Page 79 of Once Bitten, Twice Fried
Julie laughed too, and then couldn’t stop laughing. It was the release of all the tension accumulated in the past week. They both shook with laughter at the complete absurdity of the situation. How was this their lives? How had any of this been real? Julie was still laughing when Yasmine sat forward and looked at her earnestly.
“What about you?”
Julie wiped tears from her eyes. “Me?” She snorted.
Yasmine raised one eyebrow. “Yes, you. Have you seen that Zoe’s getting married this month? How do you feel?”
“Well that’s good for her. It doesn’t change a lot if it’s this month or a few months from now, does it?” She took a nonchalant sip of her glass of wine.
Yasmine sighed. “Really?”
“Yes. Duh!” Julie feigned being outraged.
Yasmine just looked at her for a moment.
“I think you’re a genius, Julie.”
“How so?”
“Because you’ve invented a whole new concept.”
Julie chuckled, humouring Yasmine. “What is it?”
“You know how I mentioned David was ‘the one that got away’?”
Julie nodded.
“Well, you’ve invented Zoe as ‘the one you keep pushing away’.”
“What? What do you mean?” She guffawed and mentally crossed her fingers for her lying to be convincing enough, just this one time. “That doesn’t make any sense, we’re just friends-”
“You’re not. You’ve never been. I’m not stupid.”
Julie stopped laughing.
“We never dated.” That wasn’t a lie.
“That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing between you two.”
Julie went silent, looking at her fingers.
“How did you find out?” She eventually asked.
Yasmine laughed out loud. “I’ve been friends with you for forever and I’ve known Zoe for more than ten years, you think I never noticed? How Zoe was always finding excuses to crash at your place when we were flatmates when she could’ve just gone home with me? The way you’ve always looked at Zoe with puppy eyes? That you suddenly stopped talking to each other the night you two kissed for a bet? Then the fact that she would always ask me about you after that and then pretend that everything was fine? And the night of my bachelorette when she kept looking over her shoulder waiting for you to arrive and then the fact that you ignored her all evening-”
“Yes! OK! Fine!” Julie spoke loudly to put a stop to the roasting she was getting from her best friend. “I admit it! I had a crush on Zoe back then and apparently it was reciprocal but I had no idea.” Just saying it left a bitter taste in Julie’s mouth, thinking about what she could have had.
“Come on, it wasn’t just ‘back then’. I think it’s cute how you two act like nobody’s seeing how gay you are for each other.” Yasmine stopped. “Can I say that? Can allies use ‘gay’ like that?” She looked more worried about word usage than the fact that Julie was being absolutely called out. “Maybe I shouldn’t, Zoe might be bi or something, it wouldn’t be fair.” She thought again. “But you’re two women so itisa gay relationship. Right?”
“Zoe’s sexual orientation isn’t really the issue here.” Julie hissed.
“It kinda is though, you don’t think?” Yasmine grinned. “Anyway, am I in the wrong about you two or not?”
Julie was cornered. Maybe it was better for her to come clean to Yasmine rather than deflecting everything and risking more bullying.
“No you’re not wrong.” She sighed before tears flooded her eyes. “We slept together during your wedding weekend and now she’s fast tracking her wedding, I don’t know what’s going on.”
“You hooked up with Zoe?” Yasmine was delighted but then seemed to realise the full implication of it. “Oh man…You hooked up with Zoe.”She took that in for a moment. “And she came back and decided to tie the knot with her fiancé?”
