I Got Played And Survived

Oh yeah! I'm alive and safe. There was nothing to be paranoid about after all. After an hour of being half awake and wondering where the hell was my phone this morning, I got up and found my phone underneath the couch which I've turned into my bed. A few missed calls and a SMS message asking whether I was coming or not that was sent an hour earlier.

So I called up Farah (the chick who left the message and that I was supposed to meet today), I told her that I had just woken up and that I could be on my way over to pick her from her place in an hour. She was cool with that.

Yesterday she had told me that she wouldn't be able to make it because of her period. I told my bro and Kiki, the two people I had told about the story, that it was then off. My bro was surprised to find that all my worrying ended up being worthless, and Kiki was relieved for my sake. However, later yesterday night she had changed her mind, and told me that if she was feeling better tomorrow she'll give me a call to tell me to come over to pick her up.

Since I hadn't updated my bro or Kiki, I called up Od on the way to hers to tell him that I was off to meet some chick and that I just wanted to tell him so that someone knows what I'm up to should the worst arise.

I followed her directions, and wound up in a wide road. I called her up to tell her I was in her street. She told me she just spotted me pass by as I was talking to her so I turned the car around and drove slowly backwards. She popped out of a house and climbed confidently into the car. She seemed quite happy and at ease. She was prettier than her pics of herself that she had sent me.

I thought we were going to have lunch together, but she had already eaten. Which left us with no options that would come to mind as to where we ought to go now. I ended up driving to the other side of Baghdad trying to think of where we could sit and enjoy a coffee. I never thought it would've been that hard. Eventually I gave up and decided to go to some fancy yet low profile restaurant.

The choice of restaurant was a stroke of genius. The last time I had walked in to the restaurant was shortly after the end of the war, my friend and I ordered bottles of wine. That was then, so when I noticed that the men (there were no women there) in the restaurant were drinking tall cans of Heineken I was pleasantly surprised. I ordered a bottle of Lebanese white and we ordered some salads to go along with that.

She drank only half a glass, she had told me that she liked red, but I didn't think that someone liked red would dislike white so much. So either she didn't like the white or she just didn't want to get wasted. I sure as hell got buzzed much faster that I usually do. We didn't eat much of the food, we spent most of the time chatting about school life. I started joking about how if she didn't drink her share of the wine, I'd be drinking hers and would get all drunk and then she'd have to drive. So when the waiter was about to pour me another glass she told him not to.

She then suggested that we leave. That was cool with me even though we left the bottle of wine unfinished. But I did get a bit tipsy and my driving wasn't too great after that. We hadn't planned over the phone what to do after lunch, she had said that she'll make up her mind then. Now we were driving back to our side of Baghdad, I suggested that we go to my place and so we did.

Now what's up with girls handing out chewing gum before making out? I hate chewing gum. And as far as I can tell I don't have bad breath. Sure I smoke but is that such a big deal. Now that I think about it, I don't remember where I chucked my chewing gum.

On s'embrassa beaucoup et pour longtemps, on était les deux hesitant de coucher ensemble à cause de ses règles. Bon on a essayé tout de même et ça n'a pas durer, elle a cru que j'ai eu un problème à le garder soutenu mais c'etait pas ça, j'ai simplement fini très tôt. Comme c'est décevant!

After all that, I drove her back to her neighbourhood and dropped her off near a clinic where her mum was supposed to be to do some tests.

I drove over to Od's after that and since I was starving I took with me to Ali Al-Lami's supermarket/take-away restaurant. We drove up from the opposite side of the street and parked there because there was a car parked in front of the restaurant thought to be a car bomb surrounded by cops and a guy with a body armour vest with Iraqi police EOD (forgot what that stood for).

Od spoke to a shop owner where we had got out of the car. I was drunk and didn't care if there was a car bomb. Od felt that it was safe enough to cross the street and get that sandwich. We got us each a shawerma meat sandwich and ate them in front of the place. Od did a little monologue(if that's what it's called) that went something like this:

How do we live in Iraq? We go to Ali Al-Lami to eat shawerma. There's a possible car bomb parked in front of us. But we've got a bush in between us and the car to protect us.

After we finished our sandwiches, a woman who seemed to be the owner of the car showed up.