He pulled me into the room next door. It wasn't really a room, as much as it was another section of the room we had just been in, a wobbly looking partial was the only thing separating me from Lilly.
Lilly... I hoped she wasn't about to be subjected to the cavity search too.
The man slipped on another glove and glared at me.
"Hey," I held my hands up in the air, "buddy, buddy, I'm sure we can figure this out in a gentlemanly manner." Clearly I was desperate, I'd never heard the words 'buddy' and 'gentlemanly' come out of my mouth before. Under different circumstances, that may have been amusing. But there was nothing amusing about the prospect of some total stranger sticking his finger up my ass. I was still a virgin there, and I wanted to remain that way.
"I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement, I'm sure we can..." I pulled my wallet out my jeans. I actually had quite a bit of cash on me, all the money I had made doing odd jobs around Europe, it was also all the money I needed for my stay in Thailand. But I would gladly sleep on the beach, worse in a dirty back alley somewhere to avoid this. The man had big hands!
"Here." I walked up to him and shoved it all in his powdery glove. Had he even planned on using lubricant, probably not. He probably wouldn't have been that 'generous'.
"Take it all. All of it. $3, 000. Plenty." I wasn't sure this guy spoke English, although I did know that money spoke its own kind of langue. It was a universal one that never needed a translation.
The man wrapped his hands around the money and smiled. This was good! Maybe I wasn't about to be invaded.
The man took his gloves off and tossed them in the bin. Another smile in my direction and then he simply walked out of the room. The relief was instant and I felt the muscles that I had been unconsciously clenching, relax. I sat down on the chair and breathed a sigh of relief and then...
Lilly... shit. Maybe I should have only given him half and given the rest to that women?
I gazed at the partition, all I had to do was look around. I mean, I didn't want to see her like that, but maybe I could stop it somehow. I was just about to look around when I heard the yelling.
"Please, I am not a drug addict or smuggler and any resemblance to one is because I have had the shittiest two days of my life. I mean total s-h-i-t. Crap. The worst, crappiest, crap day you can ever crapping imagine." She sounded like she was losing it and I was worried. This kind of behavior could have her dragged off to prison, and you do NOT want to land up in a Thai prison. She continued.
"Yesterday was supposed to be my wedding and my fiance decided it would be fun to leave me at the altar in front of 500 guests. Fun right? Yay for me. Whoo-hoo! The only reason I look like this is because I've been feeling like a mad cow for the past twenty-four hours, barely able to move off the couch, or stop eating sugar! I've probably put on 10kg's in the last day. And guess what? This trip is meant to be my honeymoon, and do you see a husband anywhere. NO! That guy's not my husband, I don't even know him. This was the worst decision of my life coming here. Clearly I'm off my rocker. So please, please I beg you, don't stick that thing up my..." she burst out crying. Loud, uncontrollable sobs and my heart fucking broke.
Everything was clear now. The way she was dressed, the way she had looked so sad, desperate and alone on the plane. Like the saddest girl in the world. And I had made matters worse for her. I cursed myself under my breath, there was no way I was going to let someone violate her on top of all that. I jumped up and was just about to burst through the partition and do God knows what when the woman spoke. The tone in her voice made me stop.
A few moments later more women were in the room, and a few more moments later they were all hugging. I smiled. This was such a girl moment, one of those things you see in a chick flick, but I was happy for her. When the room went silent I glanced around the partition, through the tiny gap, just to make sure she really was ok.
Shit.
There are things in life that you can never unsee, and this was definitely one of them. I was pretty sure this image was going to be burnt into my mind for the rest of my life.
Lilly was bending over pulling up her jeans and wearing nothing but a black g-string. I'd seen a few women in black g-strings in my time, but none like this. Suddenly I was so attracted to her, to this crazy pink woman in slippers with bad, terrible, hair and smudged make-up.
She was... beautiful. Sexy. Intriguing and I wanted to get to know her better. But I didn't think I would be. Because suddenly she turned, she looked in my direction and she gasped.
Shit, well that was over. She probably thought I was some kind of peeping-Tom, pervert. I picked my bags up and walked out the door, I was probably never going to see her again. But somethign told me I wouldn't be forgetting her anytime soon.
*Question of Time- This was the first song I ever heard. It's a lot harder and faster than the others. I just love this specific performance of it.