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AN EXCITING FUTURE
The second novel in the series
Behind The Smile
The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya
by
Owen Jones
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Owen Jones
Behind The Smile: An Exciting Future
The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya
by Owen Jones
Published by Megan Publishing Services
(http://meganthemisconception.com)
The right of Owen Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. The moral right of the author has been asserted.
In this work of fiction, the characters, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or they are used entirely fictitiously.
Conditions of Sale
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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Novels in the:
Behind The Smile Series
The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya
Behind The Smile: Daddy's Hobby
Behind The Smile: An Exciting Future
Behind The Smile: Maya – Illusion
Behind The Smile: The Lady in the Tree
Behind The Smile: Stepping Stones
Behind The Smile::The Dream
Behind The Smile: The Beginning
Dedication
Dedicated to my brother Rhys, without whose encouragement this book would not exist, and to all the Pattaya bar girls that he has never met.
They gave me the material that inspired this series.
Thank you one and all.
Owen Jones
Thailand
March 2013
Acknowledgements
The cover girl’s name is Chalita.
Please send any queries about work to me and I will forward them to her.
Owen Jones
Look Out for the Sequel:
“Maya - Illusion”
Table of Contents
1 Starting Again
2 Settling In
3 Whither Now?
4 Baan Suay
5 A Touch of Reality
6 The Final Weeks in Pattaya
7 A Leap of Faith
8 The New House
9 Construction
10 Independence Day
11 The Little Things in Life
12 Mothers’ Day
13 Bless This House
14 The Cure for Cabin Fever
15 Another Visa
16 Bpom and Bpouy
17 A Surprise Visitor
18 Moral Support
19 Maya - Illusion
20 Wedding Plans
21 The Stag Night
22 The Village Wedding
23 The Ship Hotel
24 The Pattaya Wedding
25 The Honeymoon
Glossary
Book Three: Maya –Illusion
1 1 STARTING AGAIN
As the wheels of the aircraft touched down on the runway at the new Bangkok International Airport called Suvarnabhumi, Craig knew that he was going to have his hands full with Lek. She suffered badly from travel sickness – it was her one big weakness, but she even got sick on the bus going to the market, so a flight of 11,500 kilometres and fifteen hours was always going to be a problem.
Lek had taken five of the green tablets which were her favourite anti-travel sickness pills. She always seemed to have about twenty of them in her bag. One tablet would make her appear a little drunk, but five made her seem like an escapee from a lunatic asylum. He had seen it on the outward flight. He looked at her sitting next to him; her eyes were glassy and she was humming something quietly to herself.
“Are we there yet?” she asked, “That was quick. Have we stopped off somewhere?”
“We’re in Thailand,” he replied a little too testily.
Craig was fifty years old and had never asked a woman to marry him so far, but he thought he might like to ask this one. She was a handful, as they say, that was to be sure, but there was also something about her that he found very special.
He didn’t like her taking those pills though, but he knew how badly affected by travel-sickness she could get. She’d had to throw up in her new crocodile skin handbag once – her pride and expensive joy – because they had gone on a short bus ride and she had forgotten to transfer all her paraphernalia into the new bag. It was either be sick in her new bag or on the floor of the bus and she would rather die than do that and lose face.
Later, she would have to be assisted like a drunk through the airport, baggage control and immigration and suffer the stern stares from the Thai officials who would assume that she had drunk too much cheap alcohol on the plane.
He was glad that she had chosen to wear long, baggy trousers.
The plan of the day was Lek’s usual one whenever anything unusual or exciting happened to her, namely to get down to ‘Daddy’s Hobby’ in Pattaya and tell her friends all about it. In fact, it didn’t have to be anything unusual at all, it was just the place where Lek felt most at home in the world. ‘Daddy’s Hobby’ was the name of the bar that Lek’s cousin owned and where he had met her. Craig didn’t mind going there one little bit. The two dozen bar girls always