Page 20 of The Pearl Sister
With that, he rolled away from me, in a bed that I reckoned was even larger and comfier than mine, and went to sleep on his side.
Of course it’s just for now,I told myself as I too rolled over into my own space, realising it was the first time I’d ever shared a bed with a man, as all the other previous fumbles had taken place in the great outdoors. I lay staring into the darkness, glad that the shutters on the windows were letting in tiny strips of New Year light, and thinking that this had been just what I needed. It was perfect, I told myself – a morale booster with no strings attached. I’d go off to Oz in a few days’ time, and maybe me and Ace would keep in touch occasionally by text. I wasn’t a Victorian heroine who had sacrificed her virtue and then got locked into marriage. My generation had been given the freedom to do what we liked with our bodies. And tonight Ihadliked . . .
Very carefully, my fingers moved towards him of their own accord, to find and touch his skin and to make sure he was real and breathing next to me. As he stirred, I drew them away, but he rolled back towards me and enveloped me in his arms.
Warm and safe with the weight of his body against me, I eventually fell asleep.
* * *
It transpired that New Year’s Eve hadn’t been a one-night stand. It became a regular morning, afternoon and evening stand . . . or more precisely, a lying down. And when we weren’t horizontal, we did fun things together. Like Ace dragging me out of bed at the crack of dawn to see the monkeys, who announced their presence with a loud thump on the roof as they invaded the palace in search of leftover food. Once I’d taken photos and one of the security guards had frightened them off with a miniature catapult, I’d skulk back to bed. Later on in the morning he’d wake me with a tray of nice things to eat. During the long, hot afternoons, we’d suck at pieces of pineapple and mango and wade through his collection of DVDs.
One sunrise, a plush speedboat had appeared in the shallows of the sea in front of the palace. Po helped us aboard, then whipped out a camera and offered to take a photo of us, which Ace immediately and vehemently vetoed. As we set off, Ace told me he was taking me somewhere special. Having driven my family’s own speedboat up and down Lake Geneva, I soon took over the reins from the captain, steering the boat effortlessly over the waves and doing the odd wheelie just to scare him. When a wall of limestone pillars loomed above us in the middle of the sea, I let the captain take over again. He steered the boat expertly into a hidden lagoon, protected on all sides by vertiginous rocky walls. The water was green and calm, and there were even mangrove trees growing inside it. It was called Koh Hong and it was paradise. I was the first to jump into the water, but Ace soon followed and we swam across it as though it was our own private swimming pool, cast away in the middle of the ocean.
Afterwards, we sat on the boat deck drinking hot, strong coffee and basking in the peace and tranquillity of this incredible place. Then I drove us home and we went to bed and made love. It was a wonderful day and one I knew I’d never forget. The kind of day that happens once in a lifetime, even to someone like me.
On the fifth night that I lay next to Ace in bed, my own room abandoned since New Year’s Eve, I wondered if I was in a ‘relationship’. Part of me was terrified, because it wasn’t what I had intended, and Ace had made it clear he hadn’t either. Yet, another part of me wanted to take a photo of the two of us looking romantically at each other on the beach and send it to all my sisters so that they would realise I wasn’t a loser after all. This man, for whatever reason,likedme. He laughed at my jokes – which even I knew were really bad – and even seemed to find my funny little body ‘sexy’.
But most of all, he ‘got’ me in a way that only Star had before, and had arrived in my life just when I’d needed him. Both of us were adrift in this world and had washed up together on the same shore, not sure of what was coming next, and it was comforting to hold on to someone, even for a little while.
On the sixth day, I woke up of my own accord, looked at the clock and saw it was almost one in the afternoon. Ace’s usual delivery of fruit, croissants and coffee was late. I was just about to get up and find him when he opened the door with a tray in his hands. I would have relaxed, except for the look on his face.
‘Morning, CeCe. Sleep well?’
‘Yeah, from four till now, as you know,’ I said as he set the tray down.
Normally, he’d come and lie next to me, but today he didn’t. Instead, he sat on the edge of the bed.
‘I’ve got some stuff to do. Fancy taking yourself off somewhere for the afternoon?’
‘Of course,’ I said brightly.
‘See you for dinner tonight at eight?’ He stood up and kissed me on the top of my head.
‘Yeah, sure.’
He left with a wave and a smile, and being a novice at this whole relationship thing, I couldn’t work out whether this was normal. Was it because he had ‘stuff to do’ and the world was finally getting back on its feet after New Year, or should I panic and pack my rucksack? In the end, not wanting to look as though I had nowhere to go and couldn’t amuse myself, I walked back down Plebs’ Path to Railay with my sketch pad. As I walked up onto the veranda of the Railay Beach Hotel, I saw the beach was less crowded than it had been at New Year. Nam was serving at the bar, so I ordered a mango shake just so she would have to make it for me. Then I sat on the bar stool, watching her with a smug look that I wasn’t proud of.
‘You need room?’ she asked me as she peeled the mango and dumped it into the blender.
‘No, I’m fine, thanks.’
‘Which hotel you stay at?’
‘The Sunrise Resort.’
Nam nodded, but I saw a glint in her eye. ‘Not seen you for a while. Nobody seen you.’
‘I’ve been busy.’
‘Jay say he seen you on Phra Nang getting onto speedboat with man.’
‘Really? I wish.’ I rolled my eyes as my heart thumped. Jay was a guy I knew in passing from last year – a friend of Jack’s. He’d helped out behind the bar sometimes, but was a full-time drifter who went wherever he could earn a crust. Someone had told me he’d once been a big-shot journalist until the drugs got him. I’d seen him sitting in here bold as brass, smoking a joint. Drugs were not something I approved of and here in Thailand, whether it was a joint or an armful of heroin, possession carried the same harsh penalty.
He’d also had a thing about Star, making a beeline for her every time we’d come in for a quiet drink. She found him as creepy as I did, so I’d made sure she was never alone with him.
‘He say he saw you,’ Nam persisted as she passed over the mango shake. ‘You got a new boyfriend?’
She said it as if I’d had an old one . . . and then it dawned on me that perhaps she thought that Jack and I had been having a thing, what with me sleeping in his room. Christ, women could be so pathetic sometimes. It was obvious to everyone that Jack was putty in her small, slim hands.
