The Daily Poo-phet: where you read about the latest ta-poos!

Last night started at REWIND, on the second floor of the Camp Davis complex in Sukhumvit 24, with my coworkers, which consisted of two lesbians and my gay graphic designer. They invited a bunch of their friends and altogether there was about a dozen people, including fugly guy from the law firm downstairs that my coworkers tried to set me up with last year.

(Side note: I have a particular fondness for Camp Davis if only because MAO used to be there, the first real bar that I partied in. That was where I learned how to knock back glasses of whiskey and sing Thai songs. I *heart* MAO. Maybe I should start a campaign to bring it back…)

This was not the first time I’ve been to REWIND. The first was with these same coworkers and a few others, and the second was on Military Coup Drinking Party (aka “that night we do not speak of.”) For some reason I always have fun there. It’s not a big place, the band isn’t particularly amazing, the food and clientèle so so, but perhaps the old spirit of MAO still lingers there and I have fun out of nostalgia.

Anyway, we ordered food but it took an hour to arrive, and during that hour we were already quite tipsy from having nothing else to put in our stomachs but Black Label and super salty peanuts. Then entered Bear… and from the first moment I laid eyes on him I thought he was cute. He’s a friend of a friend of my coworkers, and he went to school with the owner of REWIND. Those who know me will know that I’ve been complaining that I haven’t met a guy that I considered “cute” in a long long time. He’s a lawyer at a certain local budget airline that uses a beauty contest to recruit stewardesses. Cute and smart. ” This was my lucky day!” I thought.

It started innocently enough. He asked where I studied and where I liked to party and we all played drinking games together. The cover bands played all the essential Thai rock, from old school Micro to Body Slam to Cells, the new sensation from Laos that got everybody jumping and singing along. I told everybody that I had to go meet my high school friends at JET in Thong Lor Soi 10 and Bear offered to come along. Why? Who knows. It must have been the dress I was wearing. But I wasn’t complaining. So we got to JET, picking up one of my girlfriends along the way, and squeezed through the throng of frenzied “Friday-Night-End-of-the-Month-Clubbers” to our table in front of the bar. Everybody was already there and what an ego booster it is to arrive at a party fashionably late and be greeted and hugged by inebriated friends! I allowed myself a moment of shallowness and felt like a mini celebrity. I tried introducing Bear to everybody and we downed a few more drinks. Not much conversation could be made because of all of the noise, but there was nothing body language couldn’t solve.

The high that was achieved at REWIND dissipated exponentially as the number of people entering JET increased. It got to the point where Bear and I couldn’t even stand together at our table, but were pushed up against the bar. He then mentioned that he missed going to NARCISSUS. Lo and behold! He used to be a raver.

“I’ve never been there,” I shouted over the music.
“Really? Wanna check it out?” He shouted back.
“Okay!”

So we said goodbye to everybody and squeezed back out of JET and hailed a cab to NARCISSUS in Sukhumvit 23, with a little detour through Sukhumvit 11, because Bear forgot where it was.

In the cab, Bear leaned over and whispered, his breath heavy with alcohol, “You’re such a cute and cool girl. I’ve never met anybody like you before.”
“I think you’re really cute too.”
“Really really. I think I’m in love!”
“That’s because you’re drunk!”
Bear laughs.
“If you love me, you better take care good of me tonight!”
“I promise!”
We shook hands.

What fun NARCISSUS was! It was like being at a jungle party on Koh Phangnan: the ear orgasm of electronica, the strobe lights and glow sticks, the girls raving on the tables and the people reaching their arms up towards the God-like DJ in his holy booth. We had a couple more drinks and danced together and he never left my side. I had a blast… until I turned around and saw Bear sitting on the couch, head rolled back and eyes closed. He fell asleep! Poor guy… I should have known that he was overly drunk since the moment we left JET. Immediately I became sober. But I didn’t feel worried; I just sat there with him until he woke up, which took about 5 minutes.

“I think you should go home. Where do you live?” I said.
“Around Sathorn,” he answered.
“Oh, I can take you home. I have to get my car at my office at Sathorn anyway.”

