Page 16 of Such a Good Couple
‘I know, I know.’ Maggie’s words rushed out. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just, like, you all work so hard and … well, you know I think what Fionn earns is stupid money. And—’
‘Please stop, I’ll start getting irritated!’ Clara made sure this sounded jokey, but frankly, shewasfeeling an edge of annoyance, probably goaded by the surely imminent jetlag and the blaze of the sun. Plus, Ollie had still not appeared.He’s a big guy, but seriously, how long can one man need for a shower?
Her eggs arrived, perfectly poached with elaborately arranged smoked salmon and slathered in buttery hollandaise. Finally, Ollie, Annie and Conor appeared.
‘Morning!’ Maggie called over the sounds of Josh, Tom and Reggie scarfing down pancakes. Ed had returned and was hovering nearby, ready to clean the boys’ faces.
‘Maggie, this …’ Ollie swept an arm wide over the pastry- and fruit-laden table, the deck and the beach beyond, ‘is, frankly, a let-down.’
Conor laughed, though Annie, Clara noticed, didn’t join in. She was looking at the view but her eyes were faraway. It was a face Clara’d grown accustomed to seeing. Annie was most likely doing the calculations that Clara knew took up enormous real estate in her head. When should they have sex? How many timescould they manage? Or maybe she was wondering if she was standing up too soon after the most recent sex. She’d mentioned that concern once during the first year of it all.
As they took their seats, Clara spotted Ollie once more staring intently at his phone. She stuck her knife into one of her eggs and watched the yolk spill out.
‘Looks like we’re on the boat for the afternoon.’ Ollie was holding up his phone, the itinerary visible on the screen, and Clara was reassured immediately.I’m over-analysing. And it’s going to ruin the bloody holiday if I don’t stop.
On the yacht, the afternoon drifted by languidly in a rosy haze of easy chat and hot, hot sun.
While Ollie and Conor cannonballed with the kids into the ocean, Clara, Maggie and Annie discussed the social media presence of one of their old college friends who was doing a committed line in ‘life begins at forty’ after an acrimonious divorce and tense custody battle.
‘Ollie and I just wouldn’t have the time to get a divorce – the sheer paperwork,’ Clara mused from under her arm, thrown over her face to shield her from the dazzling rays as she lay on a lounger.
‘That’s one thing me and Conor would have an easy time of.’ Clara squinted over at Annie, who was reapplying her sun block, despite the fact that she was sitting in the shade of the enormous taut sail overheard and wearing a diaphanous black beach cover-up. ‘We’ve all the time in the world for paperwork. Not that there’d even really be any. Renting, separate bank accounts, no dependants …’
Clara could see Maggie shuffling herself upright on her lounger and starting to tilt her head in the international sign for commiseration.
‘How is it all going—?’ Maggie began, before being cut off byAnnie, who spoke loudly and deliberately:
‘With everything else being done for us on this trip, I’m kind of amazed there’s no one putting our factor 50 on!’
Clara winced. Annie was clearly not willing to allow an opening for any ‘u ok hun’ chat.
‘Yeah, my bad.’ Maggie grinned, settling back down, evidently resigned to the fact that Annie was not in the mood for any Big Chat. ‘We’ve got hair and make-up before dinner this evening, though!’
‘Shut up!’ Clara couldn’t even say for sure that this was a joke. The staff had done everything short of digesting their meals for them since that morning.
‘I am actually serious,’ Maggie continued. ‘I decided to do it cuz I don’t think I can take one more grim pap shot of me on social media. This is bad enough.’ She waved a hand vaguely over her body. ‘At least my face is one thing I can control, so I’m fucking doing it.’
‘Maggie!’ Clara glanced at Annie, who’d straightened up at this. ‘You look absolutely beautiful. You’re Rich Lady Hot!’
Rich Lady Hot was a term they’d coined back when they spent a summer in New York after college. The phrase was inspired by all the moneyed women with impossibly sleek hair and yoga bodies they’d served in the Hamptons’ Riviera Country Club.
‘Yeah, well.’ Maggie shrugged. ‘Turns out there’s a much hotter type of hot than Rich Lady Hot – LA Girl Hot. So yeah, the old confidence isn’t amazing. Drinks?’ She stood abruptly and headed into the cabin, where a bar was stocked with gleaming bottles.
With a twang of nerves, Clara thought back to Maggie in the bathroom on the ship the night before. Hearing Maggie be so down on her body was unnerving, especially as she looked objectively lovely.
‘That fucking blind item,’ Annie hissed over.
‘I know,’ Clara whispered back. ‘I kinda thought she was okay but … it’s obviously upset her, like, of course it would.’
‘I didn’t love having to get her out of the loo.’ Annie checked that Maggie was still inside. ‘Bit déjà-vu-ish, wasn’t it?’
‘Uh-huh. Like old times,’ Clara said quietly. ‘But I genuinely think she was just taking a minute. God, it must be so hard having shit like that splashed around the internet … No wonder she’s feeling a bit low in confidence.’
‘You don’t think there’s truth in it?’
‘Nah.’ Clara kept her voice low. ‘There’s no way he would. Not after everything … He’s been with her through it all. Remember Ollie drove Fionn to the facility? Ollie told me Fionn broke down in the car afterwards, really lost it. Seeing her like that scared the shit out of him. I just can’t see him doing something so hurtful. He’s a good guy, even if the fame thing has him being a bit self-absorbed.’
‘Hmmmm.’ Annie pursed her lips, then quickly flipped to smiling as Maggie returned with a large pitcher full of booze and fresh mint.
