Believe it or not, I once had a CAO whose greatest fear in life was being abandoned. He courted many women, Americans and locals alike, in the hope of having a lasting relationship with someone. Once, when an American pop singer was visiting Manila to perform in a concert under private sponsorship, he asked me to call her up at her hotel and set up a dinner date with him. I was glad that both the singer and her agent turned him down. And I was so relieved when he was finally posted to another country on the globe.