And so we left NARCISSUS, with Bear sleeping on my lap all the way in the cab. We got to my office and tried to walk as nonchalantly as possible passed the guards down to the car park, but they have seen all my late night antics before and just smiled as they turned on the lights. Once I drove out onto Sathorn, I asked Bear to give me directions.

“I don’t want to go home. I want to stay with you!” he said.
“Bear, I can’t bring you back to my house tonight. You’re too drunk, but maybe next time? Now tell me where you live.”
“Just keep driving and go over the bridge.”
“But if we go over the bridge it won’t be Sathorn anymore. Are you sure you know where you’re going?”
“I want to send you home. I don’t want you to drive all the way back by yourself.”
“Then how will I make sure that you get home safely? You’re drunker than me!”
“I’ll get a cab back once we get to your house.”
“I don’t want to take you back to my house.”
“But I want to stay with you!” he begged, “You’re so cute and I really like you!”
“I like you too but I really think that you should go home. I’m tired and I want to go home too.”

At this point I had already pulled over to the side of the road.

“So, how come you don’t have a boyfriend?” Bear asked, changing the subject.
“Because I don’t trust guys.” I answered. I might as well keep him talking until he’s more sober. Maybe I could also reason with him. Or trick him into telling me where he lived.
“Why not?”
“Because my last boyfriend cheated on me.”
“How can anyone cheat on such a cute girl like you??”
“I don’t know, but he was the jealous possessive type.”
“That’s because you have so many guy friends! At JET! They were all hugging you!”
“Hey,” I started, a bit miffed, “I have been friends with those guys since I was a kid okay. And they all already have girlfriends! They are like my brothers. It’s like you’re dating a girl who has a bunch of older brothers. So how come you don’t have a girlfriend? I bet you really do.”
“No, no I don’t!”
“Then you probably have a lot of girls on the side.”
“No, I don’t have any either!”
“How come?! Wait.. are you gay?”
“NO!”
“Then what? Bi?!”
“NO!” Bear reiterated; he was getting worked up. “I am not gay or bi okay! Here, you can talk to my friend and he will tell you that I am not gay!”
“Hey, that’s okay man. I believe you if you say you’re not!”
He then picked up his phone and dialed somebody’s number. “Hey Gaan! Talk to this girl and tell her that I am not gay.”

He handed me the phone and I explained the whole situation to his friend, who is gay himself (oh the irony). He was very nice and asked me if I was alright. I told him I was; that Bear had been very nice to me up until this point and that I was tired and all I wanted was to just go home but Bear wouldn’t let me. Gaan expressed his concern and offered to come pick Bear up. I said okay. Now, all I wanted was to I just wanted to get rid of him. So I told Bear that his friend was going to come meet him.

“What?!” he cried. “Why did you do that! You can’t let him take me home. He’s gay! What if he molests me?”
“Hey, you were the one that called him and he’s your friend!!!”
“But I want to stay with you!”
“But I already told you that you can’t tonight. I’m sorry okay. I would really like to too, but just not tonight. Please understand. Maybe next time??”

More protesting ensued and we had a little argument. I mean, here’s a 31 year old lawyer getting told off by a 24 year old office girl about limits and self control. WTF? Thankfully Gaan arrived just in time, apologized on behalf of drunken Bear, and hauled him away.

For the record, Bear did not once try to grab or kiss me. We held hands, and touched each other’s faces and arms but there was nothing indecent about the way he treated me at all. He was very sweet up until he turned into a tantrum-throwing 5 year old.

There was a moment where I just looked him in the eyes and thought to myself, “I’m never going to see this guy again. There is no way anything resembling normalcy can be salvaged from this. Damage done.”

I feel like it was such a waste of a really fun night and a really cute guy. Everything was great up until the ending. Why did it have to end like this? Why did he have to be so damn good looking yet so drunkenly stupid? WHY, GOD, WHY??? (Why didn’t I take advantage of him when I had the chance…?!)