Chance Encounters of the Canuck Kind

“JULES?”
Juliette awoke with a start. She looked to her right to see Jacob still sound asleep next to her. Bleary eyed she pushed her hair out of her face and sat up slowly. Did she imagine the voice?
“JULIETTE?”
Nope. The voice was definitely real.
“I’m coming, Ray” she croaked, pulling her robe on and wrapping it close to her body. She was internally lecturing herself for giving her brother a spare key to the house. He had been crashing at Markstrom’s place since his arrival two nights ago but seemed to spend every spare moment he had at Juliette and Suze’s. That, coupled with Suze’s odd behaviour since Ralof’s arrival, had sparked numerous conversations between Juliette and Jacob, although Juliette tried not to think too much about it – after all, what was there to think about? Suze was happily in a relationship.
“Happy Christmas Eve” Ralof smiled as Juliette entered the living room.
“It’s early.” Juliette grumbled in reply.
“Jules, it’s like 10:30, come on…”
“That’s early…”
“I see your dislike of mornings hasn’t changed” Ralof teased, his joke met with a grunt from his sister.
“So..” he began after a brief pause “what’s the plan for the big day tomorrow?”
“I need coffee before I can do the things” Juliette whined, shuffling sluggishly into the kitchen. Steaming mug in hand, she returned to where Ralof was sitting and sunk into the couch next to her big brother. “You were saying?”
“It’s Christmas day tomorrow…”
“I was aware of this, yes”
“What’s the plan? Are you cooking dinner?”
“You mean was I planning on spending half of my Christmas day slaving over a stove for the benefit of others?” Juliette mused “No. Wasn’t on my ‘to do’ list.”
“Wow, and the award for biggest Grinch goes to my sister, Juliette Andersson.”
“Oh come on Ralof, it’s not exactly fun. Besides, I don’t have any food in for a full dinner, I wasn’t expecting company and I presumed Suze would be spending Christmas day with Will and his family”
“So what the hell were you planning on doing?” Ralof asked in horror.
“I dunno, I’d have winged it, if all else failed, made eggnog and gotten shitfaced.”
“You are the embodiment of Christmas spirit…” Ralof said disappointedly.
“Sorry” Juliette replied flatly. “What can I say? I’m no Martha Stewart.”
“No shit. Morning Marky.” Ralof acknowledged Jacob as he entered the room. “Have you heard this? Juliette isn’t doing a Christmas dinner!”
“Oh yeah, I knew that. We were just going to make eggnog.”
“You people…. Animals…” Ralof said in fake aghast. “I can see I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands...”
“It’s Christmas Eve, Ray…” Juliette said pointedly “There’s no way you’ll be able to get stuff for a full dinner now, everywhere will be sold out of turkey.”
“I don’t care if I have to go to every damn turkey shop in this city, I’m getting a bird and we’re doing Christmas properly.” Ralof rose from the sofa and reached for his keys off the coffee table. “No Christmas dinner, I don’t even know you anymore, Jules…” he feigned disgust and walked purposefully out of the lounge to get his coat and venture into the frigid temperatures.
Jacob looked at Juliette amusedly.
“He must really love Christmas, huh?”
Juliette took a drawn out sip of her coffee before replying:
“Yeah… I think it’s just… we haven’t done this in a long time, you know? If I’d have known he was coming I’d have been a little more prepared, but I figured it was just us.” She sighed and Jacob could almost detect a hint of sadness in her eyes, he took her hand gently and rubbed small circles with his thumb on her smooth skin. “I guess I just feel bad, the one time he’s able to come home and spend Christmas with me I’m completely unprepared, I don’t even have anything to give him tomorrow, I sent his present in the mail last week so it would get to him in Calgary.”
“Hey, hey, it’s fine,” Jacob soothed “He’ll understand, Jules. He said himself that he just sort of dropped it on you without warning.”
Their attention was caught by Suzanna entering the room quietly, scanning the area as if she were looking for something. Or someone.
“How’s it going, Suze?” asked Markstrom.
“Me? Oh, uh, fine” she replied. “Juliette? Er, has Ray been here?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Oh, no reason” Suze said hurriedly.
“There must be a reason, Suze or you wouldn’t have asked…” the suspicion was evident in Juliette’s voice. “Come on, out with it.”
“Honestly, I was just wondering. God, Jules! You make it sound like I’m into him or something…” Suzanna’s attempt to deflect suspicion was weak at best, her nervous laugh that followed her statement gave her away.
“Oh my God!” Jules exclaimed. “You do like him! You totally like him! I’m such a fucking idiot, it was so obvious! All the bantering, the way he looks at you. You’ve been on edge since he got here!”
Suzanna’s face went pale and she pulled her hands to cover the rising embarrassment in her cheeks.
“Wait a minute…” Markstrom interjected. “Suze, don’t you already have a boyfriend?”
The air in the room almost shifted at his reminder. It became thick, tense, almost suffocating. As if he’d uttered words that should have never been spoken and in that moment, Juliette came to realise that she’d been a really bad friend to Suzanna.
“Oh God, Suze… You and Will have broken up, haven’t you?”
Suzanna’s tear filled hues met with Juliette’s, it was all the confirmation Juliette needed.
“Oh hon, I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you say anything? When did this happen?”
Suze willed herself not to cry.
“About a month ago. He told me he didn’t want to be with me anymore, gave me the ‘it wasn’t working’ bullshit. His parents hated me, that’s why he ended it, because his mommy told him to. I’ve been going back to his apartment the last couple of weeks to get my things.”
“Motherfucker…” Juliette breathed, balling her fits tightly.
“I didn’t want to ruin anything for you, Jules.”
“Ruin anything?”
“You’re so happy right now, and things with you and Jake are going really well, right? You didn’t need my drama killing your vibes.”
“Suzanna…” Jacob said softly. “You should have said something.” He moved to sit next to her and put a comforting arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for a side hug which caused the tears she’d been so desperately trying to repress to tumble from her eyes. “He’s stupid, okay? He’s a great big skitstövel”
Suzanna managed a laugh in amidst her sobbing “I don’t even know what that means, Marky.”
“Shitty shoe” Juliette clarified as she moved to the other side of Suzanna, sandwiching her in. “It literally means poop boot.”
“Sounds better than ‘bastard’ though” Jake said with a grin as he passed Suze a tissue to dry her eyes with.
“Listen to me, Suze” Juliette said “You don’t need him. He is unworthy of you, his whole family is unworthy of you. And if you’re not good enough for him, then that’s his loss. But I’ll tell you one thing I know to be 100% true. He will never ever find someone as amazing as you are.”
Suze could only manage to lay her head on Juliette’s shoulder in response and yet, as she sat there, sandwiched between her best friend and her giant Swedish boyfriend, she knew that she was going to be okay. She was wanted, and she was loved.
“So…” Jacob was the first to break the calm silence that had descended between them. “I guess this means we have the pleasure of your company for Ralof’s Christmas dinner smorgasbord tomorrow.”
“Christmas dinner? But we don’t even ha-“
“Don’t ask” Juliette interrupted. “Just don’t ask.”
***

Notes