While driving through the city, she developed the need to use a bathroom. Fortunately for her, we were in a country that is considered third-world by all accounts that is in a post-earthquake period with a decimated infrastructure. Did I mention that neither of us speaks Creole? Joe tried to find a bathroom in this neighborhood; if he didn’t, she would have to make like the Haitians pee in the street. Joe managed to find a local boy that spoke enough English to understand what we needed. As a chivalrous gentleman, I went with her to stand guard. Hey, I saw an unarmed female about to enter a local house to use a bathroom in a part of town that I was just not sure of. My intentions were pure, damnit.
I was glad I went for a couple reasons. First, the door didn’t shut all the way. Second, I got to talk with the locals. The little boy, maybe 12, started asking me questions:
“How do you like Haiti?”
“Very nice country,” I said.
“I like America.”
“I do too!”
“Is she your girlfriend?” At this point, I was glad she was in the bathroom because I blushed. The bad part was I had a feeling she was listening.
“No, she’s not my girlfriend.”
“Oh, ok.”
As we left, I couldn’t help but to smile the whole way back to the car. We handed out what little water we had to the locals and preceded on to find a place to get some food. Some parts of the city were not hit as bad as others. Then again, some places were completely flattened and destroyed. Finding places to eat is a difficult thing in a foreign country. You really don’t know how your digestive system is going to react to local food. We stumbled across a restaurant near Petion-ville in an area that had very little damage. This place was like a café serving sandwiches on fresh baguette, pizza, some crepe concoction, and a variety of assorted foods. Lunch served as another opportunity to quietly show my interest.
Joe went ahead to order his food as her and I stood together. Slyly, I asked her what she would like. “Whatever you’re having,” was the easiest response I could have asked for. As I had eaten in the Embassy several times, I remembered a couple of the translations. So we ordered a simple lunch, ham and cheese on baguette. The crepe thing looked kind of interesting so I ordered one of those too. Lunch came and went with no new insight. I still couldn’t tell if I had sparked her interest! I did, however, know that she did allow me to buy her lunch. The conversation over lunch was good. We talked and laughed. I noticed her smile again. “This girl makes a military uniform look good; her smile is absolutely breath-taking; and I probably have no chance in hell here,” I thought to myself.
Heading back to the base was a chore because traffic was a complete nightmare. The conversation was plentiful abundant, though. Joe’s skills in the department led to an interesting question about finding a cuddle buddy for the deployment. She told us it was an application process, kind of like an open casting call. That type of ambiguous answer set the tone; she was definitely single! My intuition said this might be an invitation. I took note and was determined to find out later.
This was no typical first date. We had a chaperon in a city that we really didn't know, wearing military uniforms on top of it. Actually, I had no idea this was a first date at the time. I was going with the flow of the day. My only frustration was I wanted to focus on her, but I knew I couldn't alienate Joe like that. I also didn't want to be a cock block if her true interest was with him. A world of variables existed behind a door, and only she had the key. The day was going pretty well. While I wasn't sure what direction she was heading, she at least let me buy her lunch.
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