Quarantine swipe

A familiar face

"So are you going to tell me what the heck were you doing with an egg on your head? Is there some beauty effect on that? Or what?"
I laugh escaped my mouth.
"No, no, it's just a thing I have with a guy that I met on the dating app" I said.
"What kind of fetish I that?" He said disgusted.
"It's nothing like that, we are doing dares" I affirmed to erase the hideous images that he could have in his dirty mind.
"Are you crazy? What kind of dares?" He asked, his eyes still looking at me with aversion.
"Like crushing an egg on your head, or making gargles with Tabasco sauce" I said and I felt that he was judging me.
"Hey don't judge me, I was in a terrible moment, that saved me" I said.
"Also, I have a new job" I added, I needed to change the subject.
"Really? that's amazing Andy" he said and without thinking he touch my hand in affection and I felt sparks.
"Yes! Thank you" I said as I pulled my hand away from his.
"Could you help your brother get out of jail?" I asked
"Yes I had to pull some strings there" he responded seriously.
"Strings?" I said intrigued.
"Yes I have some friends back in cali, I lived there with my brother before I came here" he said.
"And why did you came to NY?" I asked.
"I just wanted to start over" he said looking nervous. I think I asked the wrong question.
"So what movies did you watched this week?"
He said immediately changing the subject, he was clearly uncomfortable of me asking about his past. And I didn't wanted to go there. Not today.

Emerson was telling me about how weird the world was in this pandemic, he was telling me about the restrictions and the measures that were taken on the plane. How weird it felt to wear a mask everywhere.
How he felt scared at the massive amount of people traveling.
"This pandemic has changed me, I'm not used to see that much people" he said. "I was panicking" he added.
"That must be terrible" I said.

Emerson and I kept talking casual for a while and then I went to sleep.

Next day I woke up with a text from Oliver.

Ollie: I have the perfect dare for you
Andy: ok, let's hear it
Ollie: you told me that you like to run in Central Park right?
Andy: yes
Ollie: well for your next dare you have to go running wearing a costume
Andy: that's a good one

I went to look for my bag of costumes, I only had 2 from previous college halloween parties.
Sexy nurse and minion, that's it.
I decided to go for the minion, I mean I wasn't going to run all over Central Park dressed as a sexy nurse.
And this wasn't the time to be a nurse running down the street.
So minion.
I put on my costume an went straight to Central Park trying not to make eye contact with anybody.
I felt so embarrassed but at the same time I was laughing on the inside. What would people think when they see a minion running down all over Central Park.
I ran just for a few minutes so I can record a video, then I pulled out my costume and complete my run carrying the costume in my hands.

After that I send Oliver the video.

Ollie: oh god, I can't stop laughing
Andy: I must say, that it was a really weird experience, at some point one guy yelled at me "banana"
Ollie: please stop 🤣🤣🤣
Andy: now is my turn
Andy: for the next dare you have to upload to Instagram the most embarrassing picture you have, and you have to leave it there for at least 24 hours

Oliver didn't respond for a while, I went to open my computer to see if I received some more work, yesterday I've finished all the work that the new firm sent me, they were surprised that I finished everything in one day. Then I heard a knock on the door. It was a familiar knock.

When I opened the door there he was, my beautiful sexy neighbor, wearing sweatpants, how've I missed him.
"I don't know if my imagination was playing with me, but If in not wrong I saw you got out earlier dressed up in a minion costume?" He said.
My cheeks were red and an embarrassed laughter escaped my mouth.
"Was that one of the dares?" He said as he entered my apartment and closed the door behind him.
"Yes I went running to Central Park in that" I said casually, seating again in front of my computer.
"What? Is there a video? I need to see that"
I showed him the video, and Emerson started laughing like crazy.
"This is good, This guy is clever" he said.
"What other dares have you made?" He asked

I filled Emerson with all the dares Oliver and I had been doing. I never showed him videos or pictures of him because that was part of the rules. We couldn't share this with anyone.

Emerson and I made lunch. We kept disagreeing because I wanted a healthy salad and he wanted to make me Mac and cheese. I swear he ate like a little kid, so we decided to make both. Obviously he didn't even tried my salad.

After that  Emerson went to his bar and I crashed the couch and turned on the tv, and it was then that my phone buzzed

Ollie: done
Ollie: it took a while for me to find it
Ollie: it's a pic from college, it was a party and someone took it on the exact moment I was puking

Oliver sent me a link to his Instagram, and when I clicked on it, I was surprised at how many followers he had, was he like famous or something?
It was all filled with videos of him surfing, and pictures of him at the beach with friends. Pictures of his amazing tanned body.
Then I zoomed on the embarrassing old picture.
And indeed, he was puking in someone's shoes. It was hilarious and on the highlight was - to my friend Andy -
It had already like a thousand likes and comments.
I started to look closely at the picture, to his friends, and when I saw a familiar face I was shocked.