Boujee

As we sat in the nail salon on the night that he forgot his wallet, Henry told me that I was “materialistic.” I asked him what he meant by that and he returned with a commentary on the difference between eastern and western philosophies on money; easterners embrace their materialism, whereas westerners shroud it in epitaphs of “experiences,” which basically equates to the same thing: the having of money being a good thing. Period.

Based on other comments, I was aware that Henry paid attention to my material things – jewelry, clothes, and accessories. These items enabled Henry to form opinions of me that I suspected spanned between: deep affection - as it played into his own pursuit of status; and affliction - as it made me less sympathetic in the context of his eastern shadow world of beggars and underdogs.

The thing I realized about Henry that night is that, like most men, his desire for the best of things, ran contrary to his ego; while he pursued me in the glamour of NYC, his fragile ego simultaneously resented me. How can a man feel great in the face of his potential lover’s competency?

Whereas in Asia, Henry’s British upbringing could make an impression on a group of high society people, in the competitive landscape of NYC, Henry was a mere mortal; in fact, in many ways, he was arguably out of his league.