Malee Narak – Island Flower, Part Three

“STOP!” Simon’s conscience is screaming! This can’t be right! She’s taken now, and Simon doesn’t like the idea of being the one she’s playing around with! Been there, done that, felt hung-over later! He doesn’t want her develop feelings for him again! He doesn’t want to put her in a position where she would have to lie to her boyfriend about having been faithful to him! He doesn’t want her to cross this line for her own sake!

Or has he been secretly wishing for this to happen all along? Isn’t that the reason why he has been keeping his ditty bag with the condoms in reach of the bed the whole time?

Either way, with his ability to make decisions rapidly beginning to derail, all his resolution of not letting it come this far is going overboard at the speed of light. Basic instincts have long taken over.

His little Simon is in charge now! And little Simon is screaming: “Do it! Do it!”

“Are you sure you want this?”, Simon manages to whisper under his breath.

She stops. Has this raised her guilty conscience?

“You don’t want?”, she asks in a somewhat offended tone.

“I want, but I worry about you!”

“Why?”

“I don’t want you to feel bad later!”

“Just have fun!” she whispers, and kisses him again. His last line of defence has fallen. He doesn’t resist anymore. .

They have their way with each other. But things are a lot different to how he remembers it used to be.

When they had first been with each other one year ago she treated him to so much and more. Her kisses were consuming and full of desire! Now they are more like pecks without passion!

But she’s a lot more assertive now! “I want to come” she demands repeatedly, and insists on staying on top of him until this is achieved. Their playful and unselfish love-making in the past now seems nothing more than a hazy afterglow to him. He fondly remembers how she hungrily absorbed his devoted attention to her in those times, how she squealed with genuine glee, eagerly letting herself get introduced to experiences she had not been familiar with until then. He remembers how very satisfying their intimate times together were for them both! Nothing much of this is left today. It’s quite an unsexy experience. Focusing so very rigidly on her perceived goal, she ultimately fails achieving what she has been after.

After the deed is done Simon is back to his more rational self. Still feeling a bit snakebit, holding her in his arms he asks her if she’s okay…

“Have boyfriend already so I’m okay. If I have no boyfriend, believe me, I’ll not be okay!”

“You don’t worry about having to lie to him about this?”

“Why? I know you first, before I know my boyfriend, so it’s okay!”

This boggles Simon’s mind, but to her this argumentation appears to be flawless.

“So what would you say if your boyfriend had another girl?”

“He cheat me, I don’t know, no problem! I know he cheat, I leave him! You know, is not fair! He always jealous I have other man! He always jealous of you now! Ask many question all the time! But he far away! Maybe have different girl already! He should not be jealous! Being jealous is job for girl!

She giggles clearly amused: “Haha, I have sex with my friend, haha!”

Simon feels stupid having felt so concerned about her crossing any lines by sleeping with him. Obviously none of the reasons why he had thought she shouldn’t do it were ever of any concern for her. But what about him? He isn’t sure! They have only spent a few days together so far, but Simon feels as if Malee has already proven to be quite a different person to the one he cherished in his memories over the past eleven months. Had he been blind last year? Or had island life done this to her? He doesn’t have any real answers. All he knows is that to him she has lost a big chunk of her appeal, also, and he realizes quite absurdly so, by proving to be unfaithful, cheating her boyfriend with him. Malee narak – good girl no more? Has she ever been?

Malee’s phone rings. It’s her boyfriend to wish her good night. She lies to him like a pro.

“Yes daaling! I in my room daaling! Almost sleeping now! No, cannot chat with you now! Connection not so good! Yes I miss you too daaling! No he never try to kiss me! He just my friend!”

Simon seeks advice and reassurance from a friend he knows will listen and believes will understand. This someone had predicted things would eventually go down this way.

“I won’t do to others what I don’t want to have done to myself”, Simon had confidently proclaimed back then. “I don’t want to be the kind of guy who sleeps with another man’s girl!” He has failed miserably already.

“Enjoy it for what it is, as her being faithful or not to her partner should not be of your concern!” is the conciliatory advice he receives. Is this the excuse he has been waiting for? Can he enjoy her guilt free now even as her actions have proven her not girlfriend worthy to him? If he does, what kind of moral responsibility arises from it, if any? He doesn’t have any answers still.

Next morning Simon takes Malee to breakfast again. This time he only presents his room key to the waiter. He scurries off, directing them to their table. Simon is still deep in thoughts. Malee is unusually quiet too. Silently they munch down their dim sum and pancakes until the waiter appears at their table again presenting Simon with a small leather folder that holds a receipt inside.

“Sorry Sir! You pay breakfast for your friend! 350 Baht please!”

“Excuse me? We have been given a breakfast coupon for two at check-in for the entire duration of my stay! Why should I pay for breakfast again now?”

“Excuse me Sir! It’s standard breakfast coupon Sir! You have reservation only one person! Mistake of reception to give you coupon for two!”

