I’m swimming, the lukewarm water is splashing my eyes. I savor the sting. I don’t want to peer down into the abyss. I can feel seaweed brushing my feet, and it’s making my legs tingle.

On the horizon, a flash of blue. A stately woman brushed in turquoise stands on the surface of the water. She holds a single ice cube between her fingers – a flame catches and envelops it. It’s beginning to melt down her hands, and just as the first drop falls, she says “Not yet.”

Years later, I hobble along the wall in the lobby of the Lane Hotel. My back aches – we’ve been doing wedding planning all day and I’m sore. I’m heading to the spa, when through a window, I spot a flash of blue by the pool.

She turns to spot me, winces, then opens her mouth, and an ice cube slips out. She plucks, and holds it out, dripping.

I rush over to see her, a swirl of blue and white. A flame sprouts from the cube. The flame erupts, consumes the cube, and crystallizes – an ultramarine gem.

“She’s yours.”