Chapter 3
T he bags were starting to feel heavy on Julie’s tired arms. Once again, she’d been too nice and offered to carry Yasmine’s shopping bags when she complained about the weight.
If only Julie’s ego wasn’t so easily stroked.
It only took Yasmine to mentioning offhand that Julie was the more athletic between the two of them for Julie to chivalrously agree to help her.
Now the bags felt overwhelming, between the warm April weather and the packed shopping streets.
Julie kept bumping into passers-by who didn’t even spare her a glance before hurrying on.
“OK Yasmine, I’m too tired with the bags. We either need to take a break or you need to take some back.”
“Already? Fine, I can take two back. We can’t take a break just yet, I want to check out the bookshop.”
Julie frowned. “What do you mean ‘already?’ I’ve been carrying your bags for the past hour at least.” She handed all of them back to Yasmine. “I feel like this friendship is very one-sided.”
“Oh come on. You can very well carry my stuff to make up for the fact that you were half an hour late.”
Touché. Julie had always been chronically late. At 33 years old, she had just come to accept that this was who she was as a person.
“Let’s not talk about this any more. I’ve decided that I’ve forgiven you for our one-sided friendship.” Still, Julie didn’t take the bags back.
“You know that I can still take you off my wedding guest list, right?” Yasmine smirked.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
The two turned into the commercial gallery that was off the main street. Julie already felt lighter, not having to carry all of Yasmine’s heavy purchases. They entered the book store located at the end of the passageway.
“What are we looking for here?” Julie asked.
“Wedding things.” Yasmine shot her a look like it was the most obvious answer ever.
“Wait, what? You’re getting married!?”
Yasmine jokingly punched Julie in the arm. The bags swayed and hit Julie harder that Yasmine had meant to.
“Ouch.”
“Stop complaining and help me look for the wedding section.”
The wedding section, part of the lifestyle section, was lodged between the interior design and the cooking section. Julie smiled.
“I guess they weren’t allowed to just call it the women’s section.”
Yasmine was already flipping through some books.“I need more mood boards and ideas.”
“I think you can get those for free on the internet.”
Yasmine looked up. “I’ve already read the entire internet and I need more. I want to dive into full-coloured spreads, plus my coffee table could use a book or two on it. Can you help me find a good one?”
Julie browsed through the heavy volumes on display.
They were all stuffed with cheerful women in all white, sunny meadows and grooms with perfect hairlines.
After a few minutes, all of these extremely similar-looking pictures were already melting into each other.
She couldn’t tell if she had seen this photograph already or not.
Julie felt Yasmine’s judgement on her neck.
“I can sense your boredom from here.”
“I’m sorry Yas, this is a whole other level of wedding madness. I wasn’t prepared for wedding volumes .” Julie put back the hard-cover she was looking through and stretched.
“You should take this more seriously. You’ll thank me when you’re planning your wedding with the woman of your dreams.”
Julie chuckled. “At this rate, I think the woman of my dreams might get married before I do. Or maybe she’s already married, even.”
Yasmine noisily closed the book she was browsing. “That’s because you’re too difficult. And you know you’re cute, so you’re going around breaking hearts.”
Julie frowned. “I’m not difficult and I’m not breaking hearts. I have to agree that I’m cute though.”
“Yes, you are. What about Lisa? She was nice.”
“She also decided to sell my car online because we had to be more environmentally friendly.”
“A woman with a purpose who cares about the world. I don’t know what more you’d want. What about Ana?s?” Yasmine narrowed her eyes on Julie.
“She was alright. But she was the one who left me, remember? For the butch firefighter who saved her cat from the tree.”
“Sorry, Julie.”
“No worries, we never had anything in common. I was more relieved than sad in the end.” Julie sighed. “Dating women is tough.”
“You should try dating guys, they’re so much more relaxing.” Yasmine said with heavy sarcasm in her voice. “But yeah, you’re right. I don’t know why I thought you were breaking hearts. You’re more like being broken-hearted .”
“Ouch. Thanks for your support.”
Yasmine picked up another book and flicked through it. “I’m going to get this one. The pictures look nice and I don’t have it in me to look at more smiling white women in white dresses.”
“Great! Let’s go.” Julie was very happy to get out of this section.
She made a beeline towards the check-out counter, but she hadn’t walked three steps before she abruptly stopped. A book from the cooking section caught her attention. Even after all these years, the face on the cover still gave her heart a twist.
“That’s the French version of Zoe’s new book. Our girl is going places.” Yasmine beamed, picking up the copy.
Julie couldn’t help but glance at the pictures as Yasmine flipped through the cookbook.
Zoe was stunning in every one of them. She looked so happy and professional in her cute apron and smart casual outfits.
A picture of Zoe, all curves and eyes looking straight to the camera, sent alarm bells going off in Julie’s head.
Was it the years that had been extremely nice to her, or was it the professional make-up?
Julie hoped Yasmine couldn’t see how red her cheeks were.
“Look at this. She’s such an amazing chef. And to think that we got drunk with her in cheap student bars,” Yasmine laughed.
“Yeah, that’s crazy.” Julie picked up another cookbook, trying to hide her face. Her ears were drumming. She had trouble listening to what her friend was saying.
“I really hope she’ll do the catering at my wedding.”
“Wait, what?” Julie’s blood froze as she almost dropped the book.
Was Zoe the secret caterer? Was she supposed to be the surprise?
“Oh shit.” Yasmine put the book down and clapped both hands over her mouth. “Forget about it! I wasn’t supposed to tell you!”
“You hired Zoe for your wedding?” Julie’s voice was trembling.
Yasmine sighed. “I guess the cat’s out of the bag now.
I sent her an email but she hasn’t responded yet.
” She smiled. “Isn’t it exciting, though?
I know that you haven’t been able to see her after university, but you guys were such good friends back then.
I thought it would be so fun to be the three of us again, at my wedding! ”
Julie fought to hide her panic. She had never explained why she’d avoided Zoe after Zoe’s year abroad came to an end, and didn’t want to start doing it now, nor anytime soon.
She tried to give Yasmine the warmest smile.
“That’s such a wonderful surprise!”