Ben Evans 28 years old seemed to have it all. Two successful businesses and partner with his mentor in Sunset Beach Gregory Richards in a third, a beach house on Ocean Drive and a beautiful wife who everyone in the town adored. But that was only on the surface and why he always was the last one who left The Deep, his night club, and the first one at the Java Web, his internet café, each and every day. He had had his suspicions for quite some time, but hadn’t been sure about it until this past week, his wife since 3 years were cheating on him. Ben had been in L.A on a three day conference for the Liberty Corporation and the last evening everyone had gone out for dinner. At the restaurant Ben had gotten the chock of his life, his wife Maria was sitting at a table with a man and it was obvious that they didn’t care what people saw. Ben had been a bit puzzled about all the trips Maria and Annie had made to L.A lately and now he knew why. Ben excused himself and left the restaurant. He went back to the hotel as it was too late in the evening to drive back to Sunset Beach.
Ben had always loved Maria she was an artist with a free spirit and loving way. She painted the most beautiful paintings he’s ever seen and many families in town came to her for portraits in black and white, you could say that Maria was one of those artists who made a success while she still was alive. They had met in college. Ben had come to UCLA midterm thru contacts by his aunt Olivia who is married to Gregory. Ben’s parents had tragically been killed in a car accident when he was 19 and as he was the only child in the family and Olivia was the closest relative that he knew he made the big move to America. He grew to love the little town of Sunset Beach and the people of Sunset Beach quickly accepted Ben as one of their own. His best friend Casey Mitchum, who he had gotten to know at college, was part time working as a lifeguard while he still studied towards becoming a lawyer. It was Casey he called in the middle of the night from L.A “Casey Mitchum” he answered groggy from being woken up “Hi Case, it’s Ben…” he paused “Sorry to call this late” Ben was kind of a sensitive guy and had a hard time to keep his tears away. ”Ben, what’s wrong” Casey asked as he got out of bed since he had reassured Rae, his doctor girlfriend, that the call wasn’t for her. “Oh Casey, it’s true… you know I had my suspicions about Maria… I saw her with my own eyes this evening here in L.A” “Ben, I’m so sorry, you know I have had just as a hard time to believe it as you” “Are you ok?” he asked his friend “Upset, but I’ll live” Ben answered “I… I just needed someone to talk to” “I’m glad you called me Ben, you can always call me you know” Ben had to laugh “I know” the agreement was mutual and Ben thought about the time Casey had called him in the middle of the night with the happy news that Rae had agreed to a second date. “Do you want me to come down?” Casey asked “Nah, the conference’s over and I’m driving home tomorrow morning, although can I come kip at your place” some of Ben’s old English expressions never wore out and Casey laughed “Yes, you can kip here. The spare room is free at the moment” “Great, I’ll call you tomorrow” Ben said and they hung up.
Back in bed Casey told Rae what had happened. They had had their own similar problem, but it had been that her parents had wanted her to marry a nice Chinese boy, preferably the boy of their closest friends. But as the Chang’s got to know Casey they had accepted him, the only problem now was that they were living together not being married.
Ben tried to get some sleep but around 1.30 he gave up and went over to the desk where he had his laptop set up, his goal had been to work thru some papers and notes from the conference but somehow he found his way to internet and a chat room he had heard people talk about in the bar back home. He read some guidelines to follow if you wanted to find people who liked the same things. He typed “sunsets, Venice and strawberries” then made himself an alias “S.B”
Meg Cummings, 26 years old, a country girl from Ludlow, Kansas had another restless night. It had been going on for a while, Tim her high school sweet heart had promised that Connie her former best friend wasn’t on his mind anymore. That had made her go thru with her wedding plans. The wedding was only a week away, both the bridal shower and the bachelor party was over and a lot of presents were gathered in a spare room downstairs on the Cumming’s farm. She got out of bed, usually when she was restless she went out to the stables to spend time with her favorite horse “Cassie” but tonight she got up and started her laptop. Once before she had done this and almost logged onto that chat room she had heard so much about from her single friends. That time she had made an alias and added her favorite subjects. She had always wanted to travel to Europe and see Venice. The most spectacular she knew was a sunset and a picnic without strawberries wasn’t complete in her opinion. She typed in her alias “Dorothy from Kansas” well that was the best thing she could have come up with that evening. As she didn’t think she’d find anyone to talk to she opened her mail-program to read her mails and at the same time logged onto her Facebook.
Suddenly she heard a ‘ping’ and it was from the chat room page. Someone was matching her ‘likes’. Meg hesitated if she was going to start chatting or not when she saw someone who called him or herself “S.B” type in “Hi Dorothy from Kansas” Meg smiled at her alias, well why not start chatting, it was anonymous after all. “Hi S.B” she said back. “I see we like the same things” S.B said “Yes it seems we do” Meg agreed. “Strawberries I understand, who in the world doesn’t like them” Ben said “But what makes you like Venice, have you been, do you live close?” he didn’t know where in the world this person lived. Meg laughed “No on both accounts, I’ve just read so many books about it. I wish I was going there next week though” she confessed “Oh, are you traveling then?” Ben asked “Yes” was Meg’s short answer, she didn’t know where but from knowing Tim all these years she was thinking of either something close by or Las Vegas for their honey moon. “You don’t seem too excited about your trip” Ben said, having traveled a lot mostly thru Europe with his parents but other places too he actually had been to Venice once in the 80’s. “Well, it’s my fiancé who’s made the plans, it’s supposed to be our honeymoon” Meg typed in “Congratulations” Ben wrote “Thank, I guess” Meg said “You don’t seem too sure” “I don’t know, I’ve got a funny feeling about Tim, something’s not right” “I’m sorry to hear” Ben knew all too well what she was feeling when something wasn’t right, he had gotten his proofs just this night. “What about you S.B, do you have someone special in your heart?” Meg asked “It’s also complicated, probably going towards an end” “I’m sorry to hear” Meg said. Ben felt another piece of his heart break, he had been so happy about meeting Maria, it was about a year after he had arrived in Sunset Beach and things had finally started to feel normal again in his life. “You don’t have to tell S.B, but if you feel like it I promise not to tell anyone else” “Are you working as an angel?” Ben asked “No, LOL” Meg wrote “Why do you ask?” “Just got the feeling that you’re a kind person all way thru” Meg couldn’t believe it, she felt the same towards S.B and that from only chatting… she looked at her computer clock “Two hours” she accidently wrote “What?” S.B asked “Oh, did I write that out loud? We’ve been chatting for two hours” Meg told him “Yes we have” Ben answered after having checked the time “I better log off” Meg said “It’s soon time go get up and feed the animals before I get to work” “I better try and get some shut eye too” Ben wrote “I’ve got an early drive home” “It was nice talking to you S.B, maybe we’ll talk again” Meg said “I’d like that Dorothy from Kansas” Ben said back. They both logged off. Meg turned her computer off and went to bed. The few hours that was left of the night she slept well and dreamed about eating strawberries in Venice while watching the sun set in the horizon with a tall dark and handsome man.
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All connections to Sunset Beach and real life characters are purely for your pleasure.
©tinadolphin@comhem.se 2012-
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