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I lived in a place called Chaimansion, which was not a mansion. It was a small apartment building but the apartments did have high ceilings, which is a rarity in Thailand. I paid 10,000 baht (about 330 dollars) a month for a one-room apartment, plus bath, and it was fine for me because I've lived a life in hotel rooms.
In one of the other apartments was an English guy named Lee, and he had a girlfriend. She worked at Payap University and she had a girlfriend who also worked there. Lee asked if I wanted to meet that lady. I said yes, but I wasn't looking for a deep relationship or marriage because I'd proven I was really lousy at both. I just wanted someone to hang out with. Also, I said, I know this is dead wrong and a bad thing to say, but I don't want to go with a fat woman.
I can hear people screaming as they read this, and they are right. You should love someone for their intelligence, their inner beauty, and all their other qualities. A good person would do this and obviously, I fell way short. I love to eat but I balanced that by being a jogger for 35 years, and I wanted a woman who liked to exercise and stay healthy.
Also I'd seen women talk about the bait and switch move, where they get slim, find a guy, marry him and say, "Okay! I can eat!" Six months later they've gained 30 pounds and the guy is wondering what the hell happened. Obviously it goes both ways. A woman marries a handsome dude and he becomes a couch potato with a 30-pound beer gut. Should she stay?
Lee assured me she wasn't fat and I assured him I wasn't a horrible, bigoted person but it rang a bit hollow because I'd just proved I was. He set it up.
For our blind date we made plans to go to dinner, the four of us, and I picked up Jintana at the Airport Plaza Mall. My first sight of her was coming down the stairs from the mall and my first memory was that she had the greatest smile I'd ever seen. She was small, just under 5-feet tall, with short black hair and a beautiful face.
When she got in the car I had the band "Blue" playing on the CD player and she told me later she was surprised a guy my age would listen to that music. I didn't tell her I'd spent the last 20 years working cruise ships and was suffering from Andrew Lloyd Webber PTSD. Since coming to Thailand I'd listened to nothing but hip hop, rock, grunge--anything but themes from musicals. By the way, I think one of the best band names in the world is a Bangkok band called, "Thaitanium".
We drove to a restaurant on Canal Road and I realized she spoke English really well, with a beautiful Thai accent. At dinner I was entranced.
The upshot was that we started going together and one afternoon, in my cheap apartment, we made love and it was glorious. After that, I would pick her up at the University, bring her back to the apartment where we'd spend time together,