"Benny's Botticelli Beauty!" The front page headline from the tabloid, the National Reporter, was bad enough, but Susan Shaw was horrified by the accompanying pictures of her and poor Benny, making the most of the contrast between her zaftig build and Benny's small stature.

"...Benny's appetite for this woman is only matched by her obvious appetite for food..."

Susan threw down the paper, feeling at once embarrassed and humiliated. She looked up into the sympathetic eyes of her best friend, Gwen Delaney. The two women sat in Susan's sitting room in the staff quarters of the private school where Susan and Gwen's husband worked. The two women were a study in contrast. Susan was tall, abundantly curved, with long auburn hair and large expressive eyes. Gwen was tiny and quick, her Asian father evident in her straight blue black hair cut pixie fashion, and her almond shaped eyes now flashing with anger.

"It's disgraceful what that rag is allowed to print," Gwen said. "You should sue!"

"God no!" Susan said. "That's all I need--more publicity. Wouldn't the public just love that. Fat girl sues over insults..."

"Hey, cut it out," her friend said. "No one with half a brain will buy into that rag's version of things."

"But the problem is," Susan said bitterly," they're not far off the mark. He did grab me in that parking lot that night. He did have pictures of me plastered all over his shack."

"Poor befuddled little guy," said Gwen. "I'm still finding it hard to believe that our Benny is this crazy stalker. I mean, I know he's a little eccentric, but he's always been so harmless and I can't see him capable of writing all those secret admirer letters. It just doesn't fit."

"I know what you mean," said Susan flopping back onto the couch and draping her arm across her aching brow. "He was so very sweet to me when I first started working at Highgate. I'd run into him all the time when I took walks around the campus. He never talked to me, but he'd smile and once or twice he gave me bouquets of wild flowers. I thought it was kind of sweet." She shivered.

Gwen smiled. "I kind of feel sorry for the awkward soul. I remember the day he showed up at the front gates looking for work. He was so timid. The principal almost didn't hire him, but Benny turned out to be a really hard worker and he did a surprisingly good job around the grounds."

"I know," said Susan, her exhaustion showing in her voice. "That's why this whole situation is so distressing. Gwen, what if it wasn't Benny?"

"But they have the evidence," Gwen said.

"All circumstantial." Susan sat forward and rubbed her temples. "Lord, my head is pounding."

"Too bad they couldn't trace those secret admirer notes," Gwen mused. She stood and walked briskly into the bathroom.

"I tried after about the third one arrived and they started getting weird and angry," Susan said. "I took them to the police myself but they said they were written using a standard PC and laser printer so virtually untraceable."

Gwen returned and handed Susan a bottle of Aspirin. "Big help, weren't they," she said.

Susan smiled her gratitude and quickly swallowed two tablets. "Well, they seem to think they solved the case with Benny's arrest. No one seems too concerned that he didn't have a computer, nor I suspect, the intellectual capacity to write the notes. God, I just go round and round with this."

"You need to get away," Gwen said, pouring fresh cups of tea for them both.

"That would be lovely," Susan said with a sigh, "but where? I can't afford anything too extravagant, not on a teacher's pay."

"And not with you carrying the whole load of debt from putting Justine through..."

Susan held up a hand and grimaced.

"Please ... don't start."

"What about..." The phone's strident ring interrupted Gwen. Susan reluctantly picked up the receiver.

"Hello," she said, prepared to slam it down if it proved to be another reporter. "Oh hi Justine." Although it was her fraternal twin sister on the line, she was only marginally less apprehensive about the call. Justine could be as troublesome as the tabloid press.

"I've got a proposition for you." Just like that ... no preliminary niceties ... no inquiry about how Susan was doing.

"How much will it cost me," Susan said and then regretted the bitterness of her outburst.

"God, don't be so bitchy," Justine fired back. "I'm trying to do you a favor but if you don't want..."

Susan grimaced at the underlying whininess that was creeping into Justine's voice.

"No, no," she said, "I'm sorry. What did you want to say?"

Gwen mouthed what looked like "coward". Susan stuck out her tongue in response.

There was a sight pause and then Justine continued.

"I'm down here in the Quintero Islands," she said and Susan felt an immediate stab of envy. International models got to lounge about the Caribbean, but not hard working private school teachers.

"Lucky you," she said.

"Yeah, well, a dear friend of mine..." There was a mile of insinuation in that phrase. "...a single dad, has a 9-year-old daughter. He's looking for a private tutor for the summer. I told him all about you and he's prepared to offer you the job."

Susan was caught off guard. It was completely out of character for Justine to do anything out of pure kindness. Susan suspected that the man was her latest conquest and the 9-year-old was cramping her style.

"Babysitting some spoiled rich kid is not my idea of a restful holiday," Susan said.

"God, you can be so snotty sometimes," Justine said, to which Susan laughed in derision.

"Look," Justine said, her voice thick with barely controlled pique. "I just thought you might want to get away from--your situation for a bit, and Steve is prepared to pay very well and you're always going on about money..."

"Because I never have any," Susan thought.

"...so take it or leave it. I don't really care. But I think you'd be really stupid not to."

Susan closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. She hated to admit it, but the thought of getting away to a tropical paradise was very compelling. And she had worked so hard the years since their parents had died. It was Susan who had taken on the task of getting them both educated and Susan who had supported her flighty sister when she went into the uncertain field of modeling.

When the insurance money had gone, Susan had taken the highest paying jobs in her field she could get to maintain living expenses and pay off university loans. She'd worked two jobs and taken extra work in the summers. Even though Justine's career had taken off and she was earning more, Susan was still carrying the financial load for them both.

Resentment filled Susan. Why shouldn't she take this opportunity offered by Justine's rich boyfriend. How hard could it be?

"I'll do it," she said.

"Great." She and Justine discussed logistics for a few more minutes. Susan hung up and grinned wearily at a curious Gwen.

"Looks like I'm taking your advice," she said and told her friend about Justine's offer.

"It will not only keep you safely way from those creeps from the media," Gwen said with excitement," but it's a chance of a lifetime. Just think of it! The Caribbean ... blue water, white beaches, warm sun all the time!"

"Don't forget, spoiled 9-year-old and my dear sister lording it over me.'

"Okay, stop being a party pooper," Gwen said. "I'm so jealous." And Susan laughed, her headache fading for the first time in days.