Page 10 of Once Bitten, Twice Fried
“Sorry. Keep going.”
“I had a very close friend during my time in Brussels. She was my best friend and we were inseparable. I can’t really explain, but we just hit it off as soon as we spoke to each other for the first time. It was amazing.” Zoe smiled. Memories of time spent with Julie flooded back to her. The times they’d skipped class to go to the movies. Small independent French movies that taught her all of the bad vocabulary until Julie had to tell her not to use “fils de pute” so profusely. Times when they would just chat endlessly in somebody’s kitchen because the party was lame. Julie’s tiny bed they had to share every time she crashed at her place. Zoe blushed.
“And then?”
“And then… I don’t really know? The year ended and I moved back here. I’ve never heard from her again. Except maybe polite messages for birthdays or something, but it was never the same.”
“And that woman will be at the wedding, I presume?” Nicki paused, like she suddenly had a realisation. “Oh my god, isshethe one who’s getting married?”
“What? No! She’s not the one getting married. She will be a bridesmaid at the wedding though. And that’s my problem. I don’t know if she hates me or not. I don’t know what happened.”
“She just stopped being friends with you? Out of the blue?” Nicki squinted. “That’s so weird. You cannot think of anything that might have prompted this?”
Zoe felt her face turn redder. There was one thing that she could think of. But could it really be that? And also, did she really want to tell her assistant about this?
Nicki’s stare was insistent.
A silence fell between them as the restaurant chatter was going on.
“There was a kiss.” Zoe took a breath. “After the exams, a bit before I had to go back home, we got very drunk - like students do - and then Julie and I kissed. And before you ask, yes Julie was gay.”
“I’m so happy I said yes to this dinner invitation.”
“Nicki, if any tabloids get hold of this I will know that it came from you,” Zoe hissed, before sighing again. She knew Nicki would never do that, and Nicki knew that Zoe knew that - she was utterly unoffended. “Anyway, yes we kissed that one time and then things were a bit awkward. I had to go home afterwards and I never saw her again.”
“Ouch. How awkward?”
“I don’t know. I was young at the time. I didn’t know what to do with this so I just pretended nothing had happened.”
“That’s bad.” Nicki made a pained face. “But do you really think this girl will still be mad at you for something that happened twenty years ago when you were both drunk?”
“It was 10 years ago. God, Nicki, I’m older than you but I’m not ancient!” Zoe frowned. Nicki had a point. She had known Julie very well. If anything, she was the definition of too nice. Zoe couldn’t even remember Julie holding a grudge against anyone. “So you think she’s not mad at me?”
“I think you’re all grown adults now and you can probably talk about it. If you feel like this might impair your professionalism at the wedding, you shouldn’t take the job.” Nicki paused, took a sip of her beer then leaned forward. “But between you and me - and I say this as a friend and not as your assistant - sometimes there are more important things in life than work. Maybe you should get to the bottom of the situation with this woman - what’s her name? Julie?”
Zoe smiled at how Nicki said the name the English way, with a hard J and emphasis on the first syllable. It didn’t seem like her old friend’s name at all - some hypothetical English version of Julie who was even more abstract than the girl floating in Zoe’s memories.
“Part of me really really really wants to go to this wedding and talk to her about it. And part of me wants to put it in the past.”
“At the same time, it’s been ten years and it still seems to bother you. Can you ever put it in the past without figuring out what went wrong?”
Zoe stared at her assistant. How could she always be so right? “OK.” She took a deep breath. “It’s settled then. You can tell the race car guy I’ll be at the racetrack and you can tell Yasmine I’ll be at her wedding.”
Zoe instantly felt a rush of excitement. She couldn’t believe she was going to be back in Belgium with Yasmine and Julie.
Just like old times.
Chapter 6
Lucile pointed at the ceiling of the warehouse they were standing in.
“Could we have some decorations here? I was thinking balloons, maybe.”
Julie looked up. The ceiling was probably eight metres high. Balloons would be barely visible at that height.
“We can have balloons, but I’d suggest putting a net at half the height. That way you can enclose the space and have a more intimate feeling.”
“Oh that’s a nice idea!” Lucile paused. “But will it work with the mezzanine you suggested as well?”
