Sometimes I think too much

Something quite exciting happened yesterday. I was in work, doing my thing, when a customer came in. She’s been in quite a lot lately. She’s new to the area. She’s lovely.

I stopped what I was doing and we chatted for a bit, just chitchat. Another customer came in and I served her then went back to chatting to the friendly lady. She got some stuff and, while she was paying, said her and I should go for a drink sometime as she doesn’t know anyone in the area yet.

I immediately was like “That sounds great! Yeh, definitely.” She said she’ll pop in tomorrow and leave her number….

All of a sudden, I started thinking. Bad move. I felt like I’d been asked on a date. I was thinking about what we’d talk about, whether there’d be enough conversation to sustain an entire evening or whether we’d freeze under the pressure. Should I ask a friend to call half an hour in to the ‘date’ so I could pretend something had happened and I needed to leave? What should I wear? Should I just go in something super casual, like the clothes I’ve worn to work that day? Or go a bit fancier? If I go fancy, will it look like I’ve got ridiculously high expectations for the blossoming friendship? I’ve never undertaken a friendship in this way, there’s always been a longer ‘getting to know you’ period before we took the plunge and went for a drink. I’m a little nervous. If we go for a drink and we find that, while it’s pleasant, we don’t have enough in common to become best friends forever, how will we go about reverting back to our original positions as Customer and Deli Assistant? Will there be a lingering awkwardness whenever she comes into the deli, about the fact that we tried, and failed, to be best friends forever?

Clearly I think too much. But sometimes it’s best to have thought these things through first, to be prepared.

In actual fact, what will probably happen is we’ll go for a drink, have a lovely time, then do it again the next week or a few weeks later. And the friendship will continue in this manner. Maybe we’ll invite each other for dinner sometimes. It will probably be quite a nice fulfilling friendship.

But that doesn’t stop my mind working overtime, prior to our first ‘going for a drink’. Any advice on dos and don’ts of a first ‘date’ with a potential best friend?