My plan was for today to just sit in my room and relax since it was my day off, yet those plans changed. It was getting close to noon and I heard my phone vibrating on my nightstand. I peeked over to see who was calling me and it was Beam. What does he want now?

"Yes?"

"You could sound a little more thrilled to talk to me."

"Well you're interrupting my ME time sooo..."

Beam was really bad at sarcasm, he always sounded like he was being serious even when he wasn't trying to be.

"Oh-oh well I'm sorry!"

"Is that you trying to be sarcastic?"

"Uh... Yes. Does it still sound bad?" I began chuckling, "It's terrible!"

"Damn it! But anyways, I didn't call you so that you could make fun of me! I called you because I wanted to know if you had plans today since it's your day off."

"Oh, I see... Ummm, no I guess I don't have plans. Why?"

"Do you, uh, want to go to the beach? Maybe? With me?"

"Who else would I go with?"

"Right! Duh!" Beam is so silly, it can be really cute at times.

"Sure, let's go to the beach. What time were you thinking?"

"Really? Cool! Like, maybe I can come pick you up in an hour?"

"Okay, that's fine with me. Is there anything in particular I should bring?"

"Ummm, if you plan on swimming then a bathing suit and a beach towel. I'll bring drinks and food."

"Are you sure you don't want me to bring any food?"

"Nope! I'm inviting you, so let me worry about that stuff."

"Alright, if you say so. I'll see you in an hour."

"Bye Tabi!"

"Buh-bye!"

A beach day with Beam... This should be interesting. We've never done anything like this before. We normally just hung out in the city and went to the same places, so going to the beach with him will be a change of pace. I wonder if he's bringing anyone else? I mean, I would assume so because it would be kind of boring if it was just me and him. I'm sure he would get bored quickly because I usually just like to take naps at the beach. Oh shit! I don't think I have a bathing suit!

I sprung out of bed and went looking through my drawer of clothes. I have a bathing suit top, but no bottom. How does this always happen to me? I never have both pieces, only one. I wonder if Fah has a bathing suit I could borrow.

I walked out of my room, and knocked on her door, no answer. I guess I can try calling, I just hope I'm not bothering her. Suddenly, her door swung open! Fah looked half-cocked, she probably just woke up.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to wake you up!"

"Uh... It's okay... What's... Hurrrrr... Up?"

"Do you have a bathing suit I could borrow?" I usually try not to borrow her clothing, but every time I would ask she would size me up. It confused me each time because she knows I fit into most of her clothes.

"Hmmm... Yeah I do. Hold on." Fah turned back around into her room and started rummaging through her closet. Less than a minute later, she came back over and threw me a lime green two piece bathing suit. I held it up and examined it, "Umm, Fah?"

"Is there something wrong with it?"

"No-no! It's really cute, but it's a bit... Cheeky..."

"Cheeky?"

"Like the bottom piece looks like a g-string." Fah started snickering and with a cocky smile, responded with, "How else are you supposed to seduce Beam?" This girl, I swear to God!

"OH MY GOD! STOP IT!" My cheeks felt like they were burning up. I don't even think of Beam in that way, so I'm not sure where her mind is.

"Tabi, just wear shorts if it bothers you!"

"Ugh! Okay, fine-fine! Thank you. I'll return them, I promise."

"It's fine... Hurrrrr... I'm gonna go back to bed." Before I could say anything else, she shut the door. Fah was definitely not a morning person.

I went back into my room to put on the bathing suit, and just as expected, half my ass is showing. Even the top piece is a bit low-cut. I shouldn't be surprised at how revealing this suit is. Fah was very confident with her body, and she didn't mind showing the world that. I threw on a pair of shorts, a loose gray T-shirt, and black flip flops.

After an hour passed, I received a knock on the front door. I grabbed my belongings, and opened the door. Beam was standing there, giving me a little grin. Beam was always so well dressed, I guess that's to be expected from a model. He was wearing a Hawaiian pink button-up, white shorts, black Adidas sandals, and had these round black sunglasses on, that reminded me of hippie glasses.

"You look nice-" Why did I just say that to him? I glanced down at my feet, feeling a bit embarrassed at what I had just said. I didn't want to see what his reaction was.

