Chapter 36
J ulie paced back and forth in her living room, in the exact same spot where Yasmine had stood a few nights ago when she’d given her a much needed dose of tough love.
Her phone was glued to her ear and each ring chimed like a church bell at Zoe’s wedding.
Yasmine was right. Zoe deserved the benefit of the doubt, and Julie owed it to her to hear her out.
And Julie needed to try one last time to really tell Zoe how she felt about her.
How Zoe made everything better. How she was the seasoning of Julie’s life.
It might not make up for whatever Zoe’s explanation might be, it might not make her drop everything in a heartbeat to be with her, but at this point, Julie couldn’t imagine any other way forward, without getting this off her chest once and for all. For real, this time.
Julie had been trying to call her for days now but it kept going to voice message.
Her messages and emails had gone unanswered, but Julie needed this to be a real conversation, so she had just pleaded with Zoe to pick up the phone.
And now she was hoping that she would. Each time she heard Zoe’s voicemail, she jumped and almost thought that she finally got an answer before realising that it was a recording.
By now, she knew it by heart. This was her seventh time calling in the past half-hour.
This time, someone picked up.
“Hello?”
“ Zoe? Ca fait des jours que j’essaie de te joindre- ”
“Um sorry, can we speak in English?”
Julie realised that it wasn’t Zoe’s voice at all. Not even remotely close. “Yes, sorry.” She paused confusedly. “Is this Zoe Lang’s number?”
“Yes, I’m Nicki, her personal assistant.”
Julie had never considered that Zoe was fancy enough to have a personal assistant, but now was not the time to think about that.
“Hi Nicki, I’m Julie, an old friend of Zoe and-”
“Wait, you’re the Julie?” Nicki exclaimed. “The college friend?”
“The…?” Julie was thrown for a second. Not only did Zoe have a personal assistant, but she’d told her about Julie? What had she said? Focus, Julie, she told herself sternly, “Yes, that’s me. I’ve been trying to reach Zoe and I just can’t seem to. This is the number she gave me.”
“Oh god. Sorry, we’ve had an insane week with the wedding and not a lot of calls were getting through. Zoe’s number is being redirected to mine at the moment.”
Julie’s heart leaped at the word ‘wedding’. “I understand. Can I speak to Zoe please?”
“Not really.” Nicki sounded panicked on the phone. “Oh god, you’re the actual Julie.”
Julie heard rustling and a dull thud, like the phone had almost fallen.
“Listen, I can’t connect you with Zoe right now and, well, I don’t think I should tell you why. However, I can promise you that it’ll make sense in about two hours from now.”
“Two hours? What’s going on?”
“I really can’t tell you,” Nicki repeated.
Julie tried to absorb this. Was she about to see Zoe’s wedding on TV? Or could it mean…
“Julie?” Nicki interrupted her train of thought.
“Yes?”
“Wear your best outfit for me, will you?”
“What? Why?” Julie’s heart leapt into her throat.
“Trust me. Bye, Julie.”
Nicki hung up the phone.
Julie had no idea what was going on, but there was no way she wasn’t taking that advice.
* * *
Two hours and thirty minutes had passed since Julie’s phone call with Zoe’s assistant.
She was now sitting stiffly on her couch, waiting for…
something. She was wearing an olive green suit with a pristine white t-shirt and her best Oxford shoes.
Her hair had never looked better, and she’d even put on a bit of makeup. She was feeling very silly.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d been stood up again, even if she didn’t know what was supposed to be happening.
After talking to Nicki, Julie had let herself hope that whatever was about to happen would be a magical happy ending.
Now, though, it was starting to feel too good to be true.
What if her best outfit wasn’t a “confess your love” outfit but a “fuck you for breaking my heart” outfit?
What if Zoe was on her way here, to tell her that she hated Julie, and Nicki was just trying to be nice by making sure Julie at least looked good while her heart was being stomped on?
What if it was a cruel prank? Was she even sure that she’d gotten the right number?
What if Zoe’s phone had gotten stolen when she got back to London and she had to change her number and this “Nicki” person was messing with her?
Maybe she should just go and change back and forget that all of this happened.
Julie’s phone buzzed and it took her a moment to understand what was going on.
Zoe’s name flashed on the screen.
Julie swiped to take the call and almost dropped her phone in the process.
“ Salut, Julie ?”
