Page 6 of Such a Good Couple
‘You can step forward, madam,’ the security guard was now calling, as Annie continued to back away.
She stumbled into several people, including the unfriendly back-poker from the queue. ‘I’m sorry, so sorry. I have to—’ She wedged herself back into the crowd at the luggage conveyor belt and implored an irritated-looking man. ‘Excuse me? I just remembered something in my bag.’
‘Annie?’ Conor was calling from the other side of the glass divide. She ignored him. She did not want him to see her grappling with her piss at security. This would definitely fall under the umbrella of her ‘being too intense about trying to conceive’.
‘Which one’s your bag?’
Annie leaned forward to see whether it had already gone through. There was no sign of it. On tippy-toes, she could see onthe other side of security a woman carrying her shoulder bag and asking the milling passengers if it was theirs.
‘She has it,’ Annie pointed.
The man shrugged. ‘Well then, it’s already gone through, hasn’t it?’
‘But I need to take something out,’ she whispered urgently. She could see Conor making his way towards the bag, which was now sequestered on the other side of the conveyor belt where all the bags that needed searching were. ‘It’s a liquid.’
The guy looked openly tired of her. ‘Calm down, luv, they’ll just take it off you on that side. Now go through, you’re holding the whole place up.’
She couldn’t believe she’d cocked up. She didn’t love that Conor was about to learn that she’d been schlepping her piss around in her bag, but mainly she was worried that if this started a row, they’d waste a potentially fertile day – she’d been planning to somehow squeeze sex in when they reached their accommodation that night. She edged back into the queue for the metal detector, her eyes fastened on the exchange between Conor and the woman with the bag. He was gesturing towards Annie, obviously explaining that it was his partner’s.
At last, Annie slipped through the security sensor, only to be waylaid by a woman with some kind of wand who wanted to investigate her more closely.For God’s sake.Annie waved over at Conor. ‘I’mcoming. Don’t start searching. It’smybag,’ she yelled. Apparently too loudly, going by the reactions of at least thirty people in the vicinity.
‘Do you mind not screaming?’ Another security person was now approaching. ‘There’s no need for hysteria, please de-escalate. You will get your bag back.’
‘I’m sorry. I just …’ Annie lowered her voice. ‘I don’t want my boyfriend looking in my bag.’ Beyond the crowd and the glass, the woman and Conor were chatting amiably as she began tounfasten the satchel.
‘Is there something you are deliberately trying to conceal?’ The uniformed woman with the wand straightened up sharply.
‘No.’ Annie felt utterly defeated; her grip on the situation had evaporated. ‘There’s a container of wee in there. I’d forgotten about it. We’re trying to conceive. I just don’t want him—’
‘Say no more, hun.’ The woman quickly stepped aside and waved her through with the wand. Unfortunately, it was too late. Annie arrived at Conor’s side as both he and the security woman were examining the small bottle of piss.
‘You’ve got some … what … cider here?’ The woman held it up to the light, looking perplexed.
Annie nodded. ‘Sorry, I meant to take it out and then completely forgot it was in there.’ She could feel Conor looking at her but she kept her eyes on the woman.
‘Well,’ the lady smiled, dumping the bottle in the bin to her right, ‘there’s plenty of cider in the Runway bar! I just need to pop this through again and you’re good to go.’
She trotted off with the bag and Conor turned to Annie. ‘Did you just try to bring urine through airport security?’ To Annie’s relief Conor didn’t look annoyed, just slightly perplexed.
‘What do you mean?’ Annie was ready to style it out. ‘You know I need tiny portions of Handbag Cider to get through the day.’
Conor smiled, but Annie saw a wariness creep into his expression.
‘Okay, you got me!’ She kept her tone breezy. ‘I’d forgotten to do the ovulation strips this morning. So I just popped it in my bag—’
‘Annie …’ he began, ‘I think this trip we should maybe—’
‘Here you go!’ The woman had returned with Annie’s now urine-free bag.
‘Thanks a million.’ Annie gathered her things and pulled onher boots. As they moved away from security, she continued to explain. ‘I thought I’d do the testing in the loo here. Look,’ she beamed, trying to banish the odd formality that had suddenly wedged stubbornly between them, ‘the test strips thing doesn’t matter anyway. There’s nothing to stop us just having sex!’
‘Hmmm.’ He nodded, sounding about as excited as if she’d said,There’s nothing to stop us just performing the procedure without anaesthetic.
He looked like he was psyching himself up to say something, and unease stirred in the pit of her stomach.
‘Conor! Annie! Thank fuck! I needhelp!’ The mildly psychotic shout that rang out behind them could only belong to Clara.
‘Shit.’ Conor tried to duck but it was futile. Across security, with possessions and bags and children scattered all around her, Clara was waving to them, oblivious to the muttering of passengers and security personnel everywhere.