"Oh, uh, thank you! You look nice too!"

"Yeah... Thanks... Anyways, are you ready?"

"Yes! Let's go!" I shut the door to my apartment, and I briskly walked past Beam. We walked outside and got into his car. He even had a nice car too, I think it's a Mercedes, but I could be wrong. I don't know anything about cars, just how to drive them.

As we began driving, I discovered that there was no one else in the car.

"Are we meeting up with people there?" I wanted to know this because I usually like to mentally prepare myself when I meet new people, especially if it's going to be any of his model "coworkers".

"Hmmm, no. It's just us."

"Oh. Okay..."

"Why? Did you want other people to come?"

"No-no. That's fine. I was just wondering."

"Yeah... I know you don't believe me, but I don't hang out with a lot of other people, so I thought it would be nice to do something different today. I don't think we've ever left Bangkok together."

"That's true. Where are we going exactly?"

"We're going to a beach in Cha-am."

"Oh, where's that?"

"It's a little further south. Probably over a two-hour drive, but you'll like it there! It's one of the nicer beaches that are closer to Bangkok.."

"So we'll probably get there around 3ish?"

"Yeah, probably... You can take a nap if you want too."

"No, that's fine. I don't want to be groggy when we get there."

For the next 2 and a half hours, we talked about the area we were going to and what our goals were for today. Beam said he wanted to go swimming, whereas, I just wanted to lay down and soak up some vitamin D. Beam also brought up stuff about his family, "Tabi, what are you doing in like, hmmm, 3 weeks?"

"Uh... I don't normally think that far ahead, but probably nothing special. Why?"

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"Well since I've been hanging out with you a lot, I've brought you up to my family-"

In a sarcastic tone, I responded with, "Aw! You talk about me with your family?"

"HA! HA! Don't be too full of yourself!" I could see Beam's ears turning red. It was fun making him feel nervous, and that was too easy to do. Beam continued, "No, but seriously, ummm... My family wants to meet you..." I was not expecting that! Meet his family? I mean, it really isn't that big of a deal, nevertheless I started feeling nervous now.

"Oh... I... I see. I, uh, guess that should be fine. But why?"

"I-I dunno. My mom insisted on it, and then my younger sister chimed in, and also wants to meet you too. My dad just agrees with my mom no matter what... Sooo... Yeah. Maybe it's because you're the first American friend I've ever had? I-I I'm not sure..."

"Right... It would be nice to meet them... Was there something they wanted to do, or just hang out at their home?"

"I'm not sure... Look, Tabi, if you are just saying this to be nice and you feel uncomfortable about meeting them, then that's totally fine. I won't be offended!" I could see Beam had an anxious look on his face, while he was still focused on driving. Of course this made me uncomfortable, but probably not in the way he's thinking. I'm just not sure why they would want to meet me. I didn't want to pressure Beam into asking him all these questions.

"Beam, it's really fine. I'd be happy to meet them." He quickly glanced over at me, and I showed him a reassuring smile. He seemed to relax a bit more after that.

It was probably closer to 3 hours since the traffic getting into Cha-am was a bit more crowded than we anticipated. As we started getting closer to the beach, I got a whiff of the ocean. This reminded me of the beaches back home in California. It started making me feel a bit homesick, but I didn't want Beam to see that, so I put on a happy face.

We pulled up to a parking lot that was located near the beach and grabbed our belongings out of the car. It was beautiful outside. The sun was shining down on my skin and there was a light breeze. I expected it to be more crowded on the beach due to the traffic we ran into, however there weren't that many people. This was nice, I didn't want to be surrounded by a bunch of couples or families. I just wanted me and Beam to enjoy our time here.

I began laying my towel out and Beam busted out this big ol' beach umbrella. I didn't even notice him carrying it before, which had me cracking up. Beam was trying to stick the umbrella into the sand, when he saw me, he looked at me with a half-amused expression, "What's so funny?"

"When... the hell did you bring that umbrella out?"

"You didn't notice me carrying the huge umbrella?"

"Hey! I was taking in the scenery... Not staring at you!"

"Mhmm... Sure you were!"

"Psh! Whatever!"

