God Bless America

I was invited by a friend to a party being thrown by the embassy marines this weekend. I knew a bunch of people going and invited the Texan to come along as well. When we arrived, we found the friend who had invited us and went to say hi. He was talking to a girl that I didn't know. After a couple of minutes, my friend went to speak to someone else, which left me and the Texan alone with this girl. Shortly thereafter, I decided that she was pretty uninteresting and I wanted to go talk to some other people I knew at the party, so I did. Tex stayed with boring girl. This was fine. I actually really like it when people I am dating are comfortable in social situations and don't feel the need to be glued to my side.

I talked to my friends and then on my way to the bar went over to Tex to see if he needed a drink, thinking he would come with me. He took me up on my offer for a drink, but didn't come with me. I brought him his drink and stayed by him for about 30 seconds before my brain started to go numb (ouch. I am mean.). By this time, a friend I had been wanting to introduce to Tex showed up. I brought him over to Tex and the boring girl and waited for a lull in their conversation to introduce my friend. I waited and waited and waited a good ten minutes. No lull. I gave up. Now, I am fine with Tex being comfortable talking to other people, but come on now, give a girl some attention!

I started talking to a friend of a friend who I had met once before. She works at the emb and is getting married soon. She was telling me all about the details when this adorable marine who had given a short thank you speech to everyone for coming a few minutes earlier came over to her and said in a thick, sexy southern drawl, "I don't believe I have met your friend yet." So he introduced himself and asked if I would be around for a while, because he wanted to talk to me, but he had to work the bar for a bit. My reply, "Baby, you better believe I am not going anywhere!" ok, ok, so that's not really what I said, but you get the picture.

Tex continued to talk to boring girl while I spent half an hour or so catching up with friends while trying to be sly about checking out Marine working behind the bar. At one point we made eye contact and he motioned me over. He asked for my number and wanted to know if he could take me out on Sunday. I said sure. He then asked if I would help him restock some of the bar. Now, I had had several hurricanes at this point, so being alone with this marine in the supply closet sounded like a fantastic idea. We went to the closet, but it was a bit more innocent than I pictured. We were just talking and grabbing stuff from the shelves, when who should poke his head in? Yup, the Texan. He made a smart-ass comment asking if we wanted some privacy and I snipped something along the lines of, 'No, we are just fine.'

Tex and I left not long thereafter and went back to our respective homes. Just as I got out of the taxi, the marine called wanting to know if I wanted to grab a drink. I did. So I got back in the taxi and met him and his friend at a bar. I mean honestly, what could I have said? You have to support the troops, right?

Clarification

Just to clarify - Boyfriend T and the Texan are not the same person. I want to make sure all of the characters are kept straight.

Ms. Chatty

So I guess you could say that I am dating the Texan. I don't like the phrase 'dating' but I am going to use it for lack of a better description. To put this story in context, he is definitely not my boyfriend and we haven't had any sort of exclusivity conversations. We are just dating.

Anyway, Saturday around noonish we were lounging around at his place when the phone rang. He had been expecting a call from some coworkers who were coming into town that afternoon, so he picked it up, probably assuming it was them. Well, it wasn't. It was this girl in the US and she was loud. I was next to him and I could hear every word she was saying. Now, when I am on the phone and I don't want someone else to listen to the conversation, I go somewhere where I am all alone. The Texan didn't move a muscle, in fact he sort of slung his arm over me, so I figured that he didn't care that I heard their conversation. Ms. Chatty yapped on for a little less than ten minutes about what has been going on in her life. (She has been applying for a teaching job.) The Texan said maybe three sentences the whole time. From the tone of the conversation I could tell that they were just friends.

Ms. Chatty mentioned that she hadn't seen him online in a while. He told her the same story that he had told me a few days prior: an exgirlfriend of his just separated from her husband and had been contacting him quite a bit and he didn't really feel like talking to her. Fair enough. This is more or less what followed next:

Ms. Chatty (MC): That's too bad. Speaking of girls, how are things going with that other girl.
Me thinking to myself in slight horror - 'Oh my God. Please do not let me be 'that other girl'. This is about to get embarassing!'
Tex: Uh well...
MC: What's her name anyway?
Me: 'Oh no, oh no, oh no...' (in my head still)
MC: I mean, I know she is in California right? I mean, I don't want to have to keep calling her that girl in California.
Me: Huge grin on my face! Thinking - 'Ha! I am NOT the other girl! Well, that's good, but I bet he is squirming now! How is he going to respond to this? Who is California girl anyway?'
Tex: Well, uh, can we talk about this some other time?
MC: Is now a bad time? Oh my God - is someone there with you???
Tex: Uh, yeah.
MC: Oh my God. Why are you even talking to me? I have to go. Talk to you later.

Then Tex hung up the phone. For a split second I wanted to ask about California girl, but then decided against it. I mean, I like him alright, but I really don't mind that there is some other girl somewhere. Maybe I should mind, but I don't. And I really don't want to ask about it because I don't want to discuss anyone else I may have on my mind with him, so i don't want to make him discuss it with me. And I think that is something that is quite common with expats -- there is usually that someone back home who has a piece of you.

The Stars Shine Bright, Both Day and Night...

Funniest email I have received in a while (courtesy of my friend Linda):

what makes you think he's republican? the fact he's from texas is whitebread has a ranch goes skiing at fancy places? or did he just say he loves george bush and that all poor people should die?

Then she informed me that I should keep him around to find out how 'the enemy operates'. Heh. So I'm keeping him around for a bit.