I have never married; partly because I am very independent, partly because I can't be bossed around, partly because I hate lying to women, and partly because I will never be committed to a single person.
Over the years, I have had sex with around two hundred Thai girls, at least 90% of whom were in their twenties at the time, and at least 90% of them were found in the town of Hua Hin - not a major sin city in Thailand, but one where sweet and genuine girls are easy to find.
I also have a good reputation in the town, and when new and frightened girls first arrive at a bar, I am often asked to take care of them, and to make sure that their first experiance of commercial sex (and sex with a foreigner) - is a good one.
Over the years I know I have been the second man in a girl's life on more than a few occasions, and also the third on many more - but until recently, never the first.
An old friend is a lady in the town who runs a massage shop (but strictly not a brothel - if a girl has 'boom boom' with a customer, she will be fired.)
Visiting her shop recently she invited me to try a new girl - just 19, very pretty, and an excellent masseuse - it was very agreeable.
Afterwards she took me to one side and said that one of her girls was still a virgin, and was looking to cash in her assets. This sort of approach is actually quite rare in Thailand - girls do sometimes sell their virginity, but it tends to happen in the villages, and often to settle debts to village loan sharks.
We were sitting inside the shop window, and her staff were sitting round a table outside.
"Which lady?" I asked
"You see there," she said, without pointing directly (which is rude in Thailand) "She 32 years old."
I looked and saw a shy dumpy girl with a very snub nose, a pound or two overweight.
"You sure she virgin?" I asked
"One million percent," came the reply.
"How much she want for virgin?" I said. I was really taken aback by this approach, and was thinking I needed time to mull this over.
"What you pay?"
"I don't know," I said, "How much she want?" The conversation went back and forth a few times, before I decided to pitch low and offer 20,000 baht.
"I talk her," my friend said. "Come back tomorrow."
I did, and by that time had concluded that 20,000 was too low, almost insultingly so; and had decided to raise the stakes.
The negotiations were finally settled; I would have an HIV test, and at the same time, the doctor would check her virginity.