‘Maybe I could drop you at your hotel,’ Guillaume said, awkwardly patting Sienna’s shoulder as she cried. ‘You can have a shower, or chill out for a bit – I’m sure you’ll feel better then.’

Sienna looked up and sniffed back her tears. ‘I can’t. I don’t know where I’m staying. I have to wait for my boyfriend.’

Guillaume took a deep breath. ‘Have you tried calling him?’

Sienna nodded and burst into tears again. ‘He’s lost – just like everything and everyone.’

Guillaume shuffled uncomfortably. ‘Maybe you missed him coming out – he might be at the hotel already. I’m guessing the Continental.’

‘The Continental!’ Sienna smiled in relief. ‘That’s where we’re staying.’

‘Come on then,’ Guillaume said. ‘He’s probably there already.’

Sienna hesitated and looked around once more, hoping to see Daniel. But there was no sign of him. She’d been waiting for an hour for him – surely he wasn’t still at the lost luggage desk. It didn’t seem right to abandon him at the airport, but it didn’t seem sensible to hang around any longer either. Guillaume was probably right – they must have missed each other in the crowd. She would text him on her way to the hotel to let him know she’d gone.

Sienna turned and followed Guillaume in a daze, past taxis and people, and bald guys in orange robes, until they reached a row of motorbikes. Guillaume climbed onto one of them. He gestured to the space behind him. ‘Hop on.’

Sienna snapped out of her daze. ‘Are you insane?’ she sniffed. ‘I’d like to see my twenty-first birthday, thanks. I’m not going on a bike. I need a taxi.’

Guillaume laughed. ‘Don’t be such a girl,’ he said. ‘Live a little! Get on.’

‘I am a girl and I would appreciate being treated like one!’ she cried. ‘I didn’t ask to come to this stupid place and I didn’t ask you to collect me from the airport and I certainly didn’t ask to be taken to the hotel on the back of a motorbike. You don’t even have a helmet for me.’

Guillaume shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’

He kicked the stand up and started the engine. He turned to Sienna, raising his eyebrows, offering her one last chance for a ride. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. Sienna was used to getting her way. She didn’t believe that Guillaume would leave her here on her own. If she just stood her ground, he would have to find her a taxi.

But when Guillaume revved the engine, Sienna realised that he wasn’t going to play by her rules. He was about to leave her on the side of the road. She hurled herself onto the back of the bike, catching Guillaume around the neck. He took off into the traffic, weaving a path through the oncoming bikes, trucks and cars, with Sienna clinging onto his back.

‘Slow down,’ she screamed in his ear. But it only seemed to make him go faster. ‘Faster,’ she screamed, trying the opposite approach, but that also made him go faster.

They hit a traffic snarl and Guillaume peeled off down a side street. ‘A short cut,’ he shouted over his shoulder.

She was glad to be off the main road until she realised the side streets seemed to have no road rules at all. Motorcyclists rode in random formation that couldn’t even be called chaos. Half of the drivers were in school uniform, and the ones that weren’t were carrying two, three and even four passengers. Whole families were perched on motorbikes. Babies, barely old enough to stand, were clinging to handlebars. Old people who should have been playing golf or pruning roses were transporting groceries on their bikes. One guy had enough green vegetables stacked on the back to last him the year.

Then Guillaume turned a corner and Sienna set eyes on one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. The Continental Hotel rose up before her, a picture of order, set in neat green gardens. She instantly felt her heart rate returning to normal, even though Guillaume was now riding on the wrong side of the road.

‘You can let go now,’ Guillaume said as the bike came to a stop out the front of the hotel. He turned off the bike’s motor.

Sienna looked down. She still had her thighs pressed tightly to Guillaume’s hips and her arms around his waist. Now she could think straight again, she couldn’t help noticing that Guillaume’s torso was every bit as taut as his back. Sienna’s heart started racing again.

‘Oh, yeah,’ she said, releasing her grip. ‘Right.’

Guillaume rubbed his ribs as if Sienna had injured him. ‘I thought you were going to suffocate me.’

‘Well, maybe if you weren’t such a terrible driver, I would’ve been able to relax a bit.’

Guillaume laughed. ‘I’d say you’re the worst passenger I’ve ever had. But you’re Eddie’s sister so I’ll come back after teaching my English class and give you another chance.’

Sienna shook her head. ‘You can’t go. I haven’t found Daniel yet.’ Sienna realised guiltily that she hadn’t even texted him to say she was leaving the airport.

‘Is that your missing boyfriend?’ Guillaume asked.

‘That would be me,’ came a voice from behind them.

Sienna looked around in time to see Daniel getting out of a taxi. He looked awful. He was normally a bit of a neat freak – bordering on obsessive, in fact. But now his shirt was untucked and drenched in sweat. Huge dark patches stretched down from his armpits. He still only had one suitcase with him, Sienna noted, but at least he was alive.

‘Ahhh, your papa,’ Guillaume smiled.

