She had never thought of herself as a voyeur, and yet, here she was...
She had taken some time off to drive up the coast and just unwind. With the scenery, just the drive was terrific. Add a bit of shopping, a little wine-tasting and alone-time and she was a happy camper. Tonight, she was staying at a nice Airbnb that she found. She was going to spend a few days and walk the beaches. Maybe read a book, find some good shells. You know, the kind of things you read in books or see in movies. She had picked up a loaf of sourdough and a bottle of good Cab at the market.
It was great to just sit there and watch the sun go down. The place had a nice sound system she could plug her iPhone into and plenty fast WiFi, with plenty of separation from the other houses.
But then... why did her glance keep going back to that telescope set up by the big picture window?
There was another house down there, below the level of hers. And it, too, had big picture windows. Why wouldn't it? The views were great!
She had got up to look out at it but couldn't see much. But she couldn't bring herself to use the telescope. That wouldn't be 'looking', it would be 'prying'. But as the darkness settled, the lights in the house made it easier to see inside, and she couldn't help but to at least be interested. After all, she reasoned, why was the telescope here?
Over the next couple of hours, she found that she would keep drifting back to that window. Enough to gather that there was a man there, and that she hadn't seen anyone else... But really, it was none of her business. Half the bottle of Cab was enough. She would go to bed and hit the beach early.
When she awoke, she dressed warmly. It was early and the water was cold. As she passed the other house, she glanced up it and saw the same placard in the window that said it was also an Airbnb rental. So more than likely the guy was a guest, and not necessarily alone.
But she forgot about it as she continued to walk the beach for a couple of miles, resting now and then in the tussocked dunes above the beach itself. Casually looking for shells but finding none. It was much as she imagined her planned getaway would be.
After a light dinner out, she had once again settled into her rented house for another quiet evening. She had even finished a chapter in her book when that damned telescope started calling to her. She refilled her glass and went to the window. Looking out into the darkness, the house below was brightly illuminated inside, and she could see the guest next door moving around. "The guest," she thought. "The guy?" Maybe "the stud?" She chuckled at herself. He was OK, but she wasn't going to call him a stud. Life just isn't like that. But she was feeling silly.
What could it hurt, really? Just a quick look. See if the house was as nice as hers? It's not like she was going to see anything.
She moved to the telescope and adjusted it to fit her height. Wow! This thing had power! It wasn't built for light collection that you would need to observe the stars, but it sure had magnifying power! She couldn't even see the whole window, much less the whole house. But it also jiggled a lot. So, she set down her drink and studied the mount. She was used to playing with gadgets, and this telescope was very user friendly. She soon learned how to tighten it down to the solid mount too keep it from jiggling, and how to use the el-az gears to move the line-of-sight around. Then it was time to take another look...
She was looking into a Great Room. A combination living room, dining room, library, den, even the kitchen seemed to open to the room, though she couldn't see much of it from her vantage point. She then saw the neighbor walk in from the kitchen area with a plate of food. Again, wow! She could easily make out what he was eating! It was a BLT and a smattering of chips. The focus was also right there by the other controls, and she thought, "I gotta get me one of these toys."
She moved her attention to the man himself. He was mostly in profile, but a bit closer to the ocean so she was sort of looking down over his left shoulder. He was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and sandals. Humph! He had the start of a bald spot. But he wasn't bad looking.
She moved back from the telescope and thought to herself, "Am I really going to stand here and watch this guy eat?" She looked around and decided, "Hell no!" She pulled up a chair, set her drink on a small table on her right, and readjusted the telescope stand to bring it down to a more reasonable height.
For the next hour or so she watched him on and off, picking up her book when she got bored. It was weirdly addicting. Like gambling, with just enough teases to keep her coming back but not really providing much payback. She had watched him eat, read a little, write some emails (the text of which, unfortunately, was just below what the telescope could resolve), and now he seemed to be surfing the web.
On her next trip, though, just as she was about to go back to her book again, she took a second look and realized that he was now surfing some porn. She still couldn't make out the text or see details of the pictures that he flipped through, but she knew the look of naked bodies, and those porn sites had a distinctive 'likeness' of appearance. Menus of various fetishes that could be delved into by the viewer. She settled in to watch this for a while.
He seemed to like women ("Score one for the home team," she thought). But whether it was teens, Milfs, or grannies, who knew? Breasts? Butts? Again, too hard to tell. As far as she could make out, he was pretty much all over the map.