Page 114 of Such a Good Couple
Annie leaned down and started to kiss her, bringing her hand up to stroke Rachel’s neck just under her copper curls. Rachel closed her eyes and gave a little sigh as Annie gently nipped her bottom lip.
Then Rachel pulled back and ran her hand over the curve of Annie’s belly. ‘We have to get you off the stairs – my nerves can’t take it!’ She smiled up and Annie felt another brief glimpse of normality. It felt right to stand here in the early hours of a new year and kiss Rachel.
CHAPTER 30
Six weeks after New Year’s, Clara sat on a plane looking down at the grey sprawl of the city and the jaunty red and white of Dublin’s Poolbeg chimneys, which seemed to be rising up to meet her. Reggie and Tom sat in the row beside her with Dodi, Essie, Ollie, Josh and Fionn occupying the two rows in front. They were a three-row family now. Fionn had received some double takes on board but, mercifully, no one approached him at any point on the way back to Dublin. Filming had finished, and they’d all spent a week exploring the quiet whitewashed towns that clung to the red-dirt coast of northern Spain. It was February, so the tourists had yet to arrive and they could go hours without encountering anyone on their many walks. Then they had packed up the villa and prepared to cart five kids back across the water.
On the last night at dinner, Fionn had raised a glass: ‘To ditching the fame game.’
‘Ah, stop that!’ Clara had laughed. ‘You take one holiday and you think you’re cured!’
‘Maybe I am.’ Fionn had cocked an eyebrow. ‘It’s been nice not being Finn Strong here.’
‘Hmmmm.’ Clara had nodded, humouring him. ‘You won’t be able to afford me anymore so.’
In the previous two months since leaving ComYOUnicate, Clara’s role on Fionn’s staff had evolved to something resembling an assistant. She hadn’t set out for this to happen,though she was enjoying it far more than any work she’d ever done before. She did worry that working for her friend could become tricky, but she knew with ‘Finn Strong’s executive assistant’ on her CV she’d get another job if she had to. With Brody in LA, Fionn had come to rely on her to organise his schedule and his life in general. She’d taken care of getting Dodi and Essie enrolled in the same school as Josh, Tom and Reggie, which they would be starting in just a few days’ time. She’d organised the deep clean and preparation of the Miavita house. When they touched down, her first appointment was with the caterer for Dodi and Essie’s birthday party. They would be nine the following week and everyone was on edge. They would forever remember this, their first birthday without their mother, and Clara wanted it to be perfect. Or at the very least not be a site of trauma that they’d be recovering from for years to come – to this point, she was still undecided about booking the exotic animals guy.
After they’d landed in Dublin airport, the mandatory celebrity van with blacked-out windows had arrived and brought them out to Dalkey and the house that was now going to be home to all eight of them.
Ollie and Fionn began unpacking while she met with the caterer and talked her down from trying to serve a quail egg canapé to a bunch of nine-year-olds. Afterwards, Clara took the train into town and went to meet Annie near the hospital where she’d just been for her thirty-five-week check-up.
They hugged hello and Clara squealed at how far over the bump she had to reach. ‘You are gloriously big! Whoohoooo! Not long now to the magical miracle that is birth and all the defecating in front of loved ones and strangers that that entails.’
‘I can’t wait.’ Annie mimed puking.
‘Oh, your gag reflex is going to need to be alotstronger for parenthood, babes.’
They walked up to sit at the canal, picking up coffee and pastries on the way.
‘So, the kids are starting at the new school?’ Annie took the lid from her cup to blow on her decaf Americano.
‘Oh no fuckingwayare we talking about my boring shite, you are tits deep in new love!’ Clara took a satisfying bite of her cinnamon bun and sat back. ‘I want to hear everything!’
Annie smiled. ‘I wish there was something to tell. But we are doinga lotof kissing and not much else.’
‘Oh no.’ Clara swiped at the crumbs dropping on her hoodie. ‘Is she a bit allerg to the clunge?’
‘Gah, never say clunge again!’
‘Sorry! What do bisexuals call it then? Dr Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium?’
‘Shutup!’ Annie gave her a faux-serious reprimanding look before continuing. ‘She’s allerg to the pregnancy thing. To be honest, so am I. I think we’re both kind of in agreement that we won’t be properly …’ She trailed off.
‘Down to fuck.’ Clara nodded sagely.
‘Yep, down to fuck! Until after I’m no longer a human vending machine.’ Annie rolled her eyes and then placed her almond croissant atop her bump in order to sip her coffee.
Clara hastily stashed her own pastry and grabbed her phone. ‘This is the loveliest piccie ever,’ she said, snapping Annie in the dappled light. ‘Expectant Goth Mother With Croissant, circa 2026. We have to send it to …’ She stopped. She couldn’t believe she’d been about to say it. Across from her, evidently realising, Annie swallowed.
‘God, I’m sorry …’ Clara set her phone down. ‘Shite. And we were doing sexy sex chats and everything.’
‘Well, fucking a human vending machine isn’t exactly the sexiest sex chat …’ Annie said quietly.
‘Lol.’ Clara tried not to sound so morose. ‘I just meant thingsalmost felt … not terrible for like ten straight minutes there. That’s got to be a record. I think the best me, Fionn and Ollie have managed so far is maybe seven and a half.’
‘Send the pic to The Greatest Horseplay Of All Time,’ Annie suggested, and Clara obediently opened their recently formed new group chat with the guys and Rachel. They had finally archived Slags For Life. A new beginning needed a new group chat. Ollie replied straight away.
Ollie: Bun in the oven, bun on the oven.
