An Exciting Future. Owen Jones

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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