It's been almost two months since I left NYC, so why am I still writing about it? Well, it's probably because events that happened that spring break still come up in my mind and make me smile and sometimes cringe.
Thursday night, after the Broadway musical was a night to remember.
The night started with drinking games with Emoinacloset's NYU friends. While sitting in the giant drinking circle, I noticed that there was girl sitting across from me who seemed to be catching my gaze a bit too much for it to be a coincidence. Suspicious that she was perhaps a little bit interested in me, I smiled back and made some small talk. Later, my suspicions were confirmed at the bar where she grabbed my hand and motioned me to go to the back of the bar. Unfortunately, I did not find her very attractive so I doubled back and rejoined Emoinacloset before heading to the back.
Once at the back of the bar, a drink fell from a table near me and a short, overweight Indian confronted me about me about knocking over his drink. I vehemently denied it and the Indian turned to Robocop and told him "your bro knocked over my drink, we don't have a problem right now but we will." A friend of Emoinacloset's told Robocop to give me a $20 to buy the Indian a drink, of course, Robocop did not have anything in his wallet. At this point, things were getting tense so remembering my Krav Maga, I dropped the girl's umbrella that I was carry on the floor and put my hands up as non threateningly as possible. The Indian's friends were trying to tell him to just forget about the drink, but he insisted I pay for it and I was pretty certain that I had not knocked it over. I contemplated throwing the first punch, there was no doubt that the Indian with his hands down and leaning back would get caught cleanly. Thoughts of Ev, my Krav instructor telling us strike first stuck in my mind, but then I realized my night night would end right there and decided against it. Instead, I just walked away and sat down in another part of the bar waiting for the situation to diffuse.
While sitting down, I reflected on my sad situation. Here I was away from my friends, running away from someone I most definitely could beat in a fight, thinking "fuck him" I rejoined my friends at the bar. Once again, I was confronted by the Indian, but this time I was determined to not let him ruin my night. I gave in to buying him a new drink, thinking that $10 was a small price to pay for an undisturbed night out. As I approached the bar, the bartender was in the middle of telling everybody to move down and stop crowding the bar once they had gotten their drinks. I quickly interrupted him and asked if he could speed up an order for a a rum and ginger ale as I was trying to get out of a fight. The bartender poured me a shot of rum and told me it was on the house! Having just experienced some good karma, I was feeling pretty good about turning the other cheek. I took the shot back to the Indian, who promptly drank it, then I shook hands with him and his friends; and we agreed that everything was now "good."
I turned around to face my friends, but then felt a hand on my shoulder. It was the Indian again! He told me I had given him the wrong drink and demanded I buy him a ginger ale and Captain Morgan. Incensed, I was in the process of loading up my right hand and it took all my self control to decide he was not worth it and walked to the other end of the bar.
Robocop found me at the front of the bar, later Emoinacloset and the girl who was hitting on me later appeared too. I was still angry over the drink incident, cursing furiously and talking about how I should have taken that fight. Emoinacloset assured me walking away was the right decision and when the girl questioned if I really could have fought the Indian, things took an interesting turn. Suddenly, Emoinacloset became my wingman, he told the girl how I had been training Muay Thai, Krav Maga and BJJ for years! Somehow that segmented into how I was working at a startup and doing an amazing job. In my mind, I laughed out loud over how ridiculous the conversation was getting, I think I saw a smile creep over Robocop's face as well. Come to think of it, I don't think Emoinacloset even said all those things with a straight face.
Not sure if the girl was buying all the praise, but as the night wore on she definitely got more flirty. She held on to my hand and according to Robocop at times looked like she wanted to kiss me. At some point, she must have gotten tired of repeatedly shutting down her flirtations and stepped out to take a phone call, only to never to come back.
Back at the apartment, Emoinacloset and Robocop blasted me for not "sealing the deal." I shot back that they would be giving me much more shit had I hooked up with her and they agreed, before once again jumping on me for not "sealing the deal." While reflecting my first experience getting hit on, I realized that Robocop and I had been butchering her name the whole night. It's hilarious to think that a girl flirted with me the whole night despite me calling her two different names, both of which were incorrect.
The next morning, I discovered that I had accidentally added the girl on Facebook and she had accepted. The hilarity continued when we called a mutual friend who knew the girl and relayed my story. Our mutual friend was not surprised and we learned that the girl did this kind of thing quite often. The icing to this story happened back in San Diego, where the girl randomly messages me on Facebook and we actually had an hour long conversation without any awkwardness. When I asked her about that night, she seemed to have little to no memory about it, something that was later confirmed by the mutual friend.
That's alright, because Emoinacloset, Robocop and I will be laughing about this for awhile.
-muffinman
