The mountain air is cool by Thai standards, and the population is more relaxed and rustic than the bustling populations of Bangkok or the frantic syba...ites of Phuket and Kho Samui. Instead of the bulldozed, concrete-covered, and despoiled paradise of Phuket, Chiang Mai seemed a place of primitive charm and lush, hilly beauty.Tran and I rode a cab through palmy suburbs, and then through terraced rice fields to the house that our friend Nancee had rented for us as our home base this summer. She. “He! What? A guy can’t be a receptionist?”“No, it’s just...”“What? You gave me grief when I asked you about screwing a black girl and now you give me grief about a guy receptionist?”“No, I’m just surprised.”“What? I can’t hire a sexy, built young stud to go along with all these smoking hot girls you hire?”“Stop!” I chuckled. “It’s fine. Bring him in. What’s his name?”“Lucas North,” she said.“Experience?”“Chippendale dancer,” she smirked.“SERIOUS experience?”“He works for a temp agency. Mostly. Damn, this place was a mess, and certainly not the greatest venue for a make-up conversation. ‘I met someone else,’ she then confessed. My head dropped and my heart almost broke again. I was in the most un-emotional job I could think of, and the moment I stepped out of it, I met a girl who’d taken my heart and ran off with it. I looked up. ‘I need to know this… why?’ Confused, she replied, ‘What?’ ‘Why come all the way around here, tell me you miss me, and then tell me you’re fucking off. The house was so safe, cool, there was food, television, a bed. "I don't know... there's Juan and Julie as well in there" Oh great, more! Don't be stupid Lauren. You have no goddamn choice. I can't hang around here. What time do you finish tea?" Six thirty, maybe a bit later." OK, tell the children at six forty-five. Have them change their clothes, put on socks and shoes, and tell the boys to leave first. Then the girls, then you, in ten minute intervals. I'll be here. If you don't show by.