Subway Scare

A few nights ago, Jo and her boyfriend--whom she recently moved in with--were traveling with me by subway from Park Slope in BK to Fulton St. in Manhattan after Lauren's housewarming party. Seems everyone in sight is moving in with a boyfriend these days.

Anyway, as we rode the 2/3 crossing from Brooklyn to Manhattan a rail thin black man with his requisite du-rag began screaming at Ken. Apparently he was under the misconception that Ken was staring at his sleeping girlfriend's exposed cleavage. Jo tried to jump in and dissolve the situation, "I was admiring her dress," she claimed. The fine man was having none of that, "You can look as much as you like, but he better keep his eyes to himself," he bellowed.

I stayed out of the matter but couldn't help but feel responsible sitting on that side of Ken that required him to turn his cheek away from Jo toward me and the drunken couple when he addressed me. sigh.

Ken was a picture of composure. We felt his brow stiffen and his muscles tense but he didn't pick a fight. It behooved him to maintain his calm--who knew if the jealous boyfriend had a gun or a knife. I was alarmed by this display--but I couldn't help but think in a similar situation how V would have reacted.

Knowing V as I do...the man would not only NOT have backed down from a fight, he would have started one up over the ridiculous notion that he could have looked at another woman when I was present. Of course, no such thing had ever happened so there is no real way of knowing but it is this exact brand of recklessness that dropped my head over my heels for V. He's not that guy anymore...or maybe he is--I wouldn't know. All I know is that Jo was glad, and so was I, that Ken was the kind of mild-mannered, composaed adult as to let it go.