The waiter even admits its reception’s fault, but still insists Simon pays for Malee’s breakfast! Malee shifts uncomfortably in her seat! Sitting in the center of the breakfast pavilion, they truly have got the other guests attention now. Simon asks to see management.

The manager is very polite but also very resolute in his demands:

“Sir! You have reservation for one! But have breakfast with friend every day! We must charge you 350 Baht for two days already! Also, your friend stays with you at night! We must charge you 1500 Baht per night joiner fee!

Simon starts losing his patience but manages to remain calm. It’s obviously correct that he made the original booking for only one person, but the official room rate for double occupancy is exactly the same price as for single occupancy and not one Satang more!

The manager seems to understand what Simon is saying, but it doesn’t seem to register with him. Finally Simon takes out his notebook and visibly starts scribbling down notes. He lies that he works for an international travel magazine, and even though he’s not working on an assignment on this hotel at this time, he will make sure his uncourteous treatment will reverberate in one of his next reports. Manager gets visibly nervous at this, and oh wonder, ten minutes later the issue is completely resolved. No extra fees asked.

During the next few days everything is holiday routine. Malee works during the day while Simon escapes to his favourite places on the other side of the island.

Again she spends the nights with him in his bungalow, but in bed neither one of them initiates anything. Only one night she turns to him, eyeing him curiously, and asks:

“You ever sleep with girl who has boyfriend before?”

Not until three days later, during a long shower that once again traps them in his bungalow, things heat up again. After several hours of her watching some mind-numbing Thai soap opera on TV lying in bed with Simon next to her reading, she suddenly moves closer to him, sniff kisses his neck and whispers:“I feel sexy now!” Then she kisses him.

Simon’s doesn’t resist. This line has already been crossed. With hindsight he should have. What follows must well be the worst sex he has ever had. Mechanical, purpose driven, unilaterally lazy and demanding, again Malee insists on how things have to run down so she can climax. Simon plays along, pushes her buttons, but she doesn’t reciprocate. Feeling degraded to a human vibrator doesn’t do much for his enjoyment at all. He tries explaining her to think less and enjoy more, as that way it’s more likely to happen, just like in the good old times last year. Stubborn Malee doesn’t listen, but starts arguing instead:

“Easy with my boyfriend! I say I want to come and he goes quick and then I come!”

Simon finds it all very dull! It takes two to tango, and the past had proven they were a pretty good match! Those times have obviously come to a disappointing end.

Suddenly she stops and slides off him, leaving him steaming.

“Cannot finish! I not horny now!”

Now this tops things off. Her behavior between the sheets has been a total turn-off all along, but this is just too much.

“There are a quite a few things you still have to learn about mutually fulfilling sex!” Simon tells her angrily and disappears into the shower. Returning to bed he moves away from her so she faces his back, well aware of the signal he’s sending with this.

Sleep doesn’t come easy this night. He’s started wishing never having come back to see her. The newly acquired memories of their stay on Samui have already begun to taint his cherished memories of the past. Pondering this he hears her rolling around in bed uneasily, obviously not finding sleep either.

During the night she moves closer to him in an attempt to put her arm around him, and pushes her face against his back. He doesn’t have any of it. Admittedly Simon feels good acting bitchy towards her for a change now.

In the morning he wakes to her kissing his cheek. She smells fresh. Obviously she already showered while Simon was still fast asleep. “So sorry! So sorry!”, she mumbles with a guilty look on her face. If she apologizes for her selfish behavior last night or merely because she has felt he was angry with her he doesn’t know.

It’s their last day together on Samui before she has to return to Koh Tao and he flies on to Singapore. Anyway Simon feels he has had enough of her. The foundation of their relationship had always been thin and it grew thinner with every day they have spent in each other’s company. He remembers vividly how when they first had met he found her girly girliness so endearing. Her obsession with her phone, food, and lengthy naps at any hour of the day didn’t bother him the least bit. Affectionately he even referred to her as his Thaimagotchi then.

Back then all he cared about was how being with her produced such a wonderful tingly sensation is his belly. They lived for the day, enjoyed it other’s company for all it was worth, but now he feels all this has gotten very old. Sweet Malee, who had once so very much charmed him, now suddenly strikes him as selfish, vacuous, and volatile.

Simon doesn’t know how she feels about him and everything they have been through now. Is he still her shiny knight in white armor? Has she, consciously or unconsciously, reciprocated some of Simon’s non-consideration of not having responded to her pleas of love and affection one year earlier? Has she even smelt his growing impatience with her erratic nature? Or can her unfavourable change in behavior be attributed to her trying to protect herself from becoming vulnerable and thereby falling for him again?

He’s not convinced he wants to know.

As she bids him farewell at the airport she puts on a sad face but doesn’t cry. She will miss him, she says. It doesn’t sound very convincing. Standing in the center of the small terminal, surprisingly she gives him a peck on his mouth and then disappears. He doesn’t think they will meet again…

Stickman's thoughts:

A very nice trilogy indeed!