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My good friend and I always say yes. We don’t even have to say it most of the time. It’s a quick snap of eye contact, a giggle, and a nod — that’s all we need.

We said yes and paraded a mangled umbrella through an uppity nightclub in Cannes, submerged ourselves in the frozen Arctic in Tromsø, rode plastic children’s cars in Yerevan, bought — and finished — a supermarket keg in the Azores, sported ridiculous newsboy caps in Dublin, and confidently marched into a 1-star strip club in Puerto Vallarta.

I hope we never find out how to say no.

Yerevan, April 2025
Ashkan R.
to Mark Wolfman