Fountain of Knowledge

Sorry I'm late to the party

Third person past tense can seem like a removed tense, but a close third person POV can be almost as intimate as first. As long as you leave out the telling verbs (felt, saw, etc), it can still work.

It can be the difference between:

He knocked back the rest of his drink, cold tequila and lime sliding down his throat. If he wasn’t driving he’d order a second. Or third. Maybe he should anyway. Would anyone miss them if they accidentally drove off a cliff? He wouldn’t have to go to work early any more. But he wouldn’t get to play The Horde anymore either. That would blow. Not that there were any cliffs between the restaurant and home.

and

I knocked back the rest of my drink, cold tequila and lime sliding down my throat. If I wasn’t driving I’d order a second. Or third. Maybe I should anyway. Would anyone miss us if we accidentally drove off a cliff? I wouldn’t have to go to work early any more. But I wouldn’t get to play The Horde anymore either. That would blow. Not that there were any cliffs between the restaurant and home.

You can't always just swap out pronouns to go from first to close third POV, but in a lot of cases it is possible, and it keeps the reader in the character's head, the way you want them to be with an immediate perspective.