Getting to know you (5, final)

At young Pon's invitation, I dropped in to the shop to talk more about my fledgling friendship with young Tik, who had taken the day off.

Tik occasionally performs massages there, the only masseur still employed at the shop after all the others left a couple of months ago.

However, she is not there much, as she has yet to built up a large enough client base to warrant it.

Some of the masseurs who worked at the shop when I visited regularly last year brought their own customers. All of them left with their own customers, too, when the group finally decided to part ways, after the economy slowed, and demand for their services dried up.

Shop owner Jay Pa is unhappy about how it ended, and next time hopes to employ better skilled masseurs. She says the last group was insufficiently qualified. 'Charlatans', she called them.

When the shop was still in business offering traditional Thai massage, it smelled of incense and therapeutic massage oil, which hung in the air outside the shop. I could smell it as I walked past every day on my way to watch activity in the nearby canal.

Then, a couple of months ago, I realised the smell lingering outside had gone. When I looked inside as I passed, I saw no sign of the masseurs. Pon was there alone.

The masseurs rarely visit now, which pleases Pon. 'When they come back, they like to boast about how well they are doing,' she says.

Now, Tik is the only masseur there, and as yet too inexperienced to command much of a following of her own.

Pon called me to say that if I wanted to talk more about Tik, I was welcome to drop in.

Despite being alone, she invited me inside the shop. In the first five minutes, three customers turned up who passed comments about the foreigner.

'Is he your boyfriend?' asked one woman.

'No,' replied Pon.

Now I can why the neighbourhood gossips annoy her, though their questions were friendly enough.

I asked about Tik's boyfriend. Pon says the boyfriend knows Tik likes to have men on the side, but is the type who gives love selflessly.

Pon reckons there are four types of love: teenage-style love at first sight; unfaithful love; love where both partners might be faithful, but suffer the usual afflictions of love, such as jealousy, and possessiveness; and love where a partner gives without wanting anything in return.

Pon says Tik's boyfriend falls into the last category.

'Is that innocent love, or stupid love?' I asked.

The boyfriend, she says, works as a freelance electrician. His existence is no big secret, as he turns up at the shop regularly to collect Tik after work.

Being a Thai man, he probably has lovers on the side himself, which would make it an open relationship, not a one-sided one in which he is giving all the loving. He's not as silly as we might think.

Pon keeps her clothes and other personal belongings in the main part of the shop, hidden from view behind a curtain.

Previously, she has ducked in there to pull out photographs of her family, and past boyfriends, which she showed me. Yesterday she went behind the curtain briefly - then returned with a small coloured paper pouch.

My young friend sat down and took from the pouch a silver chain necklace. Two open love heart pendants hung from the chain, one gold, the other silver.

It is the kind of romantic gift which a man and a woman who have just met might give to each other.

'A neighbour offered to sell me this necklace. I think it's beautiful. I asked him if I could keep it a while, in case you wanted to buy it for Tik. If you don't want to buy it, I will buy it from him instead,' she said.

I was touched by Pon's act of selflessness. She is not impressed by the brazen way Tik is chasing me, and must wonder what would happen to our own friendship if I was to reciprocate that interest. But despite herself, she kept the necklace aside, and asked me if I would like to give it to Tik.

'She would start to expect things if I did that. I will pay for it myself, and let you keep it,' I said.

'Why would you do that?' Pon asked, surprised.

'If you like it, then why not keep it? It is better than letting someone else have it,' I said.

The necklace is cheap: just B100. But Pon loves it.

Today, when I drop into the shop, I shall give her the money, and make it hers. Then she can take it from its little paper pouch, and wear it. It will serve as a reminder of our friendship.

Tik will no doubt see it, and ask who bought it.

What will she think?

The necklace, with its small love hearts, might show her that the bonds of friendship can extend far beyond the reach of superficial physical attraction.

Footwork is required to make any relationship work. I have known Pon for a year; Tik, for just a couple of weeks.

People who are mere friends can love each other, too. And they can go on loving each other as would-be love interests come and go.

So, here's to us.