Traitor in Thai market (2, final)

For several weeks, I put off the big day when I would make the switch from our regular supplier of Thai food in the market to the other couple down the way.

The food was always there when I returned from work. Why not just take it, swallow my complaints, and carry on as normal?

The do-nothing approach might have worked, if their food improved. But if anything, it was getting worse.

If I switched, I would have to tell this loyal couple that I had decided to take my business somewhere else. Ouch! To add insult to injury, I was proposing to switch to another couple just metres away.

All the traders in the market know each other. If one is busy, sometimes another trader will take payments for him, or give change to customers on his behalf. They settle up at the end of the night.

It would only be a matter of time before these faithful and loyal Thai traders discovered I had decided to buy food elsewhere.

They would probably wonder: Why has he switched? What is wrong with the food we make? Did we not deliver good service all these months?

I asked boyfriend Maiyuu how we might best go about the switch. At first, he wanted me to be the one who told tell them it was over.

Eventually, I brought him around to the idea that as the one who pays their bill every month, he should cancel our arrangement, next time he settles our account.

The other day, Maiyuu went down to talk to them. 'We will stop ordering at night for the time being, but if we change our mind we'll let you know,' he said.

Another night market scene

We will pay their final bill next week.

That left one last problem: How do we order food from the new couple without being seen?

We can't just walk up to them, order, and walk away with three styrofoam boxes. It would look too obvious. Our regular couple would see us and might get hurt.

Maiyuu devised a solution. The same night, Maiyuu asked two gay friends to take a note to the new couple, on which he wrote down an order for three boxes of Thai food. He gave them cash to pay for it.

When they finished making the order, the couple brought it over to our condo and left it with the security guard. They do not know who wrote the note. All they know is that we live at this condo.

Maiyuu did the same the next night. He asked his two gay friends, who live in the area but are not regular visitors to that market, to take to the new couple another hand-written note.

Unfortunately, his gay friends had a dizzy gay moment. By mistake, they took the note to the couple nearby instead - the same ones with whom we had just cancelled our three boxes-a-night arrangement.

They dutifully made the order, then delivered it to the security guard at the condo. Maiyuu asked his friends to get their phone number, which they wrote on top of the box. 

He meant the number for the new couple, with whom we have yet to enter a formal arrangement asking them to make food for us every night.

As he was punching the number into his phone memory yesterday, Maiyuu's phone told him that he already had it. That's when we discovered that the traders who made our order the night before were in fact the regular couple.

I opened the boxes for a look.

'Can you tell the difference? 'Maiyuu asked.

I had one box left over from the night before, which the new couple had made.

'See - the rice which the regular couple uses is like glue...white, with big grains. It is tasteless. The new couple uses much better rice - fine grains, and present it in a different way,' I said.

Maiyuu called his friends and asked them why they took the note to a different couple. Oops! Just as he suspected - they were having a dizzy, distracted gay moment, and took the note to the wrong traders.

'You are lucky you did not call that number,' I said to Maiyuu.

'I wonder if they recognised my hand-writing on that note?' Maiyuu wondered.

I am looking forward to paying the regular couple their final bill, so we can start a arrangement with the new traders, regardless of any hurt feelings we might encounter from the other side.

They may prefer we pay each night in cash, of course, as Maiyuu's gay friends have done for the last two nights on our behalf. That's okay - just as long as we can drop the deception and do it openly, as this subterfuge is exhausting.