Sienna’s heart sank. This was the downside of the ten-year age gap. Daniel’s premature balding and Krispy Kreme – fuelled pot belly didn’t help, either. She waited for a deadly comeback line from Daniel. He had quite a few. But he just put out his hand.

‘Daniel Prichard. I’m Sienna’s boyfriend.’

‘This is Guillaume, Eddie’s friend,’ Sienna said as they shook hands. Daniel’s handshake looked more firm than usual. Guillaume didn’t flinch, though.

‘Good to meet you,’ Guillaume said stiffly.

‘Thanks for looking after Sienna,’ Daniel said.

Guillaume nodded. ‘Anytime.’ He got on his bike. ‘I’ll be back around eight. I’ll show you a good place to eat.’

Sienna watched the bike disappear in a cloud of smoke.

‘I can’t wait to see what flea-ridden dive that will be,’ Daniel said.

Sienna laughed, but she sneaked a look at her watch as well. It was just after three, which meant it would be another five hours until she saw Guillaume again. And even though that should have meant nothing, Sienna noticed a strange feeling creeping through her body. It was like she was sorry to see Guillaume go, which she obviously wasn’t. She also got a sense that she was missing him, even though he’d been gone for less than a minute. That wasn’t even remotely possible.

She gave Daniel a hug to shake off the uncomfortable feelings about Guillaume. But he pushed her away. ‘Not now,’ he grumbled. ‘I’ve just been to hell and back. Cambodian customs officers, I can tell you, do not have a sense of humour. They grilled me for an hour because I said I didn’t have a bomb.’

He staggered into the hotel, leaving Sienna feeling stupid in the driveway. She followed Daniel to the check-in desk and waited while he sorted out their booking, then followed him into the lift up to their room. It was a pleasant space that looked pretty much like every other big hotel she’d been in. She found this reassuring when, outside, the streets were so unlike everything she was used to.

‘So where’s Eddie?’ Daniel asked, collapsing onto the bed.

‘Gone. Who knows where.’ Sienna said. ‘I think Mum was right. He needs help.’

Daniel shook his head. ‘Don’t sweat it, my dear. I’m sure he’s just off on a bender or something. I’ll sort it tonight with thingo. He’ll know where to find him.’

Sienna frowned. ‘Guillaume said he doesn’t know where Eddie is.’

Daniel laughed. ‘Trust me. I know Asia. I know how things work. I’ll talk to … Guillaume, and then I’ll find Eddie.’

‘Okay,’ Sienna said. She knew she could depend on Daniel.

Her brother, she thought angrily, had also been reliable once. And even though he hadn’t responded to her texts and emails, Sienna had still been confident that he would be at the airport to meet her. Why wouldn’t he? He’d finished a degree – he wasn’t a complete dropkick.

She’d imagined they would have a few drinks, share some stories and laugh at how paranoid their mother had become in her old age. And then she could leave Eddie to write his bestseller, or whatever it was that he was meant to be doing, and she could get back to her life.

‘Any news on my bag?’ she asked, looking for a diversion from the Eddie problem.

Daniel groaned. ‘It might be here tomorrow.’

‘Well, that’s not too bad,’ Sienna said.

‘Or it might be here the day after because maybe it’s gone to Beijing. Or maybe it won’t get here at all.’

‘Oh,’ Sienna said. She walked across the room and looked out the window. Below she could see a huge, inviting pool. It was completely empty.

‘Maybe I’ll go for a swim,’ she said. Then she remembered she didn’t have a bikini. ‘Maybe I’ll buy myself a bikini and then I’ll go for a swim. Can you take me shopping?’ She turned to Daniel, but his eyes were closed. ‘Guess I’ll be shopping on my own then.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ Daniel said, opening one eye. ‘I don’t need you lost as well. Give me five minutes.’

Sienna pulled a magazine from her handbag and sat down in a chair by the window. Daniel started snoring loudly. He was still snoring an hour later when she closed the magazine, having read the whole thing cover to cover, including the ads.

‘Dan-iel,’ she said in a sing-song voice, shaking his shoulder gently. ‘Time to wake up.’

Daniel snored on. He was without a doubt the best sleeper Sienna knew, able to drop off anywhere and anytime. She put it down to the irregular hours he kept with his business – he was up at all hours of the night when he had to be, and slept half the day when he had the chance. That was the way he worked – full-on and full-off. Sienna liked to think of Daniel as a highly successful internet entrepreneur, on call and in demand. In fact he was a professional poker player. His online betting success had bought him an apartment with ocean views and a garage full of sports cars. Daniel’s favourite was the Porsche, because it had lots of gadgets, but Sienna preferred the Maserati. It was automatic, which meant she could drive it – as long as Daniel never found out.

‘Dan-iel,’ she called again. But he still didn’t stir. Sienna looked down at the pool again and suddenly felt desperate for a swim. It was killing her to sit in the room with a landscaped pool at her disposal just ten floors below. Sienna decided that she would have to step outside her comfort zone and go shopping alone.

