Subway Anecdote

Because of my commitment to morning gym/lunchtime Pilates/afterwork yoga, I am finding myself unduly burdened with an assortment of bags on my daily commute. I'm on the waiting list for a permanent locker at the gym in order to lighten the load a bit, but until then I've got the supplies to change into any one of a number of fitness-themed outfits at any given time.
This morning, when I got on the subway, it was with a purse across my body, tote bag over my arm, and coffee mug in hand. Lucky for me I got a seat and wedged myself into it. Then I started scrabbling through my purse to find my lovely little iPod nano, which lovingly insulates me from the teeming throng of commuters. As I pulled it out of an inner pocket, something else small and white came along with it -- a tampon that immediately flew out of my hand and onto the floor at my feet. I reached forward to grab it just as the subway lurched and it rolled away from my outstretched fingers. Off it rolled between the legs of someone standing in the middle of the car, before coming to rest against the pointy-toed shoes of the lady in the seat across from me. Since I was stuck under purse and tote, with coffee mug grasped between my knees, I figured I'd let it go. It was a crowded subway, the lady now sitting right next to the little tampon probably hadn't even seen it arrive. It had become litter. Oops, but oh well. But noooo... the young guy sitting in the seat next to mine chivalrously jumps up and goes and picks it up and hands it back to me. There was a split second, when he was half-way back to his seat, errant tampon in hand, that he sort of turned it over and looked at it and maybe, just maybe, realized what it was. That's when I blushed. Yup, I've got no problem with chucking random tampons around a rush-hour subway, but when some unsuspecting gentleman picks it up for me... it all just felt a little too intimate.