Chapter 22
T he bridesmaids were all eating dinner under the tent, a fancy setup with wooden poles and an asymmetrical canopy.
The cross-beam was festooned with flowers and greenery, and a string of giant bare lightbulbs was draped artfully over it.
The extra-long dinner table was similarly decorated, with floral arrangements spilling across overlapping multi-coloured tablecloths.
Rows of chairs were already lined up in front of the flower arch, surrounded by more lightbulb strings, colourful bright flowers and tropical leaves.
The rest of the long wooden tables were set up against the garden fence on the side, with black walls behind them.
More strings of lightbulbs were hanging from the trees.
There was a small bar shaped in a half-circle with a tall shelf ready to welcome liquors and other cocktail ingredients.
Yasmine’s decoration style encapsulated summer: bright colours against dark lush green with a touch of pampas grass, which Julie had balanced with enough class to make it not gimmicky.
Zoe could imagine lying down in the grass with a coconut cocktail.
She was impressed with everything Julie had pulled off.
The whole thing looked fun and exciting, yet stylish.
Exactly like Julie.
Zoe couldn’t stop glancing at her all evening, all dressed up in her white short-sleeved button down linen shirt and nice tan trousers.
She felt that Julie was doing exactly the same.
Every time she caught her glimpse, Julie’s eyes were lingering on her.
Was there any sort of mutual attraction?
The question kept popping in Zoe’s head but she tried to remember that it didn’t matter.
She still needed to call Tom later to discuss the catering catastrophe. Maybe that would clear her head.
A good thing was that she’d had dinner with the catering team in the kitchen - which had ended up looking amazing, without any cables running in the way, thanks to Marcel and Julie’s great work - away from the bridesmaids.
Zoe wasn’t even sure at this point if hanging out with Julie in group settings made anything better.
She’d just try to avoid any superfluous interactions with her for the rest of the wedding.
When dessert was served, the bridesmaids all sighed in one voice. “You’re feeding us tiramisu right before the wedding? We need to fit in our dresses!”
“Sorry girls! If you need to be mad at someone, it’s Yasmine.” Zoe nodded at the bride.
Yasmine put her hands up, in an apologetic gesture. “I know it’s bad, but I’m seriously so fucking done with dieting to look good in pictures. I say, we do whatever we want from now on.”
“I agree.” Leila said. “But that’s because Julie and I don’t have to worry about fitting in any sort of dress.” She grinned. She and Julie had eschewed traditional bridesmaid dresses, and ended up with classy jumpsuits in a looser cut.
The other bridesmaids pouted.
“I should’ve listened to you guys… But the dress was just too pretty.” Maria sighed. “Anyway, I’ll have the biggest piece of tiramisu, yes please.”
They all laughed.
“Zoe, you should at least sit down and have dessert with us.” Alice pleaded.
“Yes, you’ve been working way too hard, come and have some fun.”
Zoe knew it would be futile to resist. “I guess I can call it a night. Just give me a minute to finish up”. She stepped back into the kitchen and called her team to attention.
“Thank you for everything today! Go home and get some sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” The caterers started to scatter, and she headed back out as they called their goodbyes.
Back under the tent, the bridesmaids hurried to make room for her, inviting her to squeeze in at the table.
Zoe stopped in her tracks. They had cleared her a seat next to Julie. Or was it Julie that had done that? She tried not to think about it. She sat down, being careful not to look at Julie, or at least not too long or too much. Julie didn’t seem bothered by any of this.
“This is ridiculously good, Zoe. What’s your recipe?” Sarah spoke through a mouthful of dessert.
“I can’t tell you, I got the recipe from someone else and they made me promise to never tell.” Zoe winked at her. It was true, it came from an Italian chef she worked under when she was still training.
“Fair enough.” Sarah didn’t seem disappointed, she was too busy licking her fork.
“What can we say, Zoe is a mysterious woman with secrets.” Alice chuckled.
Zoe blushed. What did Alice mean? She shifted on her chair, and her leg accidentally brushed against Julie’s. It almost startled her but she froze as Julie didn’t move her leg away. A shiver of excitement ran through Zoe’s spine. Did Julie notice what was going on? She didn’t look like it.
“What type of secrets?” Sarah raised a brow.
“Oh!” Yasmine exclaimed. “Back in college, Zoe was the talk of the town. People were saying that she was related to the Queen of England.”
“Or that she had a famous boyfriend back in her home country.” Maria chimed in.
“Well that one turned out to be true!” Alice was delighted.
Zoe gently put more pressure against Julie’s leg.
She almost yelped when Julie put some weight back against her, but took a deep breath instead.
A warmth was spreading from her right leg through her body.
