Page 60 of Once Bitten, Twice Fried
Julie stared at the screen for a few seconds more. Maybe she and Zoe really could pick up where they’d left off ten years ago? She felt immediately bad for letting herself hope. At the same time, they were acknowledging what had happened between them, which was a huge step up from the last time.
Suddenly the doorbell rang and Yasmine jumped up, immediately abandoning whatever she’d been doing on her phone.
“They’re here!” She squealed as she ran to the front door, and Julie was pleased to see that in spite of everything, Adam’s arrival could still inspire this kind of excitement in her best friend. Yasmine opened the door to a tall man with a close-cropped haircut and a carefully groomed beard, holding an enormous bouquet of flowers. Yasmine squealed again at the sight of them.
“C’est pour la femme de ma vie!”The man exclaimed. The flowers had a little note with a big “SORRY” printed on it.
Yasmine took the flowers and jumped into his arms. They kissed for what seemed like a million years to Julie. She was pleased that Yasmine was so excited about the flowers, but couldn’t help but cynically feel that it was an odd gift to bring when the house was stuffed to the brim with them already. Still, she tried to not be a downer and gave Adam a friendly wave when he finally put his fiancée down.
“Julie! You did all this?” He gestured at the various decorations around the house. “It looks amazing. Come here.” Adam stepped forward and took Julie into an unexpected hug. “Thank you so much for everything. And let me introduce our film crew!”
He stepped inside to reveal a man with dark curly hair and a small blonde woman with a pointy nose standing in the entrance. The man was holding a camera and the blonde woman some sort of audio equipment. Julie heard Yasmine gasp beside her.
“David?” Yasmine said, sounding shocked. “Is that you?”
“Hi Yas. It’s been a while.” The man rubbed his neck.
“Yes I-” Yasmine took a breath. “It’s good to see you!”
Julie knew Yasmine well enough to know that she was uncomfortable with something. What was David’s deal? Did she need to keep an eye on him? She shook his hand.
“Hi, I’m Julie, the event planner for the wedding.”
He shook her hand energetically. “Hi, I’m David - as you might have guessed - and this is…”
“Camille.” The blonde woman introduced herself without a smile or handshake before she stepped into the house and started looking around. “I guess this has enough natural lighting for us to work in. It would’ve been better to get the rest of the team there, but this’ll have to do.”
Camille’s accent was pure Parisian, and Julie groaned inwardly. Stereotypes about Parisian snobbery weren’t always accurate, but Julie had never met anyone in media who didn’t live up to them.
“Oh Camille, you’re always so negative! I’m sure it’s going to be amazing.” Adam was taking pictures of the decoration with his smartphone.
“Well, my suggestion had been to do the interviews at your loft in Paris, but you wanted us to film the wedding, so here we are in the Belgian countryside, and I am not going to complain.”
“Are you sure you’re going to survive without complaining?” David laughed.
Camille rolled her eyes. “I want to see the yard.”
“Yes, we’ll show you.” Yasmine seemed to have recovered some composure, and took the lead.
The small group wandered into the garden. Julie did her best not to peek at Zoe as they passed the kitchen.
“There we go.” Camille seemed more pleased. “Good natural light. The tent looks alright too, even though it’s a bit rustic. We can do the interview segments here later.” She stepped under the tent and looked up. “Could we maybe put a spotlight here and do it under the tent?”
Julie winced at the suggestion, and Yasmine nodded at her, encouraging her to speak up.
“I wouldn’t,” Julie said. “We’d have to take down some of the floral arrangements to make space, and it would be almost impossible to take them down and put them up afterwards without damaging them.”
“I see.” Camille tapped her chin. “Oh et puis merde, we’ll do it in the open in the yard. That’ll give Adam that rugged countryman feel. People will love it.”
“I will try to do my best Clint Eastwood impression for you.” Adam joked.
Camille smiled - for the first time since she entered the house. “That’s settled, then. David, do you need anything else?”
“I’ll just look for some good camera angles, but I can do it by myself. We’ll be for sure ready to shoot by this afternoon.”
“Great, we can be back at the hotel fordinner.” Camille put an exaggerated sarcastic emphasis on the last word.
Julie was sure Camille was waiting for someone to ask about the hotel menu so that she could complain about Belgian food. Fortunately, nobody fell into the trap.
