Thailand

Your name is Aaron LaFleur, and you're still not sure how it happened, but happen it has. You're on your way to Thailand!

It all started with you entering yet another online contest. Sweepstakes and contests had been sort of a hobby of yours for a few years now, at first only the ones your parents were willing to give their permission for you to enter. But once you entered college and reached your majority at 18, you expanded your participation in online gaming exponentially, to the point where big chunks of otherwise-free time were used up in entering, responding to and managing contest and sweepstakes entries. But not lotteries; if you had to pay to enter, then the allure of "something for nothing" simply disappeared for you.

You hadn't yet gotten MUCH for nothing when you entered the online "spokesperson" contest for Phuhying Dek phuchay Fashions ... contest because they were looking for a "photogenic individual not familiar with our product line" and you had to send a selfie to enter. Thus, winning would be based on merit, not random chance. The prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to Thailand, home of the company's corporate offices, and a year-long contract as the company spokesperson.

You'd figured what the hell, taken a couple of quick selfies, sent them and basically forgotten the whole thing, figuring you had essentially no chance of winning. You're attractive, sure, but not model-attractive, and you'd always been considered more "cute" than sexy or handsome with your thin frame, soft features and, at best, average stature. But it took less than a minute to send a coupla pics, and then you forgot all about the whole thing.

Imagine your surprise when you won.

Actually, you don't need to IMAGINE your surprise; you felt it: the adrenaline rush, the triphammer heartbeat, the feeling that your brain wasn't quite attached to your body ... you imagined this must be what losing your virginity would feel like, and decided in that moment that you had to feel it again, as often as possible.

I won ...

So now you're flying ... first class, no less ... from O'Hare to Detroit Metro to Incheon, South Korea to Bangkok. Possibly the best thing about this trip is that you can take it and decide later if you want to take the spokesman position, though the salary mentioned ... 600,000 baht or a little over two hundred grand American ... would pay off your student loans and then some, making you very interested indeed. It's only a year, after all, and would provide you with a tidy little nest egg.

But for now, you're far more interested in this exotic vacation opportunity in the one Asian country never to have been conquered or colonized by white men. You definitely want to see the Khmer ruins at Prasat Hin Phimai and the Hindu temple at Phanom Rung, and maybe Chiang Mai's Night Bazaar or the weekend market at Chatuchak. But mostly, you want to spend lots of time on what are generally acknowledged as some of the best beaches in the world.

Your cab drops you at Terminal 2, and you haul your luggage out of the trunk and over to Security for check-in. You're on your way!