Page 92 of Such a Good Couple
The cinema’s brightly lit marquee blared the words ‘NYC PremiereEndurance 2’, and beneath, the entrance was entirely revamped with eight-foot-high siding featuring Fionn’s eight-foot-high face.
Opposite her, Fionn’s ordinary-sized face was serious, staring intently out the window. She knew from experience that his mind was now entirely focused on the next thirty minutes in which he would have to look perfect, be nice to fans and be down to earth and funny to the journalists in the hopes of securing a few viral video moments. It was a lot to juggle. Beside her, Brody was talking on the phone.
‘Okay, Finn is fifteen seconds out.’
The car inched a few more feet and drew level with the mouth of the red carpet that was flanked with barricaded photographers and fans all shouting and straining to see into the car. People in black with clipboards and earpieces stormed around looking like they were coordinating the D-Day landings. Organising these events was quantum celebrity engineering.
The car stopped and every single set of eyes were on them.It was like a rising wave of attention, the power of which never ceased to stop Maggie dead in her tracks. The sound of shrieks and screams was blunted by the windows but the force was still palpable and Maggie’s nerves hit like a small tremor. She tugged at the bottom of her cropped leather shirt and wished she was wearing something else. Something plain and black and not midriff-baring. She’d felt confident that morning. Sylvia had had to have the skirt taken in two weeks ago at the first try-on but it was still loose this morning and an assistant had had to stitch it further. Now though it was occurring to her – most of theEndurance 2cast were men (naturally), and save for their wives, Emilene Jones was the only other woman who was going to be on this red carpet. And she was twenty-fucking-six.
Fionn gave Maggie’s hand a quick squeeze and then his door was opened by security and the wave of attention broke over him. He stepped out under the lights and flashed a grin, raising his hand in greeting.
Brody slid from the car next and reached back for Maggie. She sucked in a breath, trying to quell the sense of vertigo that being this close to her husband’s fame always induced.
Since Maggie had been unable to bail out of the car early, Brody had decided that Fionn would do a few minutes on his own then walk with Maggie to the front of the theatre. Then Maggie would peel off so he and the other actors could do the group shots and a lightning round of interviews with all the media outlets.
She allowed Brody to draw her out of the car and used the door for cover to adjust her outfit.
‘Nice, Maggie, you look good,’ he muttered to her as he put the phone to his ear again. ‘Yeah we’re on the carpet now.’ He pressed a finger to his ear and turned slightly away from Maggie. ‘No. What? That’s not the—’
Maggie didn’t catch the rest as Fionn took her arm andbrought her into his highly charged orbit. The difference between standing there on her own and then standing at his side was dizzying. The roar of the crowd came in and out as though playing through a bad connection. The camera flashes left residual flares on her retina. The first step she took was clumsy and Fionn smiled down at her protectively and gently tightened his hold on her.
I should have eaten breakfast, she thought.
Correction, I should have kept down my breakfast.
‘Finn! Finn! Finn! This way, Finn!’ The chant was coming from everywhere. The photographers had the same desperate edge to their voices as the fans. But this was their income, they needed to get the right pic to appease their bosses or, if they were freelance, to sell to Getty and other vendors of celeb images.
Fionn steered Maggie forward slightly and grinned for a bank of cameras.
She smiled and tried to arch her back slightly to make her waist appear smaller. Then she tensed, wondering if this pose was causing the waistband of her dress to dig into her back flab.This bloody cropped shirt.
‘Now one on your own, thanks,’ one snapper called, flapping a hand sideways to indicate getting rid of Maggie.
Fionn’s smile didn’t so much as twitch but Maggie heard him say ‘fuck him’ under the cacophony. He turned them both around to the photographers on the other side, to audible groans behind them.
‘Nice going, Alan,’ Maggie heard one photographer say to the guy who’d asked for the solo shot.
As they posed and Maggie sucked in her stomach like her life depended on it, Brody muscled in front of them. He tilted his head to Fionn’s ear on the other side of Maggie and she heard him whisper, ‘Change of plan, Emilene is here. You walk her, I’ll take Maggie.’
Fionn nodded. This hurt, even though Maggie knew that Fionn was basically in the middle of a work day and it wasn’t like he didn’t want her by his side. Seconds later there was another surge in the shouting as Emilene Jones stepped from her car. She was not as big a star as Fionn – online people moaned about her nepo-baby status –but she was on the rise and with her producer father was no doubt soon going to eclipse the other actresses her age.
As she made her way to Fionn, the energy from the crowd pitched upwards, hitting a zenith when Fionn released Maggie and leaned forward to kiss his co-star on the cheek.
Brody slid his very much unwanted hand around Maggie’s elbow and drew her back and away from the stars.
‘Let’s get you a good seat and a glass of fizz,’ he said, as though he was rescuing her. Which, she supposed, he was.
They made their way up through the crowd, skirting around more of Fionn’s co-stars and their teams and into the theatre.
As promised, Brody furnished her with a glass of champagne, then he steered her into a corner. ‘Listen, Maggie. I don’t want us to be at cross-purposes.’
‘Okay?’What is he talking about?she wondered.
‘We both want the same things for Finn.’ He held her gaze.
‘We do,’ she agreed, though she wasn’t actually all that certain they did.
‘What you do affects him.’