She took some cash from Daniel’s wallet, grabbed her bag and headed for the lobby, where a nice guy with extremely good English wrote out an address for a shopping mall in Khmer (as she discovered the local language was called). He gave her a hotel card, so she could find her way back, and found her a taxi. She set off to buy a bikini, feeling quite empowered.

A short white-knuckle ride later, the taxi pulled up at the ‘shopping mall’ and Sienna’s feeling of empowerment slipped away. It didn’t look like a mall at all. It looked like a fruit market, only much, much less appealing. Sienna pointed to the address that had been written out for her.

‘Shopping mall,’ she said to the driver – very slowly.

The driver nodded. ‘Shopping.’

‘I need to buy a bikini, not a mango,’ she said.

‘Mango, yes,’ the driver said.

‘Not mango,’ Sienna shouted. ‘I’m going swimming.’

Sienna mimed freestyle in the back of the taxi. This time the driver just laughed. Sienna cursed herself for leaving the hotel without Daniel. Why did she think she could venture into a city like Phnom Penh alone? What had she been thinking? She handed the driver a bundle of US dollar notes and climbed out of the taxi. She turned to face the market, wondering whether she should brave it, or just get back into the taxi, return to the hotel and wait for Daniel to wake up. With any luck he’d still be asleep and she could pretend she hadn’t even left in the first place. She had almost decided to give up when she heard an Australian accent. Sienna turned to see a young couple about her own age wandering down the street. Sienna jogged over to them in relief.

‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘Do you think I can buy swimwear here?’

The girl smiled. ‘There’s nothing you can’t buy here. I think I’ve seen them in the far right corner.’

‘Thanks,’ Sienna said. She watched as the couple disappeared into the covered market, then took a deep breath and followed. It only took a few metres’ walk down the first aisle for her to regret her decision. This wasn’t just a fruit market – it had everything. Pig heads hanging from hooks, sausages on strings, fish on sticks and mystery meat she couldn’t even identify.

Sienna held her breath as she pressed on determinedly – the market smelled as weird as it looked. Despite the unappetising sights and smells, though, Sienna felt her stomach rumbling. She realised she couldn’t remember her last meal. It had been on the flight. Was it breakfast, or dinner the night before? Either way, she knew she had to find something edible soon.

Sienna assessed the stalls in front of her.

‘You try, madam,’ a woman called to her, holding out a mystery-meat skewer.

‘Very good, very good,’ she heard someone else calling from another stall.

She walked on until she found something she recognised – bananas. They looked safe enough, wrapped up in leaves and cooked over a mini barbeque. She handed over her money and unwrapped the banana. She stuffed the warm sticky mess into her mouth. It tasted even better than it looked, but it wasn’t enough to fill her up.

Next, she bought a bag of freshly roasted nuts. Well, that’s what she thought they were. It was only when she put her hand into the paper packet that she realised these weren’t ordinary nuts – they had scratchy legs and wings. Sienna looked inside the bag. It was full of roasted insects!

‘Eww!’ she squealed, dropping the whole thing on the ground. It was too disgusting to even touch. A few metres away, the lady who’d just sold her the bugs laughed.

‘Cricket!’ she called. ‘You no like cricket!’

Sienna screwed up her face. She’d almost eaten crickets! Was this just a trick Cambodians played on tourists or did people actually like eating insects? Sienna was definitely going to stick to hotel food for the rest of her stay. Bikini, she reminded herself, gagging just at the thought of insect legs scratching her throat. Far right corner.

Sienna made a beeline for her destination, almost running through the food stalls, past more bugs, crustaceans and things that looked a lot like spiders. She didn’t slow down until she reached the silks and ceramics. But here, she faced a new problem. The stall holders were all after her dollars.

‘T-shirt, madam. I give you good price.’

‘Cheap, cheap. Over here, miss.’

‘Have a look. Real silk. Ten dollar.’

Sienna could feel the back of her neck getting hot. It wasn’t just the humidity that was getting to her – the shouting was also putting her nerves on edge and making her sweat. She was half-tempted to start running again, but she was a seasoned shopper and she knew what she had to do. She started to haggle.

‘I’ll give you five dollars,’ she said to the silk hawker.

‘Eight dollar.’

‘I’ll give you six.’

‘Two for twelve. Because you my friend.’

Sienna pulled out her wallet.

Two hours later, Sienna emerged from the Russian Market, as she discovered it was called, with an entire new wardrobe for herself, silk sarongs for her mother and three aunts, a new shirt for her father and one for Daniel, two for Eddie, as well as three bikinis and a whole lot of souvenirs that she probably didn’t need. She also bought a shirt for Guillaume – one that didn’t require buttoning. She was hoarse from bargaining and her shirt was clinging with sweat, but she was on a shopping high. The entire buying spree had cost her less than a bikini in Australia. She was so pleased with her purchases, she’d almost forgiven Cambodia for trying to poison her with roasted crickets. She smiled to herself, partly because she had done the whole thing in a strange country on her own, but partly, she reluctantly admitted to herself, because she had found something to wear for dinner with Guillaume.