Page 42 of Such a Good Couple
‘We broke up,’ Annie replied heavily. ‘He doesn’t want to do the baby thing anymore. Doesn’t wantmeanymore.’
‘What?’ Clara was stunned as Annie nodded silently. Clara couldn’t believe it. She tried to imagine the shape of the group if Annie and Conor were breaking up. Even Fionn becoming a household name and star of fifty-foot billboards hadn’t fractured them. But Annie and Conor separating? Things would change, of that there was no doubt. The group would probably split off intotwo camps, Camp Annie and Camp Conor.
The same could happen with me and Ollie, she thought, with renewed panic.
‘Annie,’ Maggie turned to her, ‘are you sure? This can’t be true. You guys are such a good couple. It’s probably just the stress of trying for the baby. That happens to couples. Please let me and Fionn pay for the IVF. Wewantto.’
Annie shrugged her off. ‘Maggie,’ there was an edge to her voice, ‘money doesn’t fix everything for everyone, you know.’
‘Gals, we can’t turn on each other, remember?’ Clara interrupted. ‘The guys are the shits here. Conor’s a youth-stealer, Ollie’s making a big to-do about nothing and Fionn has already disappeared two seconds into the supposed family holiday.’
‘Clara!’ Maggie sounded furious. ‘Fionn isworking.’
Clara rolled her eyes, which she could immediately see from her friend’s face was not the thing to do.
Annie stood up. ‘Clara, your peace-making skills need work.’ She shook her head, trying to turn her towards the door. ‘Go talk to Ollie.’
‘So you two can bitch about me when I’m gone?’
‘Yes, probably,’ Maggie said mildly.
‘Okay, I deserve it, I know.’ Clara obediently gathered up her shoes, her headache intensifying as she bent over. ‘The guys won’t leave.’ Clara made an effort to sound convincing. ‘They won’t.’
Annie gave a morose shrug. ‘I can’t imagine coming back from the conversation we had last night.’
Clara watched Maggie pull Annie into a hug as she shut the door.
She made her way along the corridor.They won’t leave. They won’t. It’d be stupid. This is all fixable. They won’tleave.
Outside her bedroom she paused, debating whether to knock or just walk in, when the door swung open right in front of her. Ollie stood motionless, his expression hard to read.
‘Hi,’ said Clara.
‘Hi.’ Ollie was terse as he turned and walked back into the room.
This, Clara knew, could go either way. Ollie was a patient man and everyone who knew him would say he was extremely laid-back. Affable to a fault. But Clara’s pet theory was that often the super chill people were the real psychopaths – they were the very people who could go postal if the right provocation came along. Ollie had a bad mood about once a year and, my God, could the man pull a strop.
‘So …’ Clara shut the door behind her. Logically she knew she should go the abject apologising route but she was starting to find his histrionics a bit dumb. ‘Annie says you and Conor are leaving. Are you really storming off over this?’
Ollie remained with his back to her but she detected tension rippling across his shoulders. ‘As if you wouldn’t throw a complete and utter tantrum if I went and cheated on you.’ His voice was icy.
‘Come on, Ollie. It was nothing.’ This was not the way to de-escalate, but also it was impossible to not defend herself. ‘It was a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t beenlyingto me.’
Ollie said nothing, shaking his head slowly from side to side. Clara put her hands on her hips, a feeling of mutiny starting to completely overtake the anxiety of earlier. The silence between them stretched.I am not speaking first, she told herself, already knowing that she probably would.
‘C’mon, Ollie,’ she blurted.
Goddamn it. He was so much better at rowing than her. Which was weird, seeing as how he so rarely did it. Maybe all those months of being the ‘cool’, ‘sound’ guy he was actually honing his fighting skills.
‘Do not “c’mon Ollie” me. You fucking cheated on meyesterday.’ He turned, scowling. Clara stilled at the sight of him. This was not an Ollie that she remotely recognised. He looked furious and she found herself paralysed with a sudden cold fear that this was no regular fight.
He began to pace as she continued to stand stock still, her limbs locked.
‘Did you really not expect me to have a feeling about my wife cheating on me?’
‘It was a kiss, Ollie.’
He ignored her. ‘Scoring someone a few miles away from where I was playing with ourchildren.’
