The narrator is on his first trip to a small island, and he hopes to have a "romantic encounter" with the man he's just met. He's worried that the man doesn't understand the meaning of "dating" . The narrator's dad and the manager of the shop where they're staying are also on the island for a vacation, and the narrator wonders why they had to bring them. He tells us that he and his husband have been married for thirty years, and that his husband's heart is full of weariness. They're going to separate, the narrator says, and they shouldn't be holding on to their unhappy feelings. Life is short, he says, so they should not waste their time with each other. They head off to the beach, where the narrator thinks they'll find a couple who's been eating watermelon together all their lives. He says that if they eat watermelon together, they can do the same thing for the rest of their lives, and then he'll propose to them. They finally finish the watermelon, but the narrator has to wait for the man to propose. He wants to marry the woman he met 30 years ago, but she won't let him marry her. She's the one who has the right to divorce. She used to live with him, but now she's forgotten how hard it is to actually meet him. She asks him to give her another chance, and