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A few years ago, your editor and his wife splurged and took an extended european cruise on a small boutique cruise line.  It seems that anywhere we go, we quickly become known as the "wine couple" and  this cruise was no different.

The first night, we met a charming young lady named Chalisa, who, as part of the bar staff,  suggested a great bottle of wine.  We must have tipped well that night, because, after that,  no matter where we were on the ship, for the entire journey, Chalisa seemed to turn up any  time we needed a bottle of wine.

Chalisa, it turns out, was from Vietnam.  And, just as I don't always understand idioms of other cultures, she may not have understood certain sayings in English.  This is common.  For example, it's difficult to explain to someone who speaks English as a second language what the phrase "I have a frog in my throat" means. Another example: Italians struggle to explain to me the concept of "La Dolce Vita" which, apparently, means much more to them than simply the literal, "The sweet life." 

No problem though, Chalisa's english was infinitely better than my vietnamese, so we stuck to english.  And she continually surprised us with great, well-priced wines, often pulling off-menu wines that we had no way of knowing the ship even stocked.  She learned our likes and dislikes and never steered us wrong.

On a ship, you charge everything to your room and then pay one big bill at the end.  Our extended journey was actually two shorter cruises we had booked back-to-back, so halfway through the trip, we had to change cabins, had to settle-up our bill from the first cruise and then had to be assigned new accounts for the second cruise.  No biggie.

On the first night of the second cruise, we decided to go see the show.  

We arrived early and, sure enough, Chalisa appeared just as we were sitting down.

"I've got a great wine for you tonight" she beamed, "I just know you're going to love it!"

"We trust you, we're in your hands." my lovely wife supplied.

Chalisa turned to go retrieve the wine, when I realized we had a new account number and she needed our new card.

"Chalisa, wait, let me give you my new card, I know you need my account number", Your editor waved her back.

Now, remember what I said earlier about cultural idioms?

Chalisa spun on her heel, looked your editor right in the eye and said, in her thick vietnamese accent, "Don't worry, I gotcha number!"

"I bet she does!" my wife chuckled as, we burst with laughter and earned a few disapproving looks from our more "proper" shipmates.

Then your editor noticed the twinkle in Chalisa's eye.  Perhaps, she understood what "I gotcha number" means after all.