It Wasn't the Worst Date in the World

I probably should have told him I didn’t have a license before I agreed to pick up the rental car. Luckily, the guy behind the counter was not a stickler for details. My heart was racing as I pulled out of the parking space, but I didn’t have much room for error. The drive from Hertz was uneventful, but when I tried to park by the dock, there were no spaces, so I had to go park by the community college. I ran over something, but I don’t think anybody noticed.

Of course, I didn’t tell him I had a boyfriend either; hopefully he wouldn’t ask, but I was kinda concerned about Jorge seeing me leaving and wanting to know where I was going. The simplest solution was to take my girl with me like it was a typical girl's night out.

Damon didn’t seem to mind Carlita tagging along. He and I had absolutely no idea where to go or what to do, so Carlita suggested that we go to some nightclub where a band she liked was playing. I had actually been there before with Carlita and it seemed like a pretty ok place. When Damon and I went to enter, the bouncer had an attitude and said the place was full. Damon didn’t seem surprised by this behavior, but I was puzzled. There was a fair number of cars in the parking lot but I couldn’t really see it being full, and I just saw our coworker Jason go in.

“They not gone let me in,” he explained, “they don’t like black folks in here.”

It took me a moment to process what he was saying. How could such a culturally diverse place be so overtly racist? But his statement matched reality so I had to accept it. Since Carlita was comfortable there, we decided to meet back up with her later and go for a walk on the beach.

This was my first time doing something like that, and it was everything I had imagined it to be. We talked about everything: astrology, funny things that happened to us, and our families. We had a brief discussion about financial difficulties. My bank account had recently been frozen because someone who had access to it owed back child support. He claimed to have had a similar experience with the woman who was watching over his rental property while he was away.

Things took a turn for the WTF when he told me that his mother was 31 years old. Up until that point, I thought he was 28. I was almost scared to ask him what his actual age was. They didn’t hire minors at my job. Of course, that was of small comfort. There was no way in hell I could date a man whose mother was younger than me. I couldn’t help but wonder why his face looked so weathered. He didn’t seem at all like a teenager.

He continued to talk about his relationship with his mother. “I used to hate going to the mall with her because whenever I try to talk to girls they would always think my mother was my girlfriend.” She had him when she was 12.

Despite the awkwardness, I enjoyed our conversation. He listened intently when I talked about my life experiences and didn’t try to dominate the conversation. There's something about the waves that make a young man's mind turn to sex. When he asked about my feeling on the subject I took the opportunity to tell him about Jorge.

“I have a boyfriend,” sounds better than, “I’m more than old enough to be your mother.”

“I wish you would have told me that earlier but I’m not surprised. I don’t need sex bad enough to have to worry about some dude stepping to me talking about that’s my girl or that’s my bitch.”

Pretty soon it was time to go get Carlita. She had enjoyed the band but was anxious to get to bed so she could work the next morning. As we went through the security checkpoint to return to the ship, I suddenly became conscious of how OG this young man really was. Not OG in a pre Law and Order Ice T sort of way. He was OG like Junebug from I’m Gonna Git You Sucka. Everyone else was just walking through the little metal detector flashing their ID and entering in less than a minute. This young man had to spend 15 minutes removing watches, chains, and belts before the security team was satisfied that he wasn’t carrying dangerous contraband.

When we made it back to the ship Damon seemed to have forgotten all about wanting to avoid a confrontation and asked me to come to his cabin. I wanted to, but in a rare moment of clarity, I decided to get some sleep.