‘Yes, usually,’ I said, but when we got to the door it was locked.

‘That’s a shame,’ said Marlon. ‘I love a lighthouse. What’s round here?’

He took me by the hand and led me round the base of the lighthouse until we stood at the furthest point from the beach. There was just the lighthouse on one side of us and the ocean on the other. I stood with my back against the white stuccoed wall.

‘I love the sea,’ I said. ‘I can’t imagine ever leaving it.’

I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks and the mournful cries of the gulls before they were snatched away from us by the wind. If there was a better place to be, I didn’t know where it was.

And then I felt something warm and delicate brush across my lips, like butterfly wings. My eyes pinged open. Marlon was standing very close, his face millimetres from mine.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but I couldn’t resist. You don’t mind, do you?’

I was very surprised to discover that I didn’t mind at all. I tilted my face towards his and closed my eyes again. Marlon, quickly getting that this was a green light, leant in and kissed me again. It was tentative, tender, as if he might bruise me with his lips. It was lovely. But oh, so clichéd! I nearly laughed out loud at the corniness of it all, what with the waves crashing and the gulls calling overhead, but I didn’t want him to stop so I held it in.

I don’t know how long we stood there, kissing like teenagers. Five minutes, ten?

And then,

‘Shit!’

I shoved him off me with so much force that he almost fell backwards. His face was all confusion and then hurt.

‘Sorry. Did I do something wrong?’ he asked.

‘The tide!’ I shouted, dodging past him. ‘We’re going to miss the bloody tide!’

I set off at a run, round the lighthouse and back to the causeway. I could hear Marlon stumbling after me.

‘Shit!’ he said when he saw the water.

The causeway was already underwater, the waves lapping over the stones. I started to panic. We just couldn’t get stuck here. I’d be a laughing stock.

‘We’ll have to run for it,’ I said, and then I set off, splashing through the water as fast as I could without falling.

‘I love an adventure,’ shouted Marlon after me.

‘Shut up and run!’ I screamed back. He was such an idiot. I liked it.

We made it to the mainland without drowning, which was good, but our feet and legs were soaked through and the rest of us was pretty damp. I was starting to feel cold already and my teeth began to chatter, although that was probably more from the shock than the temperature.