Butterfingers
Buddy and myself having a drink on a large wooden deck patio at ocean side bar/restaurant. A slightly over middle aged couple sitting next to us.
Picture the following: Cocky too-cool to be pleasant guy, slicked back black hair, goatee, lots of jewelry; his wife (g/f maybe), lots of work done, lots of jewelry, lots of big hair, but more pleasant seeming than her husband/bf.
Our tables are right next to each other and they are rather close to us. As my buddy and I are just taking in the view, he sort of catches eyes with the dude, and say something like “good evening” or something innocuous like that.
No kidding, the guy says “Mind your own business and keep your eyes to yourself.” Now at this point, my buddy and I look at each other with sort of a “did that just happen expression”.
My buddy looks back over at him and says something like, “relax buddy, sorry to bother you” or something similar.
At this point, we are a little put off that the guy could so be so nasty so effortlessly. In any event, we got back to our beers and enjoyed the sunset.
2 minutes later, the guy pulls out a ring for his wife/gf or whatever. I got a good look at it and it was a big one, large diamond, etc.
Now I don’t think this was a proposition for marriage or anything, but she was clearly excited, and he had a sufficiently smug, self-satisfied look on his face.
Well, anyway, she goes to hand it back to him, and when he grabs for it, he fumbles it, and it falls to the deck, rolls an inch or two, and then promptly disappears, falling between two slats of the deck.
I felt bad for the lady, but the guy was like a pot about to boil over. His face went white, and then immediately flush red. He was barely able to maintain his composure. It looked like he wanted to strike his lady friend.
He was fidgeting and exhibiting tics, all the while trying to maintain his very cool composure. He was failing badly.
My buddy and I catch the whole exchange. The dude looks over at us and now we are looking straight at him. Not laughing or pointing, just smiling casually.
The girl, I truly felt bad for. He on the other hand, couldn’t have been worse. He called a waiter over, and started discretely explaining to him what happened. We couldn’t hear this part of the convo, but as it went on, he became louder and more animated.
Apparently he wanted someone to pull up the deck slats. That was NOT going to happen. The waiter was cool as ice.
Despite the guy raging at this point, the waiter flatly told him something to the effect of “look man, you can come back tomorrow and talk to the manager, or pay your bill and leave now”.
The guy sat down, and his lady friend was visibly shaken. Still sort of feeling bad for her. My friend and I, enjoying our beer and the sunset, remarked about how karma, while certainly inspiring, is almost magical when it’s instant.