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“What is it you do?” Rene wondered.
“I’m a graphic designer,” he explained. “And I have the good fortune of working from home. Sometimes, I even do it in my pajamas.”
“Eh, now,” Hyde snorted, “make the rest of us jealous.”
“In the beginning, it’s great, but eventually, it gets boring, like most things. Can you believe it that I actually wish to get my ass out and mingle while I work?”
“Why can’t you just mingle when you’re not working?” Rene wondered and Hyde nodded, agreeing with her point of view.
“That would be intentional,” Jesse pointed out. “Like, I go to a bar, it’s expected that I’ll meet someone. Whether a girl will approach me or I’ll approach her, it doesn’t matter. It’s simply expected. But, at work, it’s just mingling. It starts off innocently and it usually is nothing more than that. You just talk to people. Then, surprise… it develops into something more, and that makes it all the more interesting.”
“You know?” Rene thought about it for a second. “That actually makes sense.”
“Right?” Jesse replied, after he shed light on the whole matter.
“That’s because going to bars stopped being interesting to him,” Hyde revealed, with a sneer.
“Really?” Rene asked him.
“No, he’s just…” Jesse started, but Hyde interrupted him.
“No, he’s just bored that he can get any girl there, and he usually does. So, the game has lost its appeal.”
“You’re a dick,” Jesse laughed at his friend.
“For what?” Hyde laughed, too. “Telling the truth? He’s a real playboy.”
&
nbsp; “What?” Jesse frowned. “Look who’s talking! Before you got married, you were even worse!”
Rene thought that the mention of his marriage might put Hyde in a bad mood, but no such thing happened. Hyde kept on laughing, accepting playful insults from Jesse and delivering some of his own. These guys had been friends for more than a lifetime, and it was obvious in the way they talked to each other.
The following two hours passed pleasantly. They had dinner, then moved into the living room. Their wine glasses and a new bottle magically traveled with them, or so it seemed to Rene.
“More wine?” Hyde offered, already picking up the bottle from the glass coffee table before them.
Jesse was sitting next to her on the sofa, while Hyde himself was in the armchair.
“Oh, God no, I’ve already had more than enough,” she shook her head and her hand.
“You aren’t driving anyway,” Jesse urged, “so why not help us finish this bottle?”
“If I finish this bottle, I can’t be held responsible for my actions,” she said, and immediately started giggling.
It sounded like something Alice would say, not her. Not the reasonable, sober Rene Olsen. Tonight, she wanted nothing to do with the good old Rene Olsen. She wanted to be someone else, someone who wasn’t afraid of what she was feeling, and someone who wouldn’t think too much, but rather act when an opportunity presented itself.
“You heard the lady,” Jesse nodded at Hyde, “pour.”
Hyde immediately poured a little more and the three cheered, clinking glasses. The wine was sweet and smooth, gliding down her throat effortlessly. She was drunk, that much was obvious. But, she wasn’t drunk enough not to be aware of what she was doing. She simply felt that liberating, freeing of sobriety shackles, which were always holding her back from doing something, which she might later feel foolish about. Her state promised no foolishness, only fulfillment of wishes and desires, hidden from plain view.
“This is good wine,” she pointed at the bottle.
“I have a special reserve in the cellar,” Hyde admitted.
“And you took it out for us?” Rene was touched. “That’s really sweet.”
“Well, what’s the point of anything if you can’t share it with the people who are dear to you?”
