I Have Lost Time With You~ Redone

For those of you who are unaware, I recently celebrated my 26^th birthday this past March. March 15^th to be exact. Because I’m in Casablanca I didn’t have many options to pick from as far as what to do to celebrate. I remembered that I had heard about this big hotel/resort that was built in a nearby town named El Jadida, which is about an hour from Casa. I wasn’t looking to do much partying; I really wanted to do some relaxing. I threw the idea out to a few co-workers about coming with me. Of course I went through the “well how much is it”, “how are we going get there”, and “ I just don’t have it” responses but that was expected. My girl Nicki was as excited to go as I was so it ended up just being the two of us. This resort was supposed to be the highlight of El Jadida and all areas that surrounded it. It is right off of the Atlantic Ocean’s coast. It has a casino, night club, four restaurants, four wheeling, horse back riding, kids zone, and many other things to attract guests from all around the world. I was so excited to go. So Nicki and I planned everything and we were on our way to the resort for the weekend.


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We did not get to the resort until Friday night because we could not head to El Jadida until the school day ended. When we arrived to the resort it was all that the brochure and website had described it to be. It was beautiful. So Friday night we get checked in and we are taken up to our room. The room was nice and when we opened the balcony door we could see stars in the sky and we also heard the toads croaking all night. In Casa, we do not see stars in the sky or hear frogs at night, we see pollution in the sky and we hear traffic and beeping cars at night. We agreed that we didn’t want to do too much that night so we decided to get dressed and go to one of the restaurants then head to one of the bars.

First, we went to a restaurant named Sel de Mer and it was just ok. It was a seafood place and the food was expensive as heck and for the price that we paid we weren’t impressed. They were playing slow music to drown out the crowd so we ate and left. After we ate, we headed to the bar. There were comfy couches near the bar so we sat down and started talking. We saw that we had gained the attention from the three Moroccan men that were sitting at the bar but we still kept talking and kind of ignored them. It’s always “that one” that has the most courage to approach so we noticed when he was headed our way. Speaking to us in French, we politely told him that we didn’t speak French. He asked us if we were from Senegal (Moroccans think all Black people in Morocco are from Senegal) and we told him “no, we are from the states.” Then he said, “oh my English is very bad and walks back toward the bar.”  So we go back to talking and a second guy comes up talking “oh they speak English, I speak English” and plops right down on the couch. My name is Mohamed and he’s telling us how he spent time in the states and what he does in Morocco and blah blah blah blah blah. So finally the third Moroccan tells us to come and get a drink from the bar. Words to my ears; I’m happy. Redone speaks English as well and it was obvious that they had been drinking for some time before we got there. So we keep small talking at the bar when one of them say “lets go eat, have you all eaten yet?” Nicki and I looked at each other like “we could have saved our little money.” The bad thing is Moroccans eat so late in the night. It could be almost 10pm when they are just having dinner. That’s why a lot of the women have so much junk in their trunks… all the bread and eating late will do that to you. We weren’t going to eat but because they were having dinner in the casino and we had not been to the casino, we decided to join them.

We headed to the casino with Mohamed, Redone, and Khalid and Nicki started slipping away. She kept saying how tired she was and how she needed to go to bed. I’m thinking the night is still young but if she leaves; I’m leaving with her. There was this band performing on stage in the casino and everybody in the casino was wide-awake. They ordered their food and ate as we continued with the small talk.  I had another drink but finally Nicki was done. She said she had to go to the room because she was too tired. We said our goodbyes and thank yous and headed up to the room. Not even ten minutes after I had gotten my clothes off Mohamed calls and says “Tiffany you need to come back, there is a surprise for you.” Nicki and I start discussing if we wanted to go back because we had made it all the way up to the room and were inches from getting in the bed. Then he calls again, “they made a big cake for you, you need to come back.” So we go back to the casino to see what this was all about. We get to the casino and there was no cake and nothing different from when we had left. I saw Redone get up from the table and walk out of the casino so I figured he was taking anther cigarette break. I just knew they had called us back downstairs for nothing. The band was still playing and about 20 minutes later the waiter comes out with this cake with sparklers on it. It was so sweet. The band starts to sing happy birthday in French and Redone walks up with a gift bag and says happy birthday! He had snuck off to go to the gift shop to buy me a present. When I opened it there was a bracelet and a cute Moroccan loafer key chain in it. I felt so special.  So we stayed for a little while longer then we headed back up to the room to go to bed.

