After twenty minutes, Jennifer started to understand what was going on: the clerk was probably afraid of insulting her by suggesting anything below a certain standard. “I’m not looking for luxury hotels. I want a simple hotel, okay? Cheap, with many tourists and lots of things to do.”
The clerk nodded. “Oh in that case, I recommend you go to Khao San Road. It’s very lively, cheap, with many attractions for tourists. It’s mainly a backpackers’ area.”
“Perfect! How can I go there?”
“Let me call a taxi for you.”
Jennifer found a decent room in three hours – two hours stuck in traffic and one hour to actually find an available room. She finally felt like she was on vacation – no fancy malls, no prestigious hotels, no high end rooftop sky bars, no luxurious cars, and last but not least, no billionaire to tell her how to behave.
Her hotel was in a small street besides the main one – a soi as the locals called it. Bangkok seemed to be made of multiple soi and sub-soi, where the activity was unreal. The streets were packed with dogs, motorbikes, cars, trucks, tuk-tuk – funny three wheels cars – myriad of street food merchants, restaurants, bars, tattoo studios, and local people selling souvenirs and clothes to foreigners.
Not the kind of place Bruce would take me...
It was already 1:00 PM, and Jennifer hadn’t eaten breakfast yet; she was starving. She decided to try a random food cartwheel and had a Pad Thai. The dish was delicious - salty, sweet and sour. It felt like an explosion of flavors in her mouth. The only problem was that the dish was also incredibly spicy, and Jennifer didn’t handle spicy food very well.
Eating spicy food in the street under the burning sun was a very poor choice, and Jennifer was sweating like a soaked sponge. After her meal, she rushed into a bar with air conditioning and sat down at the counter.
Oh my God, it feels good...
The bar wasn’t busy yet. It was probably too early. Jennifer ordered a diet Coke and looked around – there were a few locals, but mostly tourists. After five minutes, she saw another client coming in. Jennifer couldn’t help but notice how different he was; a tall Caucasian man, dressed in a grey suit with a black shirt, with long black hair slicked back and intense black eyes.
The man, very confident, sat down across the counter, almost facing Jennifer. He was hard to miss – he was way too classy and elegant compared to all the backpackers dressed in sandals, shorts, and tanks around.
What is he doing here? He doesn’t fit in the neighborhood at all...
She quickly looked at him but her eyes kept locked on him a bit too long; he saw her watching him and smiled. Jennifer’s face turned red immediately.
He’s going to think I’m hitting on him! Oh, I knew it - he’s coming over to me now...
“Hi. Are you waiting for someone?” The man said with an extremely sexy European accent.
“Hi. Yes, maybe.” Jennifer said without looking at him.
“You’re sweating. Let me offer you a drink.”
“No, I already have one, thank you.” Jesus, I don’t need a playboy to bother me right now... “Look, we both know how it works: you buy me a drink, we talk, you make me laugh, and then you ask me my number. Except that I don’t have a phone number, okay? Don’t waste your time.”
The man chuckled. “Why not? Why don’t you have a phone number?”
“I didn’t have time to buy a sim card.”
The man nodded silently, turned around and left the bar. Handsome but not very persistent! He probably thinks he just needs to show up to have women crawling over him! Loser...
She ordered a second diet Coke and wiped her face with a napkin. She was still very hot and couldn’t stop sweating. She finished half her glass and closed her eyes, leaning against the counter, when she heard something next to her elbow. She opened her eyes and saw a plastic card wrapped in cellophane. The European man was back, sitting next to her.
“What is it?” She asked, surprised.
“Your sim card. You can get one in any seven eleven. It doesn’t take more than five minutes, you see?” He said with a grin. “I’m Enzo, by the way.”
He extended his hand, and Jennifer shook it. Okay, playboy, you got my attention...
“Thank you, Enzo. That’s very nice... I’m Jennifer. Nice to meet you.”
Enzo was 32 year old from Roma, Italy. He told Jennifer he’d been living in Bangkok for seven years and was a hotel manager.
“I have to ask you: what are you doing in here? This neighborhood doesn’t suit you.”
Enzo ordered a Thai ice tea and took a sip. “You’re right. I never come here usually. It’s just that I’m off from work, and I was supposed to fly back to Italy. I came here because I heard there are good travel agencies here, and I wanted to know if I could change my ticket.”
“Why do you want to change your ticket?”
Enzo smiled and looked embarrassed. “I feel a bit silly... but I forgot to renew my passport. I’ve been here for so long I didn’t think about it. My passport is actually expired.”
Jennifer tried to keep her composure but finally laughed out loud.
Enzo threw his arms in the air. “Yeah! Yeah! I know it’s silly. I told you.”
“Yes it’s very silly, but guess what? The same thing happened to me. I was supposed to come to Thailand a few months ago, but my passport was expired.”
Enzo raised his glass. “Maybe we were destined to meet today. Cheers.”
Jennifer felt a little something in her stomach, and her cheeks felt hot. “Cheers...”
Enzo pulled out his smart phone from his pocket. “Oh by the way, do you have a Facebook account?”
“Yes, of course.” Jennifer took his phone and added herself on his profile.
They kept talking for an hour. He was very nice, funny and interesting. He had a lot of stories to tell her about living in Thailand and Jennifer felt at ease with him - he knew how to make her forget about her worries. However, she started to feel very sleepy and left him to take a nap. He was very charming and entertaining, and Jennifer agreed to meet him again later that night.
Enzo took her to a small restaurant with a live band, and made sure the food wasn’t spicy. Then, he took her to the night market, where they walked in the streets with neon signs everywhere, smelling fried chicken and noodles soups. It was incredibly lively, noisy, and dirty, but Jennifer liked it. It was about living an adventure. It was about living life.
Life in Bangkok was amazing, and Jennifer didn’t feel time passing by – for three days, she followed Enzo to every place imaginable, tasting unknown food in the streets, taking pictures with ladyboys in clubs and feeding baby elephants in Chinatown. She felt amazing.
Many times, she thought about Bruce, though. She wished he was there, spending time with her in a new city, instead of working all the time. Whatever his reasons were for getting involved with Kenichi, Jennifer was convinced that nothing good could possibly come out of their association.
She also knew that her opinion didn’t matter much; not when it came to business decisions. Bruce had been very clear about that, and Jennifer wasn’t ready to forgive him easily for the lack of respect he had showed her.
As she was thinking about Bruce, Jennifer was about to cross the street. She looked to her left – it was clear, so she stepped on the road confidently when she heard tires screeching and a loud car horn.
She looked to her right – where she should have looked first – and saw a yellow taxi charging at her at full speed. Her eyes widened, her pupils dilated, and her heart raced.
My God, I am going to die!
Suddenly, she felt two strong hands grabbing her arms from behind and felt pulled away from the road. In a split second, she was back on the pavement, shaking, feeling her back against Enzo’s body and his arms around her chest.