I STOOD UP TO THE BADDEST MAN IN TOWN

That is what I wish I could tell you.  I wish I could tell you that I told him to put down his beer and step outside with me, but that's not what happened.  No, what happened was that he insulted me, insulted my date and I sat there covered in sweat and stinking of fear.  He actually said that, he told me "you stink like fear, pussy" and I sat and stared a hole in the surface of the bar.  I cringed when he clapped me on the back with his fat, meaty palm.  I looked away when my date grabbed her purse and her coat and fled the bar.  I tried not to hear him as he laughed right in my ear and whispered "you're a goddamn pussy" at me, but I heard.  And I let him take my unfinished beer and upend it in my own lap.  I ran out of there and sat in my truck and cried.  I cried like a child.  I wish I could tell you that I stood up to the baddest man in town, but I was a coward.  And I'm still a coward, even now.  Even now as I wait in the dark behind a dumpster, near his motorcycle with a cocked and loaded pistol in my hand.  And so, this is how I will stand up to the baddest man in town.  Under the cover of darkness, from behind, by surprise.  I'm a coward, not a fool.