You have to understand that at the moment Noah Centineo swung open the door, mask dangling from his ear, his goofy smile catching some sunlight, I hadn t embraced, let alone
touched, a human adult male for the entire seven months of my quarantine. So when he stretched his arms out in the gesture known from the Time Before as “come on in here for a hug,” I admit I allowed my brain to entertain the various disease-denier talking points COVID-19 is a hoax, it s really no deadlier than a flu, the mental health ramifications of not embracing Noah Centineo could in fact be