The Interview (English) *completed*

Chapter 4

Camilla kept her promise and organised a celebration weekend for me. We started with getting Sushi after work on Friday night, then Julie and Chloé joined us after dinner, and we ended up in a small corner pub. I had been to more pubs in the last month than I had in the last three years.
We ordered drinks and the girls pulled me into a niche a bit away from the bar.
"So, Alex, I heard you are still single?"
I looked at Julie with my eyes wide open. We met twenty minutes ago, and she already questioned me about my life?
"Julie, where are your manners? And people say, the French are rude." Chloé took a sip of her drink and rolled her eyes.
"Well, I think she has every right to ask. Alex is gorgeous so why is there no man in her life?" Camilla quickly took Julie's side.
"I just don't really care about it. I don't need a man in my life."
Julie pulled her eyebrow up. She had jet black hair and very pale skin, with her red lipstick she looked like Snow White. "You are turning 29, your clock is ticking. Don't you think about that?"
These women were hard to handle, I had to be honest there. Of course, I thought of that and if I didn't, then my mum would always be there to remind me of it.
"Alex, are you still with us?" Chloé ripped me out of my thoughts.
"Yes, sorry."
She turned around to nudge her girlfriend. "See Julie, that's what happens when you are so forward. You scare people off. And all I want is to find some decent friends."
"Well, at least I don't forget about anniversaries." Julie glared at the French woman sitting next to her and Camilla and I chuckled.
I was quite happy that the attention was not on me for a change.
"I did not forget about it! I was just a bit late because these two kept talking to me. And who would I've been if I had left poor Alex with Camilla?"
"You would've been a good girlfriend. If I would want someone unreliable, I might as well go out with a guy."
Julie crossed her arms and I remembered exactly how Camilla quoted Julie the other night.
"Oh, I was very good that night." Chloé stuck out her tongue to Julie and the poor woman blushed immediately.
Where Julie was the forward one in regular conversations, Chloé was very comfortable talking about sex. Which clearly made Julie uncomfortable.
I was trying so hard not to laugh, but it was difficult.
Camilla next to me couldn't stop chuckling and we looked at each other very amused.
"Oh, stop it you two, you try living with that one."
Julie pointed at Chloé but couldn't keep a straight face herself.
"Don't even act like that, mon amour, you love me."
"Of course I do. But still, you could try and use that watch I got you for your birthday."
It was obvious that the two of them were in love, even if they complained about each other. Which made me wonder one thing.
"How did the two of you meet then?"
I smiled at how they told their story, laughing at each other for forgetting a minor detail like the name of the pub they had met in and it was nice to see them together.

We were in the pub until it closed.
"Are you guys going out with us tomorrow?"
Julie and Chloé were right behind us when we were walking down the street.
"No, we have to drive to Nottingham for the weekend to visit Julie's parents." Chloé rolled her eyes.
"Oh, don't act like that, you love my parents." Julie laughed at Chloé and took her girlfriend's hand.
"I do, but sometimes they are a little bit too nice. It is always very exhausting to spend an entire weekend with them. But it is better than not talking to your parents at all."
Chloé had told me earlier that she had lost contact to her parents when she came out to them. Raised in a very strict catholic French immigrant family she had been thrown out of the house when she came out at the age of 17 and that is when she had decided to move to England and try her luck here. And she seemed to have found her luck in Julie.
We said goodbye to each other, and I made my way home to pack my bag for my visit to Germany, so I could spend the weekend at Camilla's without stressing about my stuff.
I knew I had a stressful time ahead of me. The weekend with Camilla, the time with my parents, the flight. It was a lot going on and on top I needed to decide whether to stay here and give my life another chance or to go back to Germany and admit that I failed.
I did not allow that thought to get to me while I was lying in bed, I would never be able to fall asleep once I started brooding. I forced myself to focus on the nice things that happened tonight and the fact that I managed to find some friends again.