A while back, Chloe and I moved into a new place. It was much nicer than anywhere we had lived before, a large house with plenty of room that was perfect for entertaining. My wife loved to host, and she loved parties, so of course she started planning a housewarming party the moment we moved in. Her plan was to invite basically everyone we knew with the assumption that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to make it and we’d end up with a medium-sized group.
So we planned the party and sent out invitations. Among those invited was an old friend of mine named Taylor. Taylor was one of those guys who got along with everyone. He and I met in high school, and while his “tribe” was definitely the jocks, he was friendly enough with everyone that people were just drawn to him. I remember him as being one of the only jock-types that I actually liked and we became friends. Of course, that was years ago, and he and I sort of lost touch when he went off to play football for a university team. But now he was back in our home state, so we invited him. Taylor was definitely one of the invites we expected to get a “no” from, but to both my surprise and Chloe’s he RSVP’d “Yes” almost immediately after invites went out.