Joe hung up the phone, frowning. He'd been right. He would have bet his entire year's salary that Frank was sitting at home tonight, instead of out celebrating his birthday. What was it going to take to get him to move on with his life? Joe sighed and glanced up as Ashlee sat down beside him.

"What’s wrong?" she asked, her pale blue eyes searching his. She reached out and took his right hand. Joe turned her hand over in his, quietly examining the slender tan fingers ending in brilliant red, perfectly manicured nails.

"Oh, nothing really," he replied. "It’s just that I was right."

"I thought you liked to be right," she said with a smile.

He turned slowly to her, moving his left hand slowly up her arm, then across her shoulder, finally entwining his fingers in her silky blond curls. It was true, what he’d told Frank. Sure, he and Bess had a thing of some sort going, but it wasn’t serious. Both liked to play the field and tonight, he had promised to take Ashlee out for a night on the town. Somehow, he didn’t feel in the mood to party tonight, though. "I wanted to be wrong this time." he finally said.

"Want to tell me about it?" she asked.

"It’s a really long story," he answered.

"We’ve got all night," she said, moving in close to him. "We could order some Chinese, curl up together here on the sofa, and you could tell me what’s made those gorgeous baby blues of yours look so sad. The whole story. Even if it takes all night."

"You really want to know?" Joe questioned. "Or are you trying to find an excuse to spend the night here. ‘Cause you don’t need an excuse for that," he said lazily, trailing his hand back out of her hair and slowly down her arm.

"Silly boy," she said, slapping playfully at his hand. "I really want to know. I like you, Joe. I want to know more about you. What makes you laugh; what you’re favorite things are; and what’s got you looking like you’ve lost your best friend." She twisted slightly, looking up at his face. "Tell me."

"Ok, but if it’s 3:00 am by the time I’m done, don’t say I didn’t warn you." he said.

But first you’d better order that Chinese. I require lots of food when I have to talk for hours", he said with a smile.

************

An hour later, as they cleaned the last of the cartons off the table, Joe caught Ashlee’s hand and asked "Are you sure you want to hear my story?"

"Of course I do," she said with a smile. "Let me throw out this junk, and I’ll join you on the sofa. But you have to promise to start from the beginning. I’ve got a feeling there’s more to this than just that phone call you made earlier."

"You’re absolutely right," Joe said. "There really is." As Ashlee disappeared into the kitchen, Joe crossed to the entertainment center and slipped in a couple of cds. Soft, romantic music filled the room. He sat down on the sofa.

Ashlee came back in a moment later and curled up next to Joe. As he slid his arm around her, she smiled. "What’s with the music?" she asked. "You aren’t trying to seduce me are you?"

"No," Joe said. "It just seemed appropriate. You see, the story I’m about to tell you is a bit of a romance, although it ends quite badly. So, I thought the music would set the mood."

"Okay," Ashlee replied. "Why don’t you begin, then?"

"All right," Joe took a deep breath. "I don’t believe I’ve really talked about this for several years, and I’m going to share some things with you that I’ve never told anyone, not even Frank, my brother. Earlier, you said I looked like I’d lost my best friend. Well, in a way, I did. Frank was kind of like my best friend. And five years ago, I lost him. Not literally, of course. Frank was the person I was talking to on the phone. I lost him figuratively. I lost him to a ghost."

"Are you going to tell me about Frank? or about the ghost?" Ashlee asked.