"Photography."
"Uh huh, whatever. Anyways, I'm so glad you could come even though I sent the card like last week!"
"Yeah," Hanne stuttered. "Cathelijn, you can let go now."
The blonde woman released the brunette from her death-tightening embrace before putting on a forced smile as she looked Erik up and down. But before she could open her mouth to say something that would cause Hanne to slap her, regardless if was offensive or not, Thies showed up next to her, placing his hands on his fiancée's shoulder. He knew about the awful tension between the two, and he wanted none of that anywhere near his wedding day.
Thies Uiterwijk was a footballer, and his hair was a mix between blonde and light brown, his eyes a dark shade of blue. From the Dutch city of Nijmegen, he grew up with Hanne and Anneliese Geertsma since they attended school together and were on the same football team. And once they were well in their teen years, Hanne and Thies began to have feelings for each other, and that was the same year Cathelijn came into their lives.
He smiled, his eyes brightening at Hanne before meeting up with Erik's. "Goededag, Hanne. Who's this?"
"Oh, this is my—"
"Boyfriend," Erik finished off the sentence. There was some sort of discomfort between him and Thies as they looked at each other, but no one seemed to know why. Perhaps it was the fact that Thies and Hanne had liked each other more than friends four years ago, but she is now dating Erik. "Erik Durm. Borussia Dortmund."
"Ah," the Dutch man nodded. "Thies Uiterwijk. Ajax Amsterdam. Nice to meet you, I'm sure, uh, that Hanne like you very much...?"
The photographer and football couple coming to Amsterdam for a wedding was bound for disaster even before they left Germany. It just didn't seem right to have your current boyfriend meet the guy you liked who reciprocated the same feelings but left you for a another girl who would become a model. Excluding the whole Hanne-Cathelijn conflict—which was deemed to be dangerous and incurable—there seemed to be something between Erik and Thies that would effect both couples.
No one spoken during the silence that seemed to be inexplicable to Thies. Everyone was just standing there, looking at each other or something in hope to make it less awkward. This was how bad it was between them, not to mention that Hanne and Cathelijn have had even worse ways of greeting each other before.
"Did anyone like the chicken? I thought the chicken was lovely," Erik said in hopes of trying to dissolve this uncomfortable silence. There wasn't actually a chicken, or any food at all, but he saw this on the internet tried to make use of it.
And still, even with the awkward and out of place nods from Thies, it didn't get better. So it came up to Hanne who had to ask Cathelijn herself where to sit because it was evident that no one wanted anymore of this.
Erik and Hanne sat next to Anneliese and Willem, who weren't dating, of course, but everyone was glad they sat nowhere near the to-be wedding couple at the end of the table.
"Oh my God! Hanne! And her boyfriend!" Anneliese exclaimed as she saw the lovely couple taking their seat next to her. She was very tall compared to her friend, standing at 5'10 to Hanne's 5'0. Her hair was a copper brown and cut inches below her shoulders. "Hoi! I'm Anneliese Geertsma, Hanne's best friend, and I'm gay. Not the feeling, but I like women."
"Only friend," Wim corrected.
Hanne smiled as she sat in her seat, pushing the plate and utensils a bit forward. "Hoi, Anneliese. Hoe gaat het?"
The two Dutch women began to converse in Dutch, leaving Erik to feel out of place not knowing how to speak Dutch. Now he felt what Hanne feels when everyone around her is speaking German.
