Wine & Dine Me

Dinner with friends is a form of therapy.

Dinner. Friday night, 8 pm. Whose in?

I sent the text to the group chat from my bed late Sunday afternoon, sprawled out and wearing my I Heart Copenhagen t-shirt, no pants and chewing on a slice of pepperoni pizza that I hoped would soak up all the alcohol from the night before.

Going for dinner with the girls is kind of like therapy, sometimes you just need it. After eight hours of basking in tequila regret, I especially needed something to look forward to. 

The texts started flooding through.

Soph, 5:02 pm: yess, I am so in! 

Bea, 5:10 pm: I’m down

Bea: 5:11 pm: Where should we go? Any ideas?

I start going through the catalogue in my head. Could try Fallow? But that’s always expensive. Berenjak is high up on the list, but it's impossible to get a booking unless you're a month out. Zephyr in Notting Hill is always amazing…but I want to try something new. Italian maybe?? Let's look at TikTok. 

We settle on a restaurant after a deep dive and a few texts back and forth. I’m excited now, I can already feel myself come back to life. I’ve downloaded the menu and prematurely decided on our first three appetisers. There’s something about wining and dining with your favourite people, I love the process from back to front. It’s cathartic. 

There’s the everything shower. Sitting on the floor under the scolding hot water, scrubbing your skin with an overpriced and luxurious (but well worth it) exfoliator/shower gel. Double washing and scrubbing your hair (universe if you’re reading this, please save us Londoners from this harsh water). Dry brushing and lathering your whole body in lotion. Contemplating life in a towel for 10 minutes. 

The canvas has been wiped clean, all fresh and new. 

Then there’s the getting dressed up part. As someone who has loved fashion my whole life, this is the most exciting step - putting on a good Spotify playlist (hello brat), and sifting through my closet. This summer I’m all about a sexy midi skirt and kitten heels. I’m always looking for an opportunity to show off some uncomfortable, but extremely pretty pair of shoes. And no I will not change into something more practical. As a tiny 5’2 woman, I’ve developed a bad shoe problem, because a) shoes always fit and b) a good heel gives me a brief moment with the upper half of the world that my short legs otherwise prevent me from seeing. I’m not shocked that Carrie Bradshaw managed to spend $40,000 on shoes. 

And finally, the dining. A table in the dimly lit corner, with just the right amount of ambience. One of us running 20 minutes late because the tube is delayed again. Silverware that's so shiny that I can use it as a mirror for my lipstick. Perfectly round wine glasses that are practically made to be photographed. I love the warm bread basket and butter sachets, in fact, I’ll order two. I love that the waiter has to come back two, no, three times because we’ll be too deep in conversation even to notice the menu. I love that we will all agree to order the sashimi appetizer because it's always the best thing on the menu. I love hearing complaints about work, even though I still don’t really know what my friends do, and conjuring up reasons as to why the below-average Hinge man hasn’t texted my gorgeous friend back. I love debating politics and passionately discussing how Trump is going to ruin America for the second time around. I love to eavesdrop on the table across from us and look for all the couples on a first date. 

We’ll stay until the restaurant closes and leave the table a little bit tipsier than we were to begin with. Cheeks flushed and unable to contain our giggles. We’ll continue to talk over the top of each other because there’s still so much more to say, and as we click-clack Carrie Bradshaw style down to the closest tube station, we’ll remember once more that platonic love is the purest kind of love. 

I want to be wined and dined. But what I really mean is that I want to dive head-first into the beauty of platonic love…and great food.