"Kiesha likes to overuse soap when she cleans out the coffeepot!" I yell at the top of my lungs. "That's right. She does. She tries to give our boss the runs so he'll stop asking her to make coffee!"

I kick the incoming surf to punctuate my words.

"Then there's Colleen," I shout. "She likes to hoard office supplies in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet in the backroom cubicle. She's totally OCD."

The pair of sea gulls on my left tilt their heads as if they're listening. One of them flashes its wings at me, egging me on. I turn to them and whisper. "Oh, and you know what, you two, in the last election I actually voted for-"

"What in san hell are you doing?" My husband calls out, cutting me off with a startle as he tramples onto the beach before me. "We can hear you yelling clear across the other side of the island."

"Well, I..." I sputter, blushing under my husband's scrutiny. "I was-"

"What?" He asks, blistered hands on his hips. He's been our main fire-starter and the sticks he's been using have really torn up his palms.

"I was confessing to the ocean."

He rubs his sand-infested hair and shakes some loose. " 'Zat right?" He asks grinning.

I stick out my chin in defiance. "It is."

And then I laugh outloud as he joins in, stepping into the water by my side. "Bob Coefield picks his nose and flicks it as his trashcan in his cubicle at work. Zeva Shanks has a crush on Phil up in accounting, but is too shy to do more than bat her eyes at the oblivious fool. And as for the election, well, I, too voted for-"

And now it's my turn to cut him off. I love this man beside me and can't help but give him a kiss on the mouth as I giggle in his arms.

"Really? Phil?" I chuckle between lips. "Poor Zeva."