Out to lunch...or dinner: Adam is tempted by Eve

Last night the beautiful Eve took me out for dinner. Perhaps I am innocent, but it's not clear what her motivations are, exactly.

She took me to a restaurant so dark inside that you could barely find your way across the room; we sat in the most remote, romantic corner which was also right beneath the air-conditioning box, so it was chilly in my polo-shirt. The dim lamp was low over the table and we had to lean towards each other and shout because the music was so loud, loud enough to be a nightclub. I was the only foreigner in sight.

I met her, of course, through Sandy the pick-up artist, who was trying the other day to get her into bed, but unusually, failed. Eve is from near Chiang Mai, and works long hours coordinating exports of hyacinths and teak. She is always on her cell phone to some client, getting home from work late in the evening, missing lunch (our dinner was her lunch), flying to the other end of the country, speaking English to some clients, and in addition to Thai, able to speak the northern Lanna dialect, some Cambodian (Khmer) and a smattering of Mandarin Chinese.

She struck me as intelligent and discerning, mature and professional, wry and centred, respectable but possibly mischievous when no one's looking. She responded to Sandy's flirting but always with this amused expression as if she could see straight through his tactics, which, she told me, she could indeed. And yet, she was hanging out with him...and with me. For what, exactly? She said, temptingly, that she was looking around for a boyfriend, but not in a hurry. She seemed to just be being friendly, but then last night dressed to kill, smelling sumptuous, and chose such a romantic setting, ordering me more drinks when I'd finished the first, and often looking about with this odd little smirk on her lovely face. During dinner I came to expect that she'd suggest we go out somewhere afterwards, but then she informs me that she has to pick up a friend and drop me off.

She tells me her brother is a pick-up artist just like Sandy, and she likes to go and look at women with him in clubs. What did she think of his behavior? 'He can do what he wants.' Through all her respectability something about the smirk interested me. It transpired that she'd had an Australian boyfriend for a while, among others. Apparently she found it difficult that he didn't trust her. Her face remained innocent and sincere when I asked, wasn't she a bad girl too, sometimes? 'Oh no,' she insisted. I nudged her wryly, disbelieving. Eventually after the third nudge, she couldn't contain her composure, broke into a giggle, and said unwillingly, 'sometimes. Sometimes.'

Apparently, she has at least five suitors at the moment.

And she does /such/ a good job of maintaining her air of sophisticated, respectable, desirable unavailability.

She is called Eve, because she is the first woman, the oldest child of all her siblings and cousins, and so, the oldest grandchild too. I am also the oldest sibling and oldest grandchild. She said I should be called Adam. That would make us Adam and Eve. Hmmm...