Two weeks went by, during which Joe and Matteo acted like nothing had happened. Joe almost managed to convince himself that nothing really did. He knew perfectly well that a man with a girlfriend was technically off-limits.
The only contact they had was a "hey, how's it going" at work. While Joe was thinking: "do I ask him about Ana? Do I not ask him about her? What are the rules for this situation?"
As for Matteo, he loved Ana. But he kept thinking about that time with Joe. He said to himself, "I was just drunk, I didn't know what I was doing. Nothing needs to change."
Ana was the one to get them back in touch. She asked Matteo if there was anyone he would like to invite to a party that she was hosting. He said, "no baby you can go ahead and do all that, it's your party."
But as it turned out, Ana remembered Joe. She said "what about that guy from work, Joe something? I don't want it to be only my friends there."
Matteo realized that if he said no, it would seem strange. So he agreed: "okay, sure we can invite Joe. He's fun."
Then he thought: fun?! Seriously, why did I say that? But Ana was happy with his answer. So, now Matteo would spend another week trying not to think about Joe. Which he mostly managed to successfully do, by staying busy and helping Ana get their house stocked and ready for the party.
On that night, Joe spent a lot of time getting dressed and then overthinking his choice of clothing until he was half crazy from nerves. It made him late, but he figured maybe that was a good thing because it might look like this wasn't what he was thinking about all week. He walked up to the door, fiddling with his watch and rearranging his jacket.
Before he could even ring the bell, there was Ana, hugging him. "Joe! So nice to see you, come on in. Matteo is around somewhere, I don't even know what he's doing. You remember my friend Laura?"