Issue #4 - GRETA CELEBRATES THE NEW YEAR

"Here's to a fabulous New Year!" Greta clinked her glass of White Star Moet & Chandon champagne against the glasses of her four girlfriends.

"Well, it's got to be better than last year!" Joy laughed.

"I promise you, it will be!" Greta sat down with her four best friends - Joy, the rock ‘n roll diva, Iris, the Greenwich Village psychoanalyst, Laurie, the almost-famous novelist and Liz, the slightly brooding poet-professor. Greta had filled her living room with party goodies - cheese and crackers, fruit, olives, and those wonderful little pastries you can only get at Dean & Deluca on Spring Street. She was in the middle of her annual New Year's "Bring-your-P.J.s'-and-Favorite-Chick-Flick" girlfriend overnight party. This year, though, she planned something different for her best friends - something that would make their skin look gorgeous.

Greta put the video on rewind and arranged the GreatSkin products on the coffee table. "What are these?" Iris asked.

"Facial masks." Greta said. "We can each put one on while we're watching another movie. We'll be giving our skin a new glow and if you like them - you can use them as often as every other night!"

The girls oohed and aahed over the products. Liz, being a poet couldn't resist the Green Tea Mask. Laurie snatched up the Exfoliating Mask. "After the winter I've been through - locked indoors writing, this is just the thing to help with my oily T-spot!" she announced. Joy picked out the Crystal Mask and dipped her finger into the clear gel with the crystals. "This is so cool!"

Iris chose the Control Plus Masque with Blemish Banishing Extracts. "So Greta, directions please."

"Very simple. Just clean your face, then apply the mask by massaging it in with your fingertips. Then we leave the mask on for fifteen minutes. After that, you gently wash clean with tepid water and--voila - beautiful skin!"

*                    *                    *

Greta and her friends had put on their pajamas and applied their masks. Greta chose the Aloe and Azulene Mask for sensitive skin.

"That's because I'm sensitive!" Greta laughed.

"Yeah, right!" Iris said.

"I am! Look how I've been since I had dinner with Guy! I'm a wreck!"

"Just because he hasn't asked you out on a real date yet?"

"Maybe he doesn't want to mix pleasure with business," Liz said.

"Or maybe he's so in love with you, he can't bring himself to ask you out because he's afraid you'll say no and he'll feel completely rejected!"

Joy laughed. "Hey, maybe he's just busy!"

Suddenly, the phone rang.

"Oh my God, I bet it's him!" Liz squealed.

Greta ran to the phone and checked her caller I.D. "Private number," she whispered.

"Answer it!" screamed Laurie.

"What should I do?!"

All four friends shouted, "Answer it!"

Greta picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi there," the voice responded. No, it wasn't Guy Thompson, Greta realized, but it was a very attractive man on the other end of the line. In fact, it was Zane Craven, the movie star!