I’ve been thinking about this constantly since it happened, and it still feels like a dream rather than something I’d do!
So, some background. I’ve slowly become friends with the contractor that my landlord hired to make improvements/repairs to the house I live in. I’ll call him Joe. Due to worries about covid, I saw him more frequently in person than I did some of my friends/family, since he’d stop by to do work every now and then. Joe and I started chatting more and more whenever he stopped by, with his most recent visit being in December.
At the time, we were talking, and I asked him about his New Years’ Eve plans. He told me that he planned on just drinking with two friends at his place– he and his friends jokingly called it the “Loser’s Club” since apparently all three were single and in their 40s (Joe was divorced and one of his friends lost his wife in an accident years back). I was looking at spending NYE by myself as all of my housemates were going home, and for various reasons I had decided not to go. And since it sounded like a mellow evening (really didn’t want to go to a crowded place), I asked if I could join. He was definitely surprised, but I told him I really had nothing better to do (but…I said it more nicely than that).