Eventually, Julie moved away. Zoe shot her a quick look but she wasn’t giving anything away.
It could’ve been an accident, it could’ve been on purpose.
And Julie was a bad liar… So this was probably all happening in Zoe’s mind, right?
“They were all baseless rumours.” Julie shrugged. “You know how college students are… When something new happens, everyone is overexcited.”
Yasmine scoffed. “Don’t act like you were above all that. That’s the reason why you wanted to be friends with her. You said you heard that she was a London socialite.”
Julie went still and glared at Yasmine.
“Don’t give me that look. You were the one telling me ‘You need a new flatmate! You should ask the mysterious new girl! Then we can all be friends!’ Over and over again.” Yasmine continued.
“I don’t remember that.” Julie’s face was an interesting shade of crimson.
“Julie, is that true?” This was news to Zoe.
She recalled thinking Yasmine and Julie seemed very fun and nice when she’d sat next to them on the first day, and had been thrilled when Yasmine had asked her to room with her, but Zoe had always thought it was just a question of practicality, not because Julie had badgered Yasmine into doing it.
All eyes were turned towards Julie. She opened her mouth and it took a moment before a sound came out. “Maybe?”
Laughter erupted.
“To be fair, Julie was right. We did all become friends and it was great!” Maria said as Julie uncomfortably fidgeted with her glass of wine.
“Sorry Julie, we’re bullying you because we love you.” Yasmine chuckled.
Zoe was trying to catch Julie’s glance, but she was avoiding eye contact with her. Her face was still red. Zoe put a hand on her back.
“I’m happy that you insisted too. Otherwise my year abroad might have been quite boring.” And maybe I wouldn’t be in this mess today. Zoe thought. She could feel Julie tense up against her hand. Was it because of Zoe’s touch or because of the conversation?
Julie sighed dramatically, and Zoe felt her relax again. “Thanks, Zoe. At least someone here is nice to me.” She glared at the rest of the table. Leila and Alice had a hard time repressing their smiles.
Yasmine’s phone pinged. She gave a quick look at the screen. “It’s my fiancé. I’d better take it.” She quickly stood up and disappeared inside the house.
Zoe took her hand off Julie as the conversation continued to flow around them. She’d almost forgotten that it was there. There was just something too natural about touching Julie. Zoe would have to be careful about that.
Yasmine reappeared a few minutes later, her laptop open in her hands and a look of consternation on her face.
She crossed to her seat at the head of the table and set down the laptop, not paying attention to the puzzled looks from her friends.
She let out a big sigh, then looked up and tried to smile.
“Adam has apparently prepared a treasure hunt for all of us. He sent me an email with the instructions.” Yasmine frowned again and scrolled impatiently on her touchpad. “I told him we were all pretty tired and just wanted to go to bed but he insisted we do this, for some reason.”
Sarah lifted a brow. “Do we really have to do this? What’s the treasure?”
“He said it’s very important.” She clicked on something on her screen. “There we go. We need to be in groups of two. I’m forwarding the instructions to all of you.”
Marion leaned back on her chair. “Ah, Adam. He always has big ideas like this, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, he really does.” Yasmine paused. “What do you girls think? Should we do this or not?”
There was a silence for a moment as they all looked around the table.
It was clear that everyone’s plan for the night had been to relax with some wine before wandering up to bed, and nobody had much interest in organised activities.
Zoe accidentally caught Julie’s eye, who tilted her head ever so slightly towards Yasmine.
Zoe could instantly guess what she was trying to say, even after all these years: that even if Yasmine seemed equally unenthusiastic, everyone turning down her fiance’s idea would put a massive damper on the mood and ruin Yasmine’s night.
Zoe admitted that Julie had a point - they were all here for Yasmine, after all - and gave the tiniest nod of agreement.
Immediately Julie broke the silence by slapping her hands on the table energetically.
“Let’s do it. I could use some digestive walking.” Julie said brightly. It was like she was trying to infuse the air with her positivity, and it seemed to be working.
Zoe took a breath to chime in, then stopped herself. She’d been about to volunteer to be Julie’s teammate. That was a terrible idea. Why was she like this? Fortunately, Alice saved her by piping up.
“I’m with Julie,” she said. “I haven’t had the chance to see the grounds yet.”
“Great. Then you two are a team.” Yasmine smiled. She seemed to be in a better mood already.
Leila and Sarah looked at each other then shrugged. “Okay, we’re in as well.”
“Perfect. Marion and Maria? Do you wanna be a team?”
They nodded and scooted their chairs closer together
“Then that leaves me and Zoe.” Yasmine smiled at her. “I’m very tired but I guess this could be fun.”