We woke up the next morning with a plan. I wanted to go to the spa and Nicki wanted to work out so we headed to the spa area of the resort. One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Mazagan was to get a nice massage. In Casablanca, they don’t quite know how to do a massage so I was hoping for the real stuff. I needed someone to do backflips on my back to break down all of the tension that I had built up. I also wanted to enjoy a nice quiet massage because in Casa all I could hear was the traffic next to my soothing grooves of Sade when I tried to get one. So we go to the spa simply to find out that for a massage they want 750 Dirham. 750 dirham is the same as about $88. I’m upset because I can pay $50 in the states and get a wonderful hour massage… the price was ridiculous, however in Morocco many things are ridiculous when it comes to price. Because that was what I came for, I just paid the money… plus it was for my birthday. So the lady asks me if I wanted a woman or a man to massage me… hmmmm… I had to think on that one. I decided to go with a woman because nine times out of ten when a man massages you, it usually doesn’t end up with… well lets just say I didn’t want the tease! So I head to the back to get my massage and Nicki heads to the gym. The massage was worth all of the 750 Dirham, the lady did a wonderful job. After my long hour in paradise both of us had mani’s and pedi’s and headed back to the room.

When we got back to the room my plan was to grab my book and go and read by the pool. Because it was so cold outside I ended up heading back to those comfy couches near the bar and ordered a glass of wine with my book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston… fyi if you haven’t read this book, it is a great read. So I’m sitting by the bar and a random man comes up and chit chats with me. He lived in Canada and had moved to Morocco to work for an oil company named Jacobs. He was living in the hotel until he could find himself a house in El Jadida. Older man…. I’m sure married with wife and kids at home…. we’re in a hotel…. Sure I could just guess what was on his mind. While I’m talking to Husane, Mohamed walks up and sits down next to me and surely Redone showed up not too much later. We make plans for all of us to have dinner later that night and go to the nightclub after. I explained to them that I would need to go and take a nap so that I could be ready for the fun festivities. I told Redone that Nicki and I would wake up at about 9 and we would meet them at about 9:30 and I left. I went up to the room and took a nap.

I wake up to my phone ringing and Redone says, “It’s 9:30, are you all headed down?” I was still sleeping. I told him that my alarm must have not gone off (lying) and that we would get up and get dressed at that point. He said, “so do you need 10 minutes”, I said, “no more like 30.” So Nicki and I get up and get dressed. Ladies you know that means trying on an outfit, changing an outfit, hair, makeup, shoes, perfume, talk, music, and so many other things that a woman needs to “get dressed”. After, we head down.



By the time we got downstairs it was about 10:30. We could not find    Redone or Mohamed in     the restaurant or the lobby so I called him. While we were waiting some man walks up to Nicki and me and told us that we looked nice. Mr. Sharif… he called himself feeling me. He was a handsome man and he actually looked Porto Rican. After small talking with Nicki for a few minutes he tells me to take his number and I did. Mohamed and Redone finally comes and we head to the restaurant. There was a Moroccan band playing at the restaurant that night so there were so many people there and the place was pretty much sold out. Redone had already made reservations so we headed to our table.


Now here is where I can start to explain how the night headed down hill… Redone turns to me and says, “Why did you tell me 9:30 and you weren’t ready at 9:30?” I said to him, “my alarm didn’t go off and I overslept but I’m here now.” He goes through this whole ordeal saying if you say a time, you need to stick to it otherwise you are disrespecting me. He pretty much explained that if you say you are coming at a certain time, you need to be there at that time. He is the only Moroccan that I know that thinks this way. Just like “CPT” in Morocco there is “MPT” and believe me, it is nowhere near “on time.” Then he says “but after, you said it would only take 30 minutes to get dressed and you came almost  2 hours late.” I tried to explain to him that when women say a certain time you need to add at least an extra hour to the time to be on the safe side! No, he felt even more disrespected! I asked his friend Mohamed, I said “Mohamed when a woman tells you that she will be ready in 30 minutes, how long does she mean?” He said “about 3 hours.” That made Redone madder so they started speaking to each other in Arabic, I guess debating or at least discussing the issue. He then tells me again, “if you say you are going to be on time, be on time… well well well… strike 1.

As we waited for our dinner to be served we were just talking and drinking and enjoying the music. So after Nicki spiked her drink a few times she finally started having fun. Mohamed started teaching her how to say bad words and sex words in Arabic. It was amazing at how funny this was to them. It was like kids on a playground for Mohamed and Redone and Nicki was the bait. They would say “say this, say this, ooohhh do you know what you’re saying?” I started to get irritated when Redone would say stuff like I want to (insert nasty Arabic word here) with Tiffany. So I got serious and stopped laughing… strike 2.  The food finally came and the band started performing. The band was amazing. It was Arabic music and the crowd was jumping. So randomly Redone hands me this wad of cash and tells me to go and give it to the dancers. I guess it is tradition to give money to the band if they are doing well. I was embarrassed because the girl pulled me up on stage and I had to do the dang dance that they were doing. Luckily Nicki came up too and then we just posed for a picture.



