Chapter 4 Part I

The tall man was standing in Sakunthara Thai Desserts the next day. Today, he noticed that many employees were busy preparing desserts. His eyes scanned the space, looking for the woman with the sweet countenance and small figure from yesterday.

“Sawasdee ka. What would you like, Sir?” The sound of the sweet greeting made the corners of the young man’s mouth immediately lift as he spun around to look at the voice’s owner.

A woman with girlish features gave him a gentle smile. Around her neck was the same patterned pink apron he had seen yesterday, but the owner of the face was not the same person. His smile faded somewhat when he realized that it was not the smile he had wanted to see.

“I’ve come to pick up the desserts that Mrs. Warakun ordered.”

“Oh, yes…” The young woman exclaimed with a nod. She walked over to pick up the bag of desserts that had been prepared and handed it to the young man.

“This shop has quite a few employees. Yesterday, I met someone else.” The young man wanted to inquire after the young woman from the day before, but he decided to pose an indirect question.

“Yes, there are quite a few. You may not see the same ones because most are university students working to earn extra income. I myself only come to work on Saturday and Sunday. Some come to work in the afternoon, or if anyone is free in the mornings, they come in the mornings; we alternate. There are only a few regular employees,” the young woman explained in a friendly manner once the other party prompted the conversation.

Her explanation made him firmly believe that the woman yesterday was a university student working here to earn extra income, and he would likely not have a chance to see her again. However, he couldn’t help but admire her.

“Is that so? That’s commendable, making extra money to help out your parents,” the young man said with sincere admiration. He continued by asking about the desserts he wanted because he was still enamored with their sweet fragrance and flavor.

“Do you have Leum kleun and rose-shaped Khanom chan today?”

“Today we set up a booth at the municipality. There are only the desserts that have been ordered because some of the shop’s employees will have to go and man the booth. At this shop, we do not keep desserts overnight. Leum kleun and Khanom chan are items that are on the schedule for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” she replied politely.

Regular customers at the shop usually knew very well that the shop rotated its desserts and that there were daily specials. Many customers knew the shop’s dessert-making schedule and knew what days they had to come to the shop if they wanted to eat the desserts they had a special preference for.

“Thank you,” the young man said, but his eyes still looked for the young woman from yesterday.

“Are you looking for someone, Sir?” The young woman asked, seeing as he appeared to be searching for something.

“No, I’m not. How much for all of this?”

“Mrs. Warakun has already paid for everything. Would you like any additional desserts?” The young female employee answered his question and continued with her own because she noticed that his eyes were still roving around as though he was interested in something.

“I’ll come back another time,” he told her, as his eyes searched out another, even though he knew for certain she was not there, that she was likely an employee who only worked on the weekends. Yet, he didn’t understand what he was feeling at the moment. He didn’t know why her smile was still imprinted on his mind and dancing around non-stop inside his head.

The young man tried to stop his own thoughts. Was he an old bull that wanted a taste of new grass? Even now that he assumed that she was a university student and that they were probably nearly twenty years apart in age, he came to the sudden realization that these were feelings he could not cast off. Was he really so in love with a young girl that he was willing to abandon the many requirements he had for his ideal woman?

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Though many days passed, that sweet face still invaded his thoughts. No matter how hard he tried, it still entranced him, making him remember it over and over. His heart cried out for desserts like a blood vessel suffering a momentary lack of sugar.

The young man folded down the laptop computer screen on the desk after shutting it down. Then he stretched and leaned back in his chair, raising his arms above his head. He alternated twisting to the left and right to banish the cramps that had arisen due to a prolonged period of sitting. At the moment, it was several hours past regular working hours.

“Seems I’m getting old. My whole body aches. Every time I move, my bones crackle like pork rinds,” the young man grumbled laughingly to himself when he heard his bones making noise as he stretched himself.

He often worked late recently, so he would stay on at the house in Bangkok rather than driving to his mother’s house in Nonthaburi. Counting from today, there was only a little time left before he had to fly to Germany to take up his post. He felt slightly relieved that his mother had not spoken of that issue again. However, he was ready with a solution of his own for how he would give his mother a grandchild.

It was the last day of the workweek. The young man was thinking that tomorrow morning, he would drive back to the house in Nonthaburi. It had been almost a week that he had not returned there.

The smile of the young woman at that Thai dessert shop was still imprinted on his mind, even though he had not had another opportunity to see her.

He picked up the telephone and called his mother. It wasn’t long before the call was answered.

“Would you like to eat anything from Chinatown, Mother? Tomorrow, I’m returning to Nonthaburi,” he asked the moment he heard his mother pick up the call. He knew his mother liked Chinese food in particular, and there were many famous restaurants in Chinatown that his mother was fond of.

“That’s all right. I’ve been going to a lot of parties with Chinese food lately,” his mother replied.

“What about shark fin soup? I can buy it and you can keep it for tomorrow,” he offered again.

“Just you coming back to see me makes me happy.”

“Okay, Mother. I’ll see you then,” he said before hanging up. He put his personal belongings into his briefcase and carried them out of the room.

Pongket felt relieved that his mother had not brought up the topic of grandchildren or any other woman again after that day. It seemed he could do as he pleased now. He hoped his mother would also approve of this decision because she only wanted a grandchild to carry on the family name.

That was the reason why he didn’t feel any fear about returning to Nonthaburi. He felt comfortable returning to the house.

However, the person on the other end of the line had not understood things the same way the young man had. In this period of time, the madam and Mrs. Tipsakun had already finished preparing everything. Even Sakunthara didn’t know that her own wedding would be taking place in just a few days. The two elder ladies had also prepared reasons that the young man and the young woman would not be able to object to. After hanging up with her son, the madam had immediately telephoned Mrs. Tipsakun, the young woman’s mother.

Seeing as each party had their own plans, it would seem the end result was unlikely to be satisfactory.