Joey felt that he had not talked to his best friend for far too long and he felt the need to remedy that. He was an impulsive person and he very much hated postponing things. Checking the time, he found that it was just in the very early hours of the morning. Any red-blooded person would be in bed by now and no sane person would call someone at this hour just to say hi, but Joey never considered himself sane, not completely. Switching his bottle of beer over to his right hand, he grabbed the phone with his dominant left. Sure enough, Ben was asleep. On the third ring, a groggy voice droned from the other end of the line.

"Still asleep, eh Benny?"

"That you, Joey? What's the problem?", Ben drawled in a sleepy voice.

He hated to be disturbed in the middle of a sweet dream.

"The problem, buddy, is Tara. You need to tell her to step down on those massages, they seem to be weakening you a lot."

"Is that all? You're just jealous. See you later."

Ben disconnected the call and rolled back into his sleeping position. A massage from Tara? Well, he had never thought of that before. It would be exquisite! He smiled at the thought as he drifted off to sleep.

Joey shrugged as he heard the line click off. Perhaps the crazy bum was enjoying his sleep too much. Well, who wouldn't be with such a girlfriend beside you every night? Yes, he was jealous and envious and covetous when it came to extremely beautiful women like Tara, but he didn't need a lecture on it. Drink in hand, he got to his feet and walked over to the balcony of his beach house. He was living on the top floor of the building, mainly so he could enjoy the view for miles around. He scanned the area idly, looking for nothing in particular. He breathed the sea breeze and smiled in satisfaction. As a very busy IT staff member, he had very little time for women and dating as much as he'd have liked. As a result, he lived alone. This worried him, but what could he do about it? He had to work and pay the bills, you know. Feeling in a surveilling mood , Joey picked up his long-range night-vision binoculars and scanned the quiet area. He could see the waves lazily rippling against the shore as the wind blew a little harder.

He sighed and was just about to turn back to go catch a few hours sleep when something caught his eye. Something... no, someone was moving across the beach toward the water. He refocused the binoculars and found that he was actually watching a woman, a young woman. Funny enough, she looked familiar. As the woman looked around to see if she was alone, Joey caught sight of the outline of her face. Damn! He knew her! What the hell was she doing here at this time of the night? From the way she moved, she seemed to be in a hurry. He watched her progress with rapt attention as she approached the shoreline. What did she have in mind? He watched with bated breath as she now moved into the water. She kept on walking. He felt that he had already let things go too far, but before he could decide on what exactly to do, what he saw next made him gasp. A closer look at her and the binoculars fell off his hands. He stood stunned, mouth agape just like a stone statue. Then he suddenly turned around and ran back into his rooms, closing and locking the door behind him.