I was already lying down on my towel before Beam was down setting up the umbrella. Once he was done, he finally laid out his towel and started unbuttoning his pink Hawaiian shirt. I had my sunglasses on, so I was really hoping that Beam didn't notice that I was staring at him like a weirdo. He was much whiter than I thought, and his body shape was small, but not too skinny. He's very natural looking, and I know he's mentioned to me a few times that he works out occasionally, so perhaps he just doesn't gain muscle easily.

While I was distracted, eyeballing his body, all of a sudden Beam turned around to face me. I spun my head so far in the opposite direction that I slightly hurt my neck in the process.

"Are you going to change?" I don't think Beam noticed me, phew! But, wait! What did he just say?

"Uh, what?"

"Oh-oh... I-I didn't mean it like that!"

"Like what?"

"Oh, ummm... Nothing! Anyways, I'm going to go swimming! You should come!"

"Uh... I don't know. I'm not much of a swimmer..." That was a lie. I mean, I'm not much of a swimmer, but I really wanted to go swimming. I just didn't want Beam to see my bathing suit.

"Oh come on Tabi! We didn't drive all the way here for you to not go swimming!" Damn it... He was making this difficult!

"Fine-fine! But you get in the water first and I'll join afterwards!"

"Fine weirdo! I'll see you there!" Beam began running down towards the water. He reminded me of a little kid seeing the ocean for the first time. I'm not sure why, but whenever I see Beam happy, it instantly puts me in a better mood. Maybe it's because he's told me about his own personal problems, so I feel a closer connection to him? I wasn't sure what the feeling was, still it was a nice feeling to have.

Beam was swimming around now, which meant he was far enough to not see me get into the water. As fast as I could, I took my shirt and shorts off, and ran into the water. The water felt so amazing! It wasn't too warm or too cold. It was the perfect temperature.

Beam must've seen me because he began swimming back towards me. I was still able to stand on my feet, but not by a lot. And of course, when Beam got closer he was easily able to stand up with most of his upper half of his body showing.

"The waters are nice right?"

"Very nice! It's definitely much different from California's water!"

"How is that?"

"It's way colder!"

"HA! Oh, that's too bad! But now you can say you've experienced warm ocean water!"

"That's true! This is one for the books!"

"Do you want to swim out further?"

"Oh, uh... I don't know! It makes me a bit nervous..."

"... You can... Uh hold onto me if you want to?"

"How the hell am I supposed to hold onto you while you're swimming? That seems really difficult!"

"No-no I don't think it would be! You're small, so you could just, uh, wrap your arms around me from the back... Like when I go under water, then you go under water..." I stared at Beam suspiciously and wondered if that even made sense. I started to consider what he said, hmmm... I mean, I guess that can work... I think when I was a kid I was able to do that with my mom, so I don't think the height difference would be a problem .

"Ok Beam! Let's go! But you gotta promise me you won't leave me behind!"

"Really? Yes, okay! I promise Tabi, I won't leave you behind... Okay, now wrap your arms around me and just move along with my body, alright?"

"Okay!" As Beam was facing the directions of the waves, I was staring at his back. I started to put my arms around him, he flinched!

"Are you seriously ticklish?"

"Uh-uh... Well don't do it so slow! Just quickly wrap your arms!" Jesus, what a baby! I did what Beam told me to do, I swiftly wrapped my arms around his stomach. My body laid against his back, now that I think about it, I don't think me and Beam have ever hugged before. Beam spoke up, "You ready?" Before I could say anything, he began swimming. It was an uncomfortable position, but it surprisingly worked. As he swam more out towards the ocean, every so often we both would dive underwater, beneath the waves. I held onto Beam so tight that I thought for sure he wouldn't be able to handle it, but alas we made it far enough to where the waves were much calmer.

I was still holding onto Beam when he finally said something, "... Tabi you can let go now..."

"Oh, right!" I instantly let go of him, and automatically started to float in the ocean.

