we exchange names and I don't know yours and I don't recall giving you mine so that'd mean we didn't meet."

"We bumped into each other."

"I think I bumped into you."

"Quite literally." His smile took up his face before he extended a hand. "John Bates."

"Anna Smith." Anna took a moment to bask in the sensation of his large hand engulfing her own before they broke the gesture. "Would I be too impolite to ask why you're here, Mr. Bates?"

"Shopping."

Anna giggled, "I meant here in Nice."

"Oh," He exaggerated his reaction, "Why I'm here in Nice."

"Yes."

"I'm here on business so I can't claim to be part of the foreign invasion." He cringed, "Though I warn you, saying I'm here on business sounds far more exotic and exciting than it really is."

"Don't most things?"

"I don't know because you haven't told me why you're here."

"I'm here to work on ocean research for the summer with a former professor and current friend before I finish my PhD and then go back for my thesis defense."

John gaped at her, "I'm beyond impressed."

"Why?"

"Because you're here for business and pleasure."

Anna shrugged, "I guess you could say that."

"Well," John stopped himself, "It really does depend if your business is your pleasure as to whether or not that's true."

"I think it is." Anna opened her hand to him. "And yours?"

"My business can be a pleasure but pleasure is, unfortunately, not usually my business." John sighed, looking around the street before turning back to Anna, "There's probably a reason you're here, at this shop, right now and I don't want to delay you if you have other plans, but would you find it terribly imposing if I invited you to dinner?"

Anna worked her jaw a moment before responding, "I'd be delighted. Though I have to insist it's in a public venue."

"I don't usually take women I just met on the street to anywhere but a public place." John leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially to her, "There's just something about you."

"I do hope this isn't the point where the audience would scream that I'm about to go on a doomed date with the serial killer." Anna played with the list in her hands as John shook his head.

"I promise nothing but chivalry and courtesy."

"Then I assume you're aware that chivalry is mostly rules about jousting."

John laughed, "I had heard that but, in this instance, I'm talking about the proper ways one treats a lady. The jousting part I'll worry about later."

"Proper ways to treat a lady." Anna fell into step with John, the two of them walking up the pavement toward the other shops in town. "I hope you don't mean selling me off for a marriage alliance to solidify ties with a foreign nation."

"We're already in a foreign nation so I'd be a fool to try and get rid of you now." John pointed them down another street, directing them toward a set of stairs aiming at the beach. "Though I do wonder what brought you all the way to Nice to study for a PhD."

"Why don't you take a guess?" Anna waved a hand toward the ocean in front of them as they walked the edge of the sand.

"Holiday studies?"

"Something a little broader?"

"International vacation spots?" John smiled before snapping his fingers, "French food for tourists and its inevitably high mark up."

"No," Anna swatted at him, freezing for a moment until she realized John already shrugged it off. "I'm an oceanographer."

"But we're not by an ocean."

"Everything connects to an ocean." Anna justified, "It's all about the flow of water and there's a lot to study about that here."

John nodded a moment, guiding her out onto the sand after both took care to remove their shoes. "Then you study the world."

"I wouldn't put it that way."

"Maybe you should." John sand on the sand, stretching out to cross his legs and for a moment Anna appreciated the sheer height of him compared to her miniscule frame.

"And why's that?"

"Oceans and water cover seventy percent of this planet. You just said it's all about the flow of water." He leaned back on his elbows, pointing at the ocean before them. "From this point you could travel anywhere on just water. It's the means by which you discover the world."

"Are you secretly a philosopher?"

"No, just someone who's seen a lot of places that share water in common."

"You travel often then?" Anna hugged her knees close to her chest, resting her head sideways on them to look at John.

He did not meet her gaze, frowning at the ocean. "More than I like sometimes and far too frequently to feel like I'm anything but a vagabond."

"I'm a little jealous." Anna shrugged when he looked at her, "I haven't seen much of the world. This is the farthest away from home I've been except for a conference once in Florida."

"Then you're misusing your trade, Ms. Smith." John stopped, "Or should I say Doctor Smith? I'd hate to be impolite and muss your salutation."

"Since I haven't passed my presentation yet… or even finished my thesis I'd say you're fine." Anna sighed, "My advisor's pressuring me to schedule for when I get back in October."

"What happens once you pass your thesis and your board?"

Anna flailed a hand as if shaking something from her skin. "I'll probably be stuck in a classroom somewhere telling kids about why water matters."

"Which classroom?"

"Not sure it matters since none of them really care as long as they turn the faucet and can take a warm shower." Anna rolled her shoulders back, "I had a difficult enough time justifying to my own mother why water mattered."

"Alright," He shifted to sit, like he wanted to pay rapt attention in a classroom before opening his hands to her, '"Go on."

"Go on with what?"

"Start telling me why water matters."

Anna narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you having me on?"

"No, I want to know why water matters so much to you."

"It's critical for survival."

"As a human being I understand that."

"You asked." Anna taunted as John's face crinkled again with his grin.

"I'm not asking for a recitation of facts from a Wikipedia page." He leaned forward, pointing at her, "Why does water matter to the future Doctor Anna Smith?"

She did not answer immediately. When she did Anna held his earnest gaze. "It's what I shared with my father. Every Saturday, rain or shine, storm or calm, hail or wind, hot or cold we're walk the beach just talking about water. We'd talk about everything really." Anna bit down to stop the quiver in her lip, redirecting her focus to the sea glowing with the reflection of the setting sun. "It's where I feel closest to him."

"When did he pass?"

"I was nine. It was a work accident in the fishery where he worked." Anna wiped at her eyes, facing John again, "I'm reminded of him every time I look at the ocean or any large body of water. I remember every conversation and it's almost like I'm back on that beach, with him beside me, walking toward the future with him to share it with me."

"That's beautiful."

"It's the power of water."

"Really?"

"I can tell where a drop of water came from in a few moments." She sighed, "People forget that water travels everywhere but that it has a memory. A unique DNA as complex and identifying as any you find in a human. It's inside us, around us, and the source of all life. It's where we began and how we end."

John whistled softly, "I've never heard anyone speak that poetically about the ocean."

"You did, a few moments ago."

"I spoke about travel." John's eyes softened as they stared at her, "You're talking about the connection to everything through water. That's poetic."

Anna leaned forward, teasing in her tone, "Just wait until I let loose about cephalopods."

They both laughed and John leaned back on both of his arms, watching the water. "I can't wait to hear how passionate you are about the flexibility of a squid."

"You joke but it's what I love about studying the water, studying the oceans." Anna let her legs fall to cross, gesticulating with her hands, "We send men to space and to the highest mountains to discover something while the most undiscovered parts of our earth lay beneath us, as yet untouched by man."

"And you want to go there?"

"I want to see it. Maybe touch the place where all life began." Anna shrugged, "Life formed from the oceans and crawled to land. We're born in an amniotic sack and breathe liquid until we're born. We belong in the water and to the water, Mr. Bates. Sometimes our species just forgets that."

"In that case," John stood, shedding his button-down shirt and shucking off his trousers to leave him in his boxers. "Let's go."

"What?" Anna tried to hide her choke of surprise with a nervous laugh. "Go where?"

"Let's return to the ocean, Ms. Smith." He held a hand out to her, "Or as close as we can get from the Mediterranean."

Anna studied his hand a minute before pulling her shirt over her head and shucking her own jeans. "Alright then. Last one to the water loses."

He grinned, "You're on."