DAY 35: Tales Of Spending Hangovers And Facebook Invites
Day 35 Of How To Move On From A Man - 1LD
Click. Click. No. No good. Not big enough. Too expensive. Don’t like the colour. Click. Hmm, not bad. Yeah, that could work. Click. Was that one Joel told me to buy?
It only took a few short hours of traveling and wine tasting for me to fall completely in love. No, not with Joel.
With wine.
I mean, I liked wine. I always had a thing for good champagne though. But Joel’s palette and penchant for delicate styles of wines were infectious.
I couldn’t help hang off every word he said about wines, cellaring, and how to become a collector.
I never let a bottle of wine stay in my pantry longer than a week. I felt I didn’t have the willpower to hold onto wines. I bought them to drink them.
Yet, I didn’t spend much money on wine so there wouldn’t be any point in cellaring them.
Joel taught me his strategy for investing in wine. I took an interest; what else did I have to occupy my spare time?
If I was going to be serious, though, I would need some equipment. A fridge or a cool space in the house to store them. As I didn’t have the latter, a fridge would have to do.
On the last stop of our winery tour, Joel bought me a couple of single vineyard bottles from Levantine Hill. They were over $200 each.
He handed over his credit card so casually, much like Douglas used to do.
But he didn’t do it in a way that made me feel like I was some sort of hanger-on, a pity party, a pity purchase. He did it with grace, feeling, and care.
I felt like he wanted me to have the wine because it meant something to him. It didn’t feel like he was trying to buy me off in some grand way. Or get into my pants.
Joel gave me his business card and scribbled his Facebook username on it. Contact me if you need help with the fridge, he wrote.
Now, in the sobering reality of a Sunday, I stared at the card. As much as I thought he wasn’t flirting with me, the contact information would suggest otherwise.
I looked him up on Facebook.
There he was with a woman and a small child in his profile photo. I assumed it was his wife or partner or someone like that.
It was a good thing I wasn’t stalking him to ask him out or flirt with him or anything of the sort. I would have felt the pang of disappointment if I had.
But I needed help with the fridge. Badly.
I wrote to him, sending him the link to the fridge. “Is this model any good?” I asked. I nearly signed off with a heart emoji but thought again.
No, that wouldn’t be appropriate.
I looked over my cases of wine and wondered where the fridge would go. The garage? The dining room for easy access? I wasn’t sure.
I heard my phone vibrate and there was his response. “Yeah, that’s a good one. Go see my guy at Vintec. He will give you a good price. Cheers.”
Cheers. It’s the Australian sign-off that puts the unsuspecting person into the friendship zone.
I knew where I stood, and it was with a discount and free wine too. You win some, you lose some.
You’re reading The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
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