The ocean was much more clear than California's water. It was calming and the surrounding area was sublimity. If I had a boat, or something to float on, I don't think I could see myself ever leaving. Since we had gotten to the beach late in the day, the sun was low which cast a sparkle on every part of the tiny ripples. As I gazed out toward the rest of the water, I muttered, "... It's alluring..." Beam must've heard me because he responded with, "Yeah, it's intimidating, but tranquil..." I couldn't agree more. Beam was peering out towards the ocean, and I couldn't keep from focusing on his features. His hair was slicked back-which most of the time his hair was always covering his forehead, so being able to see his full face made him seem even more stunning. I was smiling to myself, and when Beam glanced over at me, I couldn't avert my gaze.

"Wh-what are you staring at?"

"So-sorry, I just don't think I've ever seen you look like this before..."

"Like what?" He looked anxious, and his expression made me feel stupid, so I faced back toward the ocean and said, "It's nothing... Sorry..."

We decided to swim back toward the beach. We did the exact same thing before, I wrapped my arms around Beam while he swam back. Once I was able to touch the bottom of the ocean bed, I let go of him and began walking ahead. Beam followed behind me without saying a word. As we got closer to our spot, where we had laid the towels out, something had come to mind... My fucking bottom piece! I spun around so fast that it made me feel dizzy! I glared at Beam, and he had his head down, not making eye contact. Out of sheer embarrassment, I shouted out, "THIS ISN'T MY BATHING SUIT!" My cheeks were flushed, I wanted to jump back in the water and die of embarrassment. Beam stood there, still not looking at me, and quietly said, "Uh, it-it's ok..." I must have scarred the poor boy. No one wants to see their friends' asses, especially when they're old! It's just cringy to see. Without turning around, I walked awkwardly while still facing Beam to reach for my towel that was lying out on the folding chair. I wrapped it around my waist and collapsed on the sand. I wasn't sure what to say because the more I thought about it, the more I realized I probably shouldn't have even talked in the first place. God Tabitha, keep your mouth shut!

Beam sat down next to me, with his towel draped over his shoulders. We didn't say much to each other, instead we watched the waves crashing down on one another. Besides me wearing a skimpy bathing suit and making an ass of myself, this moment right now is where I would rather be. When me and Beam hang out, sometimes we don't say much and I'm okay with that. We kind of just enjoy the silence together.

After a few minutes passed, Beam started talking, "Hey Tabi, can I ask you a personal question?"

"I suppose you can."

"You promise not to get upset?"

"Ummm, it depends on the question, but I'll try my best not to..."

"... Would you ever get remarried?" What kind of question is that? The word marriage makes me feel sick, like I'm about to puke. I did promise Beam I wouldn't get upset though.

"Ummm... I don't know to be honest... I've never really thought about it."

"Oh, ok."

"If I did decide to get remarried again, I think it would have to be with someone that understands that I have a lot of baggage... Someone who wants to settle down... Someone who I can feel calm with... I don't know..."

"I see."

"... Why do you ask?"

"Oh-uh, I'm just curious... I mean we've talked about a lot of personal stuff before, so I was just thinking about that... That's all." I didn't think it was too odd that Beam asked that question. He always asked questions like that before, especially personal ones. At first, it would really bother me, however over time I've grown used to the out-of-nowhere quizzing.

"Hey Beam?"

"Yeah?" He was still sitting crossed legged on the sand when he peeked over at me. His hair was drying up and poofed out more.

"Do you want to watch the sunset?"

"Sure Tabi." He had a joyful smile on his face, in return I smiled back.

While there was still daylight, we chatted on and off, and at one point Beam took a nap. As the Sun began lingering over the water, I gently shook Beam awake, "Hey..." Beam must've been a light sleeper because he popped up like a bullet.

"Y-yeah?"

"Sorry! But the sun is about to go down..." Beam gazed out across the ocean, still trying to wake up from his cat nap. When his eyes met with the light of the Sun, they widened, "... It's so pretty..." At this moment, I wasn't even looking at the sunset, but at Beam. There was something about him that made me feel empathetic and hopeful. I wasn't sure why I had felt this way and this kind of thinking also shot a pain of guilt in me too. I know my happiness comes first, however I had this urge to make Beam happy too. Soon the pale tint of orange that illuminated Beam's face grew darker, as did the backdrop. The once beautiful crimson scenario had now turned into sheer darkness.