Standing on the shoreline with a foaming bottle of ‘Cream Soda’ in one hand and a  bag of potato crisps in the other

all the while looking into the small pretty face of a girl in white plastic sunglasses

who was unyielding in her stare whilst sucking loudly on an ice lolly.

‘Where are you staying’?

Said the pretty girl her cheeks drawing into meet one another,

as she sucked the colour from her iced lolly.

Too embarrassed to reply I shook my head and shrugged at the same time.
Intrigued, she tilted her sunglasses with one hand and laughed,

‘where’?

‘I live here’, blushing

I immediately took a long swig of ‘Cream Soda’

 which bubbled and fizzed in my mouth causing me to splutter and choke loudly.

For a moment there was an incredulous silence between us

but as the last of the Cream Soda dribbled from off my chin

 the little girl’s iced lolly slid from its stick dropping with a wet kiss onto the shingle at her feet.

As though on cue,

we both burst into spontaneous laughter as we watched the melting pool of ice soak down into the stony beach.