Roberto was not safe in Thailand.

Roberto, the fifty-year-old filmmaker and the most elegant single in LA, had been demanding, picky, rarely in a sunny mood. No one except his loyal secretary Samia could work for him for a year, and no woman loved him longer than a month.

Eventually, Roberto found out that his critical mood looking for perfectness was taking him nowhere. “I always expect something better, but I end up producing nothing,” He confessed to Samia.

“Yes, and our business is going from bad to worse.”

“Then, what!”

“Then, you must see a therapist.”

“Therapist!”

“Why not! It’s better than you go bankrupt or maybe mad.”

Roberto went to a therapist to help him. Still, instead of talking about his problem, he looked around, “Do you think this’s the right color scheme for a therapist’s office?” He objected, “you should use a minimum of darker hues. Minimum, only minimum. ”

“I see.”

“You’d better use blue. It’s the best to stimulate the mind.”

“I see.”

“I see that you’re not taking my words seriously, and this’s the last time you’d see my face here.”

……………

……………

Getting back to his film production company, Roberto had a hard time with the editor.

“Roberto, you need a break, or your mood will break you!” The editor Richard screamed before leaving the editing suite for good. “We’ve been working like forever on this raw footage in this tiny cold room, and we did not reduce it to a 30-minute package yet.”

‘Yes, Richard is right,’ Roberto thought. ‘I need a break; I must take a long vacation to relax and have a clear mind. But where to go?’ and as usual, he wanted the best. He thought about the resorts in the islands of The Bahamas, the best places in the Whitsundays Island archipelago, the Palm Island in Dubai. But when he found out the cost of such a vacation, he changed his mind.

Roberto’s secretary Samia suggested traveling to Pattaya, “I’m sure you would have a good time at the beaches there and spend so little.”

“Pattaya! Where is this Pattaya?” Roberto asked, turning his nose up.

“ It is on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand and very affordable. You would love it. I’m sure you would love it.” Samia insisted with a hidden smile.

……………

……………

Roberto’s first night in Pattaya was the first evidence of the paradigm shift which would change his life forever. He strolled along the Beach Road, from Dusit Hotel at one end right down to Pattaya Walking Street.

Roberto was not amazed to find the Walking Street bathed in a Neon glaring from the signs of the bars located at each side. But Sexy Thai girls promoting their bars made him feel hot, and he remembered with sorrow the last five years he lived without making love. ‘My lousy temper had caused ladies I dated in LA to desert me before I could take them to bed,’ Roberto thought. ‘ But I hope the sexy Thai girls would be more patient with me.’

There were dozens of Go-Go bars on Walking Street and plenty of girls. Inside the showcase of a second-floor bar, almost naked women were dancing. A sign on the right wall of the staircase said, “We do anything to gain your smile.” Roberto felt they were challenging him, and he was about to get up, but a little girl wearing a red bodycon dress stopped him.

“I’m Bella.” She introduced herself.

Roberto looked at Bella’s red and white sky-high heels shoes. The high heels added definition to Bella’s legs and made her butt appear perfectly rounded. The fabric of the dress and the quality of the shoes were very far from Roberto’s standard. Still, other Bella’s talents made him say breathlessly, “I’m Roberto, from LA. I’m here for….”

Bella did not give Roberto a chance to talk more, “Welcome, Roberto,” she said with a fantastic smile and pulled him from his arm to a nearby bar on the corner. “Come on, let us have a drink, grab something to eat, and talk.”

…………

…………

The following day Roberto woke up feeling good, and he felt much better when he saw Bella stretched out next to him in one of his shirts. “You’re knotty!” He shouted and showed generously one of his most seldom smiles. Bella’s trick of wearing his shirt boosted his ego and showed him that she was relaxed and comfortable in his presence.

Bella jumped out the bed. She looked so short without the support of high heels. “Do I look funny,” she whispered.

“You look so cute,” Roberto commented and invited Bella to the bed again.

………………

……………….

In three days with Bella, Roberto was not nagging anymore. He felt relaxed in his casual wearing and liked how Bella looked in plain simple denim shorts all day. And he accepted even to eat Thai food in cheap restaurants, where they serve three meals for only a hundred baht, equal to three dollars only.

“I would like that we go to visit my mother,” Bella asked Roberto when he was thoroughly drunk.

“Yes, sure, why not. Is your mom living here in Pattaya?”

“No, in a little village in Isan. Not very far, almost six hours away.”

“Six hours! And we get back the same day.”

“No, we can stay there for a couple of days.”

………….

………….

The journey to Isan was tiring and cost Roberto five thousand baht, equal to a hundred and fifty dollars, but he did not mind. He was living his honeymoon, which he wished would never end.

Bella asked the taxi driver to take them first to the fish market and wait. Then she turned to Roberto. “Do you like to join me, darling or you wait for me here? The fish market is smelly, wet, and crowded.”

“Ah, No. Yes, I mean yes, for sure I’ll come with you.”

Bella bought from the fish market enough to feed a family for one month, but Roberto did not mind. He was looking to meet Bella’s mother, who was ten years younger than him.

Bella started cooking as soon as they arrived at her mother’s house. The place was clean, but the type of houses were all things in one. It consisted of a big hall (that included the kitchen, a sitting room, a space for many mattresses to sleep) and a backyard connected to a pedestrian path.

“Are we going to sleep here?” Roberto asked, pointing to the mattresses.

“No, darling. I arranged with a nearby hotel. A tiny room but for three hundred baht only. Less than ten dollars for a night. Good deal. Is not it?”

At eight o’clock evening, Bella’s mother came back home. She said Hi in a hurry and rushed to do the setup in the backyard for dinner. Soon Bella’s uncles, aunts, cousins started to arrive. They came with their noisy children and turned the place into a mess.

“Roberto, you may go to a grocery across the road and buy whisky, wine, and beer. We can’t eat without a drink.”

By the time Roberto came back, almost half the village was there. There was good food, music, and drink and everyone wanted to celebrate the party. Few only stationed themselves within the backyard. The rest were eating, drinking, and dancing in the pedestrian path.

By midnight, Roberto received a call from his secretary Samia.

“What’s this noise?” Samia asked.

“We’re partying.”

“I hear a noise of kids mixed with music.”

“Yes, it’s a family party.”

“Are you enjoying it?”

“It’s like I’m in a mental institution. No one in Isan but Bella speaks English, yet all of them treat me like I’m their lifetime friend.”

Bella, who was entirely drunk, took the cellphone from Roberto to speak with Samia, “We’re here, I mean in Isan, are kind-hearted, generous, and welcoming. If you eat some of our food, then we’re your friends for life.”

“Good, but tell me when Roberto will be back to LA?”

“Soon, but he’ll not be alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll not let him go from Isan before marrying me. You can consider tonight’s party as our wedding.”

“What! What do you mean? Give me Roberto, let me speak to Roberto. Roberto, are you safe there in Isan?”

Bella ended the call; she didn’t want to hear from Samia anymore. Then she turned to Roberto and asked him to bring her a piece of grilled fish and a glass of wine because she was hungry and thirsty and not in the mood to sleep early that night.