Chapter 16 – In vino veritas

“Since when did you start drinking wine? I mean, I’m not complaining. I’m happy you’ve finally discovered the finer pleasures life has to offer and decided to enjoy them. But that’s not really you…” Noah eyed the bottle in his hand sceptically before grabbing the corkscrew, while I was getting two glasses. He’d always been the one to call when having a crisis on your hands. So naturally, I had immediately called him after Ava’s last dare. Even if he didn’t have some amazing advice on his hands, he’d calm me down enough to think about my next steps.

“The last time I offered you some wine you looked at me like I had a screw loose and declared your love for beer. Granted, you were already totally wasted at that time, but still. What’s changed?” he asked again, eyeing me from the side. “Well… I tried it when I was in Rome, and now I’ve kind of developed a taste for it. I’m not going to go ahead and call myself a wine connoisseur since I am still clueless as to what to get every time I’m in front of the shelves in the supermarket, but I do enjoy the occasional glass of wine now and then,” I explained while holding up my glass in a bit of a pretentious gesture.

“You went to Italy? When? Dude, you really need Instagram. No one ever knows what’s going on in your life any more,” he complained while plopping down on the couch, miraculously without spilling a single drop.

“Yeah. It’s actually a long story. I met this woman… Ava. She’s one of our regulars at the pharmacy. We got to talking, and she always has the best ideas what to do on the weekends.”

“Cool. She cute?” he asked before shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

“Yeah…”, I started to answer before I was cut off. “Then don’t overthink it,” he said around a mouthful of potato chips. I shot him a confused look “Overthink what?” He only returned an incredulous look and stopped chewing for a few seconds.

“Dude. We’ve known each other since kindergarten. Every fucking time you’ve liked someone you’ve missed your chance because you overthought it. And don’t try to deny it. I’m not blind. I saw that stupid ass smile on your face when you said her name. You looked like an idiot, by the way. Just ask her on a date.” He rolled his eyes while he propped his feet up. “Easier said than done,” I grumbled to myself before I sat down and turned on the TV. But I had to admit he was right. It’s not like I hadn’t already had plenty of chances to ask her out. Sure, the activities she put on my bucket list would not have been possible to do together. But I could have invited her for a film night. Or we could have had dinner together. Or we could have…”

“There you go again with the overthinking!” Noah face-palmed and shook his head after rudely interrupting my thoughts. “Stop pondering all the things you could do with her or how to ask her. Just think of something in the moment, while you’re standing in front of her. If you try to come up with something clever now, you’ll only mess up. You can do it. Just have a little faith.” He was still shaking his head but focused his gaze on the game again.

He was right. I could do it.