The image I liked to project of myself

I can give you names and addresses of the next.of-kin.You want to live here,you play the percentages.It's the price you pay for putting the bite on the Big Apple.As you can see, it doesn't take me long to bounce back. Miriam listened wide-eyed as I related my encounter with the missing elevator and the invisible fist.

I kept it low key to avoid alarming her and to reinforce the image I liked to project of myself as a man who, besides being smooth, sharp and ***ually magnetic, was also endowed with a certain nonchalant machismo. Which meant omitting the fact that I had, momentarily, been scared shitless.