Page 106 of Such a Good Couple
Follow your heart
Wipe that tear from your eye
Ollie and Annie and Conor and Fionn all came to join her at the podium and they turned to Maggie’s coffin and sang out the last lines while, on the screen above, Maggie herself spun and danced with her baby girls.
Time makes amends
Don’t be afraid
You’ll not let love pass you by
Remember this
True friends never part
CHAPTER 27
‘Are you sure you’re okay to go to work?’ Rachel was filling the kettle as Annie picked through her leather backpack looking for her vitamins and making sure she had everything for her first day back since the funeral ten days before.
‘I’m all out of leave.’ Annie clipped the pack shut, satisfied that she was all set.
‘But you’re pregnant and you’re grieving,’ Rachel persisted.
‘It hasn’t escaped me that I’m pregnant and grieving,’ Annie snapped.
The darkness of the late November morning beyond the kitchen windows was oppressing. A similar darkness had settled over Annie’s heart in the previous week. Even Beanie’s acrobatics in her belly couldn’t awaken any sense of hope. Nothing would be right ever again.
Rachel didn’t respond. She put tea bags in the mugs and waited for the water to boil. Her patience had become grating to Annie.
She’s waiting for some day that I’m better, and it’s not coming.
Rachel had come to Maggie’s house that day. Conor had rung her to let her know what had happened, whatever that meant.
Annie stood. ‘I don’t want tea. I’m going to get an earlier train.’
‘Sure.’ Rachel didn’t look at her. She was messing with two teaspoons and the tinkling felt oddly pointed. Annie wanted toslap them away.
‘Why are you pissed off?’ Annie could hear the snarl in her own voice and didn’t care.
Rachel pushed her auburn curls behind her ears and pulled the sleeves of her pale pink embroidered dressing gown back up to her elbows to pour the tea.
‘I’m really not.’ Her voice was even, which just made Annie want to swipe at her even more.
‘You’re not even looking at me.’
‘When I look at you, you tell me to stop staring at you.’
Annie changed tack. ‘You’re acting like this is all happening to you and it’s not, you barely knew Maggie.’
She could see this line of attack was having a better effect. Rachel’s back had stiffened but still she didn’t rise to it. ‘This is happening to you. I’m your friend, I love you. So, in that way, what happens to you happens to me,’ she said simply, turning around and leaning back on the counter. She looked pained.
‘You’re my friend. You love me like a friend,’ Annie mimicked. ‘That’s not … it’s not … the way I need …’ Annie could feel herself running out of steam and was furious at herself.I sound like a petulant child.
‘I don’t think it’s the best time for that conversation.’ Rachel turned back to the counter and fussed with the spoons again.
‘Leave the fucking spoons alone.’ Annie tried out a shout and that felt better.
‘I’m putting them in the fucking sink.’ Rachel swept the cutlery off the counter and they landed with a clang.
