Lek and Craig had stopped exchanging presents a decade ago, because Craig could not get into town to buy Lek anything unless she took him, so the parties that she threw were her gift and the cake that he could get locally was his. However, Soom usually gave him something. When she was young, it would have been something like a rose; when she was at university, but ‘hard up’, something useful like a blotter or a desk tidy, but since she had been working they were often expensive and well-thought—out.
At breakfast, she handed him a heavy box containing a set of six exquisitely carved teak bookends depicting the heads of legendary Thai folklore animals.
“They are fantastic, Soom! My best present ever. They will go into pride of place straight after breakfast. Are you still coming on my birt
