Page 50 of Such a Good Couple
There were essentially two types of people in the tent. The first were the rising stars who were clearly making a concerted effort to be in the eyeline of the more established A-listers at all times, as though, should they stumble across the gaze of any of these giants (mainly men, of course), all doors would magically open for them. The up-and-comers were so focused on being noticed that their faces, unbeknownst to them, had frozen into pained expressions of equal parts hope and anguish.
The other cohort were the mega-famous, and they had a different countenance altogether. They peacocked from the centre of clusters of people who laughed uproariously at everything they said. What a weird life. No wonder they all ended up in rehab and cults and endless marriages or, worst of all, sycophantic documentaries about their careers that were produced and funded by themselves. Annie shuddered.
She wanted to find Maggie. Despite their reassuring chat earlier, Annie still felt a whisper of concern, especially as she knew this party was not easy on her friend.
She found Maggie pinned in a corner of the tent by a young actress she vaguely recognised. Looking at the actress’s body, Annie had a jolt of shock, quickly followed by sadness. The skin on the girl’s back was ridged with the fine bones of her skeleton. Her shoulder blades were so pronounced that Annie felt certain the girl must feel them in bed at night, the delicate skin stretched and no doubt rubbing against her sheets when she changed position.
An image of Maggie back in college stole across Annie’s mind. This was before they’d realised that Maggie was in a bad place. Annie had gone to wake her up one morning and had noticed that her friend slept with a pillow between her knees. Annie didn’t understand why until much later.
Annie made sure she was smiling pleasantly as she slid around the actress to stand beside Maggie.
‘I just think you are so brave,’ the actress was gushing. ‘So body positive.’
Maggie was nodding wearily. ‘Uh-huh.’ She offered up a stiff smile. ‘This is my friend Annie.’
‘Hey.’ The girl lifted a frail arm towards Annie. Her hand looked oddly huge dangling from the painfully narrow wrist. ‘I’m Erica! We’re just waiting on Finn!’ she said brightly, each sentence a nervously delighted exclamation. ‘I was in the secondEndurance! So I’m super stoked to catch up with him!’
Annie genuinely struggled to know where to rest her eyes. It was hard to look at this poor girl. Her mouth was so big in her pinched face. Annie glanced at Maggie, hyper-conscious that this could be very triggering for her.
But Maggie was only gazing blandly at the girl. ‘Hmmm, I’m sure he’ll besuper stokedtoo,’ she murmured.
I guess maybe she’s used to it, Annie thought. The Hollywood love affair with thinness had been in full swing for years now and Maggie did live at the epicentre.
At that moment, a fever of excitement ignited among the crowd to their left. It was the arrival of Fionn aka Finn Strong aka What The Fuck Has He Done To His Teeth – as she, Conor, Ollie and Clara sometimes called him in their side chat, a side chat that was now, most likely, dead, of course.
Fionn was barefoot in weathered khakis and wearing a positively ragged shirt that was barely evenattemptingto cover his defined torso. He raised one arm in greeting to his star friends; on the other arm was Alabama Gere. She too was barefoot and wearing a barely there long dress of faded grey jersey.
They both looked unwashed but also somehow magnificent. Annie spotted Maggie’s face collapse into confusion and hurt atseeing Alabama. She recovered fast, however, as though it was muscle memory at this stage to rapidly rearrange her features from disappointment to calm.
Annie knew Alabama was definitely not the girl from the blind item. She and Fionn had never worked together before. And anyway, Maggie had told them that Fionn insisted the blind item was about another actor.
Still, Annie didnotlike Fionn showing up with another woman. What was he at? He’d supposedly been out at the shacks, so where had he foundher? On the way back?
‘Sorry, folks.’ Fionn’s ratio of Irish accent to American twang was gradually tipping in the wrong direction, Annie thought, as he continued. Maybe it was because he was with his celeb friends. ‘We’re so late because we were out in the dune shacks working on something I’m so …’ He glanced down at Alabama, who looked back up at him and gave a slight smile and a shake of her head. ‘Well,’ he pulled Alabama closer to give her a squeeze around her shoulders, ‘we can’t say too much but I’m so moved by the work we’re getting to make.’
‘We lost our shoes,’ she giggled, covering her mouth like a little girl. The guests laughed appreciatively at this non sequitur.
Beside her, Annie could practicallyfeelMaggie’s mask hardening into place. Annie glanced around to find Clara to gauge her reaction to Fionn making his grand entrance with a woman who was decidedlynotMaggie. Over by the musicians, Clara was shaking her head in outraged disbelief.The woman does not bother with a poker face, Annie thought, mildly amused in spite of her own rage.
At least Fionn seemed to have sense enough to release Alabama and head straight to Maggie, though Alabama did trail him over.
‘Hey, it’s my beautiful wife!’ He pulled Maggie into a deep and, Annie felt, slightly showy kiss. He’d obviously caughtMaggie’s expression when he’d walked in.
Maggie extracted herself and leaned around him to look at Alabama. ‘Hi, I’m Maggie.’
‘Of course. I know who you are.’
‘Sure.’ Maggie nodded with an expression that was part smile, part wince.
‘Hi, Finn!’ Erica piped up. ‘Can’t believe it’s been, like, six months since we were …enduring…Endurance 2!’ She said this in a way that suggested this was a private joke between them, but Fionn only looked back at her with the benign vagueness that Annie’d seen him deploy with people who claimed to know him and who he had completely forgotten.
‘Ah yeah, crazy.’ Then he flashed one of his dimples at her and she looked like she might lose consciousness with delight.
She draped her hand limply on his arm. ‘I was just saying to Maggie that she is, like, my idol! Her body positivity is so inspiring to young girls like me! She’s a role model! And it’s so cool that you’re still together.’
Maggie, apparently having reached the end of her tolerance for bullshit, turned to Fionn and said, ‘I think that’s code for “your wife’s surprisingly fat and old”.’
Yikes, thought Annie.
