Maybe you’re just jumpy. You’re not used to being out in the open with company, with someone approaching you uninvited.

Maybe. I used the men’s room and returned to the table. Dox and the girl each had a fresh drink. They were holding hands and murmuring to each other. Well, it looked as though I was going to finish up the evening on my own, after all.

I walked over to her left and said, “You know, I’m actually feeling a little tired.”

The girl glanced up and back at me. From this angle, the high collar of her dress pulled away slightly from her neck. Beneath her smooth skin I saw the slight bulge of the cricothyroid cartilage-the Adam’s apple.

I’ll be damned, I thought. All at once I understood what had been making me twitchy. I had to stifle a laugh.

“Oh come on, Dick, it ain’t past your bedtime. Stick around, you might even have some fun.”

Oh, I’m going to have some fun, I thought. I’m sure of that.

I smiled at him, trying to stop short of the shit-eating grin my mood was suddenly demanding. “Well, okay. Maybe just for another song or two.”

“There you go,” Dox said. He gestured to the chair across from him. “Have a seat. Tiara and I are drinking Stolis. You want another one of those whiskeys?”

“Why not?” I said. Dox signaled the waitress and magnanimously ordered everyone another round. He and Tiara leaned close again and went back to murmuring.

Oh, this was going to be good. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve something so beautiful, but here it was. And it could only get better.

The drinks came. I enjoyed mine in silence, my focus alternating between the bar, the room, and my distracted drinking companions. The girl’s arm had disappeared beneath the table. From the angle of their bodies, I recognized that her hand was, at a minimum, on Dox’s thigh. Possibly it had come to rest somewhere farther north.

The girl whispered something to him. Dox nodded. The girl smiled at me, got up, excused herself, and headed toward the restroom.

Dox took a last gulp from his drink and leaned across the table. His face was flushed. “Well, partner, you know I’m going to miss you, but duty calls.”

I smiled. “I understand completely. You’re going to make her very happy, I can see that.”

“Well, I reckon she’s going to make me happy, too. Did you see her, man? When was the last time you saw something so fine? A little flat-chested, it’s true, but that doesn’t bother me a bit. I’m sure her other charms will make up for it.”

“Oh, definitely. I’m sure she’s otherwise… very well equipped.” Keeping my voice even wasn’t easy. One hitch, one chuckle, and I knew I’d be lost in a hurricane-force laughing fit.

“Thanks for your understanding, man. It’s time for this young lady to have the experience of a lifetime. It’ll be nothing but disappointment for her after tonight, but that’s the price of a love-filled evening with Dox.”

I nodded. I knew if I tried to speak I’d be done.

He must have misinterpreted my silence. “Shit, man, there’s no need for you to spend the night alone. You’re not a bad-looking guy, and the ladies won’t know about your deficiencies until it’s too late, anyway. You could meet someone if you wanted to.”

Part of me, a bigger part than I cared to admit, wanted to let him go through with it. And I would have paid almost anything to be there at the moment of truth. But he was a good friend. Hell, he’d saved my life. I couldn’t do it to him, even if he did deserve it.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Dox. She’s a katoey.”

Katoey, or “lady-boy,” has a range of meanings, from a guy who likes to dress in drag from time to time all the way to a man who has had transgender surgery and is now effectively a woman. They can be found all over Thailand and are generally accepted, if sometimes difficult to spot, within the society. Regardless of the differences, what they all have in common is that presumably Dox wouldn’t want to sleep with one.

He scowled slightly and cocked his head. “Now that’s not like you, man. Don’t go trying to spoil my night just because you haven’t gotten one of your own.”

“You didn’t notice her hands? They’re just a little big for her frame, don’t you think? And did you get a look at her Adam’s apple? Women don’t have Adam’s apples, and she’s wearing that high collar to conceal it.”

Some of the color drained from his face. “Don’t fuck with me,” he said.

I shook my head and stifled a laugh. “I’m not.”

The girl walked back from the restroom as though on cue. Dox stood and turned to her. “Honey,” he said, “Dick over here thinks… he thinks…”

I smiled gently and said to her, “I just didn’t want there to be a misunderstanding. Bob didn’t know you’re a katoey.”

She smiled back, then looked at Dox, her eyes wide. “You no like katoey?”

Dox lost a little more color. “I… I…” he stammered.

“Me, I think you know,” she said. “So I no say.”

“No, I didn’t know!” he said, his voice anguished.

“Most men, no problem. When it dark…”

“I ain’t like that.”

She smiled. “Please, honey? I like you.”

Dox’s expression was about halfway to physical illness. “Look,” he said, “I don’t mean to be rude, but could you just go?”

She hesitated, then nodded. “Okay. Thank you for drinks with me.”

“You’re welcome,” Dox said, his tone the quintessence of forlornness.

She got up and left the club, no doubt disappointed that her investment of time had yielded so little. Dox looked gut-shot.

He slumped into his chair and looked at me. “When did you spot that stuff about her hands and her neck? You let that go on for an awfully long time there, partner.”

“Dox, I thought you knew. It was so obvious.”

“It was not obvious. No, sir.”

“You sure you don’t want to take her back to the hotel? If you hurry…”

“Hell, yes, I’m sure.”

“Because, c’mon, you had to know. At some level.”

“No, I didn’t know at any level, not until you told me.”

“Really? I mean, you pointed out that she was a little flat-chested. And I don’t know how you could have missed the hands and the Adam’s apple. Dox, she might as well have been wearing a sign.”

“No, she was definitely not wearing a sign, man. Although I think she ought to.”

I smiled. “Maybe you would have enjoyed it.”

“Stop it.”

“I mean, if she’d only given you a blow job, you would never even have known. You’d just think it was the best head you’d ever gotten. It would have become one of your most cherished memories.” I started to laugh. I couldn’t help it. “You never would have stopped telling me about it.”

“Do you want another drink?” he asked. “I think I need one.”

“How many, Dox? That’s the question. How many times before.”

He signaled the waitress for two more, then shuddered. “Damn, that was a near thing. I’d thank you, if you’d stepped in a little sooner and were enjoying yourself a little less.”

“Enjoying?”

“Yeah, yeah. Very funny.” He drained his Stoli and shuddered again.

I thought about going on, something about how, with all his local expertise, he had still almost unintentionally gone off with a lady-boy. Or presumably unintentionally. But he looked so glum that I decided to give it a rest.

The band started up again. A few minutes later, Dox leaned over to me and said, “If you don’t mind, I’m ready to try something different. You’re welcome to join me, but I don’t know that where I’m going is apt to be your kind of place.”

“Topless girls with numbers attached to their bikini bottoms?”

“I’d say that’s likely, yes.”

“Good. If they’re undressed, you’ll have a better chance of making sure… you know.”

He scowled. “Are you coming?”

“No, I’d better let you go alone. I wouldn’t want to interfere with a man’s quest to recover his masculinity. On the other hand, who’s going to warn you if you run into another…”