‘Wh … where are you going?’

‘To the Full Moon Party. I want to have some fun. And I want to get laid.’

Natalia gazed at his departing body as he marched slightly unsteadily down the beach, and the tears started to trickle down her face again. Was she being ridiculous? If she could never have Ben, could she really never have any other man again? And what was she going to do about Georgiou? She could hardly spend the rest of her life hiding on this beach, beautiful though it was, giving vast sums of money to a thug who had once, briefly, been her pimp.

Her head swirling with vodka, Thai whiskey, unanswered questions and churning emotions, she rose unsteadily to her feet. Maybe a dip in the sea would make her feel better.

So she waded into the still-warm water, her long legs making light work of the shallows. As soon as it was deep enough, she started to swim out towards the full, shining moon.

As Ben stepped off the Thai longboat onto Bottle Beach, he realized why Poppy had recommended it to Natalia, and why Natalia had chosen it as her hideaway. Even in the moonlight he could see that it was utterly stunning, and incredibly peaceful. Now that most people had left the beach for the Full Moon Party, it was quieter than ever.

He did hope Natalia hadn’t gone to the party. He couldn’t imagine it was her scene really, but if she had, he’d just wait here for her to return in the morning. He’d travelled far enough to wait another night, and it wouldn’t be easy to find her among the glow-stick-wielding, face-painted travellers raving in the sea at Haad Rin.

Most of the bars (nothing more than coconut shacks, really) he passed were empty, but at one of them he encountered two very young girls, both wearing denim shorts and bikini tops, drinking bottles of Singha beer on high wicker stools.

‘Hey,’ he said to one of them, a chocolate-box, pretty freckly, curly haired brunette. ‘Great location, huh?’

‘Oh, God, yes, we can’t believe how lucky we are,’ she said, looking up at him from under her eyelashes. However effective Ben’s stoner disguise, and however off-putting the matted dreads and ginger stubble, he was still an extraordinarily good-looking man. He noticed her friend give her a not-too-subtle nudge, and sighed internally, realizing what was to come. In the old days he’d have relished turning up on a beach like this, finding a couple of little cuties, and letting the evening take its inevitable course. Now, though, finding Natalia was the only thing on his mind.

Means to an end, though. He sat down on one of the tall, wicker bar stools and said,

‘What does a man have to do to get a beer around here?’ There was nobody behind the bar; the barman had probably headed to the Full Moon Party, like everybody else.

‘S’OK, I can get you one,’ said the brunette, walking behind the bar. ‘They all know me here.’ She was trying to make herself look cool.