Page 12 of Our Song

‘No!God, the thought of that hasn’t crossed my mind for—’ I realise, with a jolt of surprise, that I haven’t had to fight the urge to text Dave for weeks now.No, months.‘Ages.’

Katie’s eyes narrow.‘So why do you look so shifty?’

I sigh and hold up the phone so she can see the screen.‘I was googling Tadhg.’

‘Oh!’Katie sighs in relief.‘Grand.Google away.Yikes, imagine if we’d been able to google him back in the busking days.We’d have been terrifying.’

‘I’m afraid I’m being terrifying now,’ I say.‘Isn’t this a bit creepy?’

‘No!’says Katie.‘I mean, it would be if you were googling him every single day.But you just got an email from him!’

‘I got an email from one of his minions.’

‘With a message from him,’ says Katie.‘So it’s perfectly normal to check what he’s up to at the moment.That’s the good thing about him being famous, it’s easy to find out.’

‘You do know, don’t you, that I don’t keep tabs on him,’ I say truthfully.‘I mean, if he does something majorly newsworthy, then of course I hear about it, but I don’t make a habit of following his life.’

‘Probably for the best.’Katie nods in agreement.

‘What do you mean?’Oh God, please don’t say he’s done something really terrible …

Katie laughs and puts the kettle on.‘Nothing!I mean, nothing bad.I just meant it’s healthy that you don’t have, like, Google alerts set up for someone who broke your heart sixteen years ago.’

‘Good, because I don’t,’ I say.‘Obviously.I don’t even follow him on Instagram.’

I have, of course, checked his account more than once.But not very often.It just felt so weird to see someone I used to be so close to playing an arena to thousands of adoring fans.

‘You’re a model of restraint,’ says Katie.

I open my phone’s browser again, and click the ‘News’ tab.

Tad?Tah?Tag?How to pronounce Tadhg Hennessy’s name

(This is an old Vulture story that gets updated and reissued every time Tadhg is in the news.)

Tadhg Hennessy’s new love?Irish star pictured with mystery brunette in Paris

‘Saint Tadhg’ slams tax-avoiding celebs: rocker’s rant causes a stir

Tadhg Hennessy confirms long-awaited new album

Tadhg Hennessy’s artist ex: where is Amanda Sorohan now?

Tadhg Hennessy confirms split with human rights lawyer

‘Mystery brunette, eh?’Katie glances at me, as if to make sure my heart won’t smash into a thousand pieces at the thought of Tadhg with another woman.

‘Katie, it’s not 2003,’ I say.‘I don’t care if Tadhg has a new girlfriend.’

‘I know, I know,’ says Katie.‘Just checking.Let’s click on it.This was only published last week.’

I do, and after a moment of surprised silence we both laugh out loud.

‘Well, I hope to God that’s not his new love because if so it really is a scandal,’ says Katie.

‘Wow, she hasn’t changed a bit,’ I say.‘They still look kind of alike.’I look at the photo of Tadhg and his sister Rosie.‘You’d think someone would have sussed they’re related.’

We click on the other news stories.The story about ‘Saint Tadhg’ ‘slamming’ fellow celebs is less sensational than the headline suggests; it’s on a big conservative newspaper’s website that likes to present anyone who isn’t borderline fascistas some sort of sanctimonious scold.Tadhg is a patron of an NGO called Ceol that supports young people from socially deprived and marginalised backgrounds in making music.At one of their recent fundraising events, he’d been asked why the organisation was important and had replied, ‘Well, it shouldn’t be necessary because the state should fund programmes like this to make sure all young people have access to music, but until they do, Ceol will do the work.’The journalist asked where the money for that would come from and Tadhg said, ‘People like me should be paying a lot more tax than we already are.And we definitely shouldn’t be moving our businesses abroad to dodge it.’

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