Page 29 of Such a Good Couple
Seeing Fionn in person these days was destabilising, like looking at a familiar stranger. It felt a bit like seeing double. The friend she’d basically grown up with was overlaid with the ‘airbrushed into oblivion’ person who stared out from posters on the sides of buses and cruised languidly down red carpets among the other celebrities in videos online.
As soon as the driver turned off the engine, Maggie hopped out and hurried over to him. He gently lowered his girls and swept Maggie into a big hug. Annie and Clara hung back as their friends stayed in the embrace for a few minutes, and Annie felt reassured. She had resolved to get Fionn on his own to share her concerns about Maggie, but seeing them so close, could therereally be anything going on that he wouldn’t know about?
Of course, the thought of Maggie, alone, wandering the house in LA during Fionn’s on-set radio silences was unnerving Annie. A lot of hours to fill. A lot of dumb internet posts to read about herself. What a weird world it was they lived in.
Talking about anyone’s appearance was fucked up, but talking about the appearance of someone in recovery was downright dangerous. Of course, the people online couldn’t know that Maggie had survived a killer disease. During Maggie’s stint in hospital back in ’06, Annie, Clara, Conor, Ollie and, of course, Fionn had tried to find out as much as they could so that Maggie’s mind would never slide to such a terrifying place again. But there was so much less online back then. Eventually they’d visited the campus health centre and a doctor there had filled in the blanks somewhat. Maggie had collapsed on stage in the middle of directing a scene for their Beckett module. Dehydration and a severe loss of electrolytes coupled with low blood pressure had been the disastrous cocktail of woes her body had been contending with as her secret purging had ramped up.
Even though it seemed impossibly bleak, the doctor had warned them it could’ve been even worse. Maggie’s illness could cause heart problems, oesophageal damage and even life-threatening internal bleeding. It had been sobering. But they’d all been in their early twenties. Death as a possibility was remote and couldn’t possibly apply to any of them. Plus, Maggie was in hospital and hospital equalled getting better, right? And when Maggie was released she did seem much, much better. They’d all finished college, pissed about together all summer in America and then Maggie and Fionn had set off on their theatre dreams in London.
‘Check those out.’ Clara nudged her, interrupting Annie’s agitated stream of thoughts. She pointed to a trio of bizarre-looking vehicles with no roofs and huge wheels parked in theshadow of the house.
‘They look like something out ofMad Max. Part of the surprise, no doubt,’ Annie whispered. Foreboding niggled. She would’ve liked to collapse into bed at this point. She felt like she’d lived several days already today. She and Conor probably needed to have their own adult conversation, and being locked into a ‘surprise’ event of Fionn’s creation would be unlikely to allow that.
‘Annie! Clara!’ Fionn had released Maggie from his arms, arms that Annie swore doubled in size every time she saw him. ‘Get over here!’
That accent. Annie didn’t chance looking at Clara in case they laughed. It was becoming harder and harder to tell where Fionn Strong ended and Finn Strong began.
She and Clara were accepting his hugs and air kisses just as Conor and Ollie emerged from the house.
‘Hey, lads,’ Ollie called. ‘Hope ye’re not completely hammered or you arenotgoing to like the evening plans!’
Annie tried to catch Conor’s eyes but he remained focused on Ollie in a slightly forced-looking fashion and didn’t so much as glance her way.
Fionn flashed his creepily perfect celebrity teeth at Annie, Clara and Maggie. ‘We’re going for a ride in the dunes! In these dune buggies.’
‘Cool!’ Maggie said warily, looking the buggies over. Each one had two seats inside something vaguely cage-like that sat atop four huge wheels. ‘Only … Fionn? There’s not much of a roof, is there? And no doors? And where will the kids go?’
Fionn laughed. ‘Oh, the kids are staying here – we’ll be out in the dunes most of the night. Brody arranged a surprise for the kids too though, don’t worry; he booked Blippi!’
‘Blippi,’ Clara repeated. Annie could see she looked stunned.
‘What’s Blippi?’ Annie asked.
‘Which Blippi? There’s two now,’ Clara questioned him.
‘Original Blippi,’ said Fionn, clearly thrilled with himself over this coup, whatever the hell the coup was.
Maggie had shooed Dodi and Essie back into the house and was tugging on Fionn’s arm. She spoke quietly but they could all hear her, the house blocking what little breeze was left in the day.
‘Don’t you think on your first night back you should be with the girls?’
Ollie, looking awkward, herded Conor, Clara and Annie away from the other two. ‘We should check these things out,’ he said. ‘See what we’re gonna die in!’
Annie glanced back. There was now palpable tension in Maggie and Fionn’s body language, though there was palpable tension among the rest of them as well. Only Ollie seemed happy and oblivious.
He was explaining that Blippi was a YouTuber.
‘I was actually pretty starstruck meeting Blippi.’ Ollie grinned. ‘And,’ he called to Conor, ‘we’ve gotta keep Maggie and Clara away from him. He’s got this cult following of pervy mums who have a Reddit forum called Blippi After Dark.’
Clara slumped into the passenger seat of the buggy furthest away while Conor was pulling at the seatbelt of the nearest buggy. ‘These things do not seem safe.’
‘Yeah,’ Annie echoed him. ‘Also, what did Fionn mean “we’ll be out there most of the night”? Out in the dunes? Where, like?’
‘Oh, well.’ Ollie shifted awkwardly. ‘I’d say Maggie won’t be happy.’ He glanced back across to Fionn and Maggie, who did indeed appear to be involved in some kind of quiet altercation. ‘There’s this director and he says he wants to work with Fionn but only if Fionn will come out to where he’s staying. Don’t tell Maggie but Fionn kinda let slip that he basicallyplanned this entire holiday to coincide with this meeting.’
‘The director guy is based somewhere off the beaten track, supposedly,’ Conor explained.
‘No way.’ Clara spoke up from her seat. ‘That’s yer man, Edwin Ensel! Our tour guide today told us he’s staying out in these mad shacks.’