After about an hour of that it was time to head to the nightclub. Mohamed was too tired to join us so he decided to go back up to his room. We walked over to the nightclub and it was opened doors for Redone. Clearly he knew some people at the resort and people knew him. We walked straight into VIP and sat down and a bottle of vodka with sparklers was brought right to us. The nightclub had professional dancers and it was like a real show. Nicki got up and started dancing while I was still sitting. I was trying to get my drink on because I was still upset from what had happened at the restaurant. After I finally got my buzz I was ready to dance but Nicki sat her tail down. So I am dancing and dancing and having a really good time. That’s when I saw Redone waving to some girl across from us at the other booth in the VIP section. He says to me “that’s my friend’s friend.” Some hoochie with a short black dress on… hmmm that’s your friend’s friend huh? She comes over and says hello and we all shake hands and she walks back over to her section. I asked Redone to dance with me so we got up to dance. Because there were fog blowers that would blow the fog right on the VIP section, I had to run away from the clouds so that I wouldn’t get choked up. This time when I ran away from the fog I came back to see the “friend’s friend” whispering in Redone’s ear with her arms wrapped around his neck. I politely grabbed his hand and continued our dance. As I’m dancing with him I hear Nicki saying something so I turn around and there was Sharif from the lobby standing there in our section. When Redone saw Sharif walk up to me he sat down for some reason. I gave Sharif a hug and asked him what he was doing there and then we started dancing. We were salsa dancing and he was twirling me everywhere but loose!! So randomly the security guard approaches Sharif and asks him to leave. Nicki’s thought was that Redone arranged for him to be put out of the nightclub. I don’t know. Sharif says, “I’ll be in the casino when you leave.” I approach Redone to come and dance with me and he refused. He held his hand up as if he was saying, “I’m finished.” In the other VIP section where the girl was, there was only one guy and about three girls. All night I kept catching eyes with this guy. He just kept smiling at me and I noticed when he was smiling. I finally sat down and Redone said he was ready to go. He said let’s go to the casino. I’m looking at the half drank bottle of vodka like, “are we gonna leave that” but I didn’t say anything. So it’s time to go and Nicki heads to the door first and then Redone and then here I come. While I’m walking out toward the door the guy from the section across from us pulls my arm and says, “where are you from?” I told him that I was from the states and he was telling me that his English was not good. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small ruckus but before I could even check out what was going on Redone had turned around and punched the man right in the face… Strike 3. I did my walk of shame and headed toward the door. The bouncers quickly escorted Redone out of the club and he stormed out. He was FURIOUS. He was shouting all of these things like “People know me here”, “I’m a man”, blah blah blah… so he turns around to me and says and YOU… I explained, “He was just asking me where I was from” then Redone pushed me a little bit and said “I don’t care… you don’t talk to him… I have lost time with you… I will never get this time back.” Nicki was looking so confused, shoot I was looking confused. He was all red in the face. We were all headed back inside of the resort and me and Nicki made a plan that when we hit that corner… RUN!! This fool is crazy!!

 When we got in the resort both of took off running. Imagine the scene in What’s Love Got to do With It when Tina Turner had taken her last beating from Ike and she ran from her room to the hotel across the street. That was us! Running for our lives!! We got up to the hotel room and we were literally cracking up… he completely snapped. I think it was the “little man syndrome” that caught up with him but it was not cool. So I’m in the bed and his friend Khalid calls first. “Tiffany just meet us at the casino and we can talk about this?” First of all do I look like a dummy? Do you think I’m going to go and meet up with this fool after he showed his @ss in the club… he embarrassed me. He punched that man in the face for no reason, I’m not his girl. So when we didn’t show up his friend Mohamed called. “Tiffany he showed you a great time, he never does this for anyone, you never talk to anyone outside of the group, he bought you this, blah blah blah. We agreed to disagree because my responses meant nothing.

The next morning it was time for check out. We were incognito the whole time trying not to run into either of those fools. We made it out safely. Later that morning he texts me saying lets forget about the past and if Nicki and I needed a ride back to Casa he would take us.

No thank you!!!!!!

When I later thought about it, Redone has a lot of similar facial features of the King Mohamed VI… Maybe he is his cousin… Maybe I missed out on my opportunity for “royalty”…



Can’t say that I’m sad.