Chapter 5-3
569 Words
Pad picked up the item, as the boat heaved slightly to one side. “Hey, Ann, what is this?”
Ann grinned. “That’s chicken. It’s good but be careful of the stick.” Pad noticed that Ann dressed in pastel colors, but she maintained the same feminine manners. The servers and wait staff treated her with respect. Chaz explained that in Thai Buddhism ladyboys, or Kathoeys, comprised a good segment of society and lived their lives outwardly as women.
Pad bit the meat on the end, trying not to yank the whole piece out with his teeth. “Has a peanut taste. Does everything around here have to taste like peanuts?”
Chaz guffawed. “Did you just say p***s?”
RJ joined in, his mood helped by the two bottles of beer he had downed in half an hour’s time. “And, here I thought, you always liked penis.”
“Ha Ha. That’s as funny as the Pad Thai jokes just a few minutes ago.”
Ann, who never joined in the frat boy joking, raised her finger. “Shhh, the dancers are coming around.”
Pad caught RJ rolling his eyes as the traditional Thai dancers came to their area, moving their arms slowly to the tune of the music, bending slightly at the knees, their fingers accentuated with adornments as they told a love story of a boy and a girl.
“Hey, let’s get some photos of us,” Pad said. “I haven’t loaded anything on f*******: or Twitter since I got here.”
“Pictures are fine,” RJ interrupted. “But nothing posted online. Definitely not on Twitter or Facebook.”
After taking some snapshots of the four, and some of the dancers, Pad put the camera down. RJ watched the dancers while eating. Pad wished what happened earlier today had never transpired.
Why did he open his mouth and tell RJ how he felt about him?
Pad didn’t think he would have those feelings so fast but he crushed on RJ for months, and when they kissed the first time, he couldn’t help it. He trembled out of nervousness those first few kisses. Now, he’d made a fool out of himself because RJ didn’t have those feelings for him.
His mind drifted, focused on the violet orchids dotted with white spots took up the centerpiece.
“Beautiful, aren’t they?” asked Ann, who stopped watching the dancers.
“Yes,” answered Pad. He felt Ann’s eyes. She studied him.
Ann took two orchids, used her table knife to trim the ends, then put one behind her left ear.
“Here, this is for you, Pad, the most beautiful man here.”
“More beautiful than me?” asked Chaz.
“Your beauty is inside,” Ann said, elbowing Chaz as she said it. “Pad is as sweet as the flower here.”
Pad took the flower and followed Ann’s example and put the flower behind his left ear.
“You know in the Hawaiian tradition, when a woman put a flower behind the left ear meant she was married or taken,” said Chaz, who smiled as he said this.
“Well, I guess I’ll switch it to my right because I’m neither,” Pad laughed.
After he changed it from left to right, he continued to watch the show but his attention waned as he watched the river and the boats they passed.
“Hey, Earth to Pad,” RJ whispered. “You bored watching this show?”
Pad shook his head. “No. Just watching the river and the boats. Actually, now that I know the story behind the dance, I get it.”
Pad felt RJ’s hand over his as he patted it. “Thanks for being okay about going on this river cruise dinner show, Pad. I’ll make it up to you.”
“No worries. I know Chaz and Ann wanted to show us some culture. Besides, I’m actually enjoying it all.”
“Good…good,” he said. “If you think you’re enjoying this show, I’ll give you a better one later.”
- Writer
