We were to walk to his place around 7 pm so that Captain and Senior could call the crew that were up for advancement and let them know if they made it — three of them did. Well, turns out there are four different buildings that start with Fontana, so we ended up at the wrong one and the boss offered to come pick us up. While we waited I helped myself to some free coffee, two types of tea (of which I didn’t finish the last), and a date with tahina which was sweet.

Caleb and I tried out some of the chairs in the lounge and then the Nissan pulled up and we were off to the proper, and closer, Fontana building and all the way to the top floor. I didn’t expect anything to be fancier but was hoping to see the view. I meet his wife, the woman who will bring me a chair and a glass of water before disappearing and sit with the guys for a moment before joining Andrew’s dad in the living room to chat about work and travel and his three kids for about an hour.

I was gifted a blue and gold keychain with some knots learned from a boatswain mate (the guys in charge of ropes, paint, and hull maintenance) on a tiger cruise (when sailors invite people over the age of 8 years old sans significant other (anyone they’d have sex with) on the last part of a long deployment — his was from Pearl Harbor to San Diego. I’m grateful I got to be with Caleb at work before I got out as what happened underway definitely wouldn’t be appropriate if I was pretending to be his sister just to get a peek at his life out to sea.

Having learned some background I felt more relaxed around Andrew and on the ride home he gave us I learned that he was Caleb’s age, but besides that, they don’t have much else in common. Andrew has a twin sister and is a workaholic, finding any and every excuse to be at the ship and convince Caleb into working late (after the last bus leaves the yards), and doesn’t miss his wife on her long visits home. I could see being friends with Andrew, and definitely his dad, but I can see the difficulty in trying to work for someone who sounds ten years younger than their age.