This happened to me last saturday...

I was with a girl, sitting on some stairs that run from a street to another, not that far away from a bad neighborhood. We had been at one of her friend's house, and we were having a cigarette before going for some drinks, so we just sat in a place without wind. After chatting for a bit, I notice two gipsies who stop near the end of the stairs, and the youngest of them (I think he was under 20) comes up to us, and asks for our money. The girl was frightened, and before she reached for her purse I said "aw, come on, you're scaring her. Don't do that." So this guy faces me, and tells me that I better give him everything I have or I'll get hurt; he then puts his hand inside his pocket and grabs something (a knife, this isn't America so muggers never have guns, but blades are hard to control). I looked at his eyes, completely calmed, and said "look man, it's saturday night. Do you think we would be sitting in the street if we had money? Don't you think I would take her to a bar, or to the movies, if I could?"

And then I remained still, looking at him. On the inside I was fucking nervous, prepared to kick him downstairs and run with the girl at the first sign of a blade... But from his point of view, I was calmed and a bit angry. And he wasn't calmed at all. He looked at me, looked at the girl by my side, then looked down to his friend. I reached for my pocket and saw the guy was now scared, I took my pack of cigarettes, slowly lit one up, and offered him one. He grabbed it, and walked away.

The girl didn't say anything for a few minutes, and when she was about to ask me something I interrupted her saying "Shit happens. Let's go have a drink." She didn't say a thing about the gipsies that night, but she kept hugging me and putting her head on my shoulder until we went home. I didn't realise it until the next morning, but I think her opinion on me went from "average funny guy" to "serious badass" in a few seconds.

So, anybody here have other stories like this, where they had to confront a dangerous situation in front of a girl? What did you do, and how did it work out? What was the girl's reaction? I'm still unsure of how or why did I act like that, so I want to know more about this problem... I know most girls like brave guys, but I really dislike violence, so what variables should I be aware of before trying this shit again next time?