"You'll never believe what wonderful thing he's done now!" Mary Ann exclaimed as she flung open the door of her San Francisco Lake Street apartment to greet Dena and me. Her deep brown eyes glittered with excitement.

Neither Dena nor I had to be told that he was Monty Sanchez, the very successful entrepreneur she had been dating for the past eleven months. He made robotic toys and stuffed animals that nobody needed but every gadget-collecting geek wanted. Like the lifelike seal pup that could recognize faces and dance the samba. That one was a huge hit.

Dena's eyes slowly narrowed as they made their way down to Mary Ann's hands. "What the hell? Why are you wearing long gloves?"

"Because tonight I feel like a princess!" Quickly she hustled us inside.

Dena and I exchanged glances. "She never drinks by herself…so she's probably not drunk," Dena mused.

"Maybe she's sleepwalking?'" I suggested. "We shouldn't wake her. You know what they say—sleepwalkers can get violent when awakened, especially if they're already acting deranged."

Mary Ann stuck her tongue out at us before breaking into a light laugh. "Come in, take your jackets off and I'll tell you all about it."

We followed Mary Ann into her living room, at which point Dena let out a yelp of alarm.

Sitting by the window was a giant orca. A plush orca to be precise, but, based on size alone, it could have given any living juvenile orca a run for its money. It gazed up at us with black oval pupils as if pleading for understanding.

"Don't you get it? A day after I met Monty on the beach in San Diego he took me to SeaWorld for our first real date! He bough