If Leo was unsettled by a seventeen-year-old girl making sexually inappropriate comments, he didn’t show it. He just smiled in a way that told me he didn’t smile too often. “Like gaming out possibilities in your head based on the situation you’re in,” he said. “Sitting in a car and watching someone for hours can be really boring. So you use your imagination and think about what could happen. We’re supposed to be watching this woman. Let’s say she gets in her Lexus and drives off down the street. What would you do?”

I shrugged. “Follow her.”

“Sure, but how close? Do you let her get to the end of the street before you start the car? How about if she comes out of the house in workout clothes and goes for a run? Do we drive after her? Follow on foot? What if she climbs over the fence in the back? What if she walks out here and demands to know who we are?” He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows as if surprised by the endless possibilities that could unfold before us. “Your imagination is your greatest asset.”

I imagined how I would react if Leo tried to make a move on me. Sure, he was old, but that didn’t mean anything. So I imagined all of the ways I could render Leo Nevsky harmless—a palm strike to the nose, or a stab in the thigh with the pen I was holding, or an eye gouge with my hooked fingers. If we were on the street I’d deliver a short hard kick to the outside of his kneecap and drop him to the pavement.

“I think I get it,” I said.

He smiled again, this one a bit less rusty. “The Navy SEALs have a saying: embrace the suck. Sitting in a car all day watching a woman who may or may not be cheating on her husband isn’t anywhere near as tough as going through SEAL training. But the basic premise is the same—make the most of an unpleasant situation.”

Nothing happened that day; the wife never left her house, and I have no idea what happened afterward. Leo shook my hand gravely at the end of the day when he dropped me off at my uncle’s house and wished me good luck. I never saw him again. But I took that lesson to heart—make the most of an unpleasant situation.