Julie’s brain scrambled. She seemed to have forgotten how to speak every language.
“Julie?”
“Um erm hi Zoe.” Julie had prepared an entire speech in her mind and it was now rapidly slipping away from her. Why did she have to be a puddle of uselessness when it came to Zoe?
“Am I interrupting something?” Zoe sounded agitated.
“No, no.”
“Good. Do you think you can meet up with me?”
“What? Where? In London?”
“No, I’m in Brussels. I just arrived back.”
“Sure, I’m in Brussels too.” Julie bit her fist. What an idiot. She relaxed when she heard Zoe giggle on the other side of the line. “Where do you want to meet up?”
“I was thinking we could grab some fries together. For old times sake. At the same place where you all took me to ten years ago.”
“Yes. When?”
“Right now, if you can?”
“I can be there in 15 minutes.” Thank god she was already wearing her best outfit, otherwise she would have left the apartment an hour later at the earliest. She made a mental note to send flowers and chocolates to whoever the hell Nicki was.
“I’ll see you there then.”
“See you.”
“And, Julie?”
“Yes?”
“I won’t stand you up this time.”
* * *
The warm air of a June evening wrapped everything outside.
Julie walked down a street crowded with lively terrasses , still hardly daring to hope.
Every single person outside was laughing and smiling.
Would that be Zoe and her an hour from now or would they both be crushed by whatever happened next?
She reached the 6-way intersection on the corner of the square and made a point of waiting until the way was clear at each crosswalk.
This road was a chaotic free-for-all with hardly a stop sign and she’d always wondered why there weren’t more accidents there.
It would really be her luck if she got hit by a car right now while Zoe was waiting for her just a few metres away. Or was she?
She was. Julie saw her as soon as she entered the plaza.
Zoe sat on the long low bench that stretched alongside the fritkot, her arms crossed .
. She was wearing a dark bomber jacket with a light t-shirt and jeans, a small backpack lying at her feet.
Julie stopped for a moment. Zoe was there, she hadn’t lied, but still it didn’t give her any more clue where things would go from there.
She briefly thought about what Yasmine had said.
No matter what happened, she had to let Zoe know the extent of her feelings for her.
She needed to start from a clean slate from their last interaction.
Zoe took notice of Julie and stood up, raising her hand in a small wave. At once, Julie’s heart started hammering in her chest. There was no turning back now. She walked towards her.
“You’re here.” Julie felt like her brain hadn’t yet caught up with what was happening.
“I am. You are too.” Zoe smiled.
“I guess we’re both here.”
“You look sharp.” Zoe looked Julie up and down.
Julie nodded. A million compliments for Zoe fused in her head but none of them managed to come out.
Zoe shifted on her feet, her arms still crossed, then she pointed at the fritkot behind her with her thumb. “Shall we?”
“Lead the way.”
The two women walked in silence towards the window of the small green cabin of the fritkot. Julie ordered for the both of them, not really thinking about it. Once she realised what she’d done, she apologetically turned to Zoe.
“Oh sorry, is that alright?”
“Well, I can’t really complain. You still know my order after all this time,” Zoe blushed.
“Not a lot of people pick a pineapple-based sauce for their fries the first time they get them and actually enjoy it.” Julie looked away. She just wanted to grab Zoe’s face and kiss her. No discussion or explanations needed.
“Brazil sauce is the best sauce and you know it.”
“Remember that time you tried to make it yourself?”
“Oh god.” Zoe laughed. “That was bad, wasn’t it?”
“Too much pineapple can kill the pineapple, it turns out.”
The man in the fritkot handed out two cones of fries which Julie took. She gave one to Zoe. “Let’s go sit by the water.”
The banks of the ponds were full of people enjoying the late afternoon sun, but the two women managed to find a single empty bench looking out onto the still water.
The ducks, swans and geese were already gone for the day.
The rows of maisons de ma?tre on both sides of the ponds sat magnificent in the light.
“Hmm.” Zoe let out a delighted sound as soon as she bit into her first fry. “Still the best fritkot around.” She paused and licked her fingers. “Or did another one beat it in the past ten years?”
“Nope, it’s still the best. Some things never change.” Julie’s mood had improved quite a lot as well. There was nothing that potatoes fried in beef fat couldn’t solve.
“I still wish I could get the grasp of the two-frying technique.”