Page 97 of Such a Good Couple
She deleted it and started again:
Hiya. Can you please text me the full Halloween list? Thanks a million!
This time she pressed ‘send’.
It was five weeks since they’d got back from Greece and the general vibe between them had been reasonably …pleasant. But, as she’d told Maggie and Annie, not pleasant in a good way. It didn’t feel normal; she and Ollie weren’t fighting but this overly cordial relationship wasn’t them either. The Them from before seemed to have goneAWOL.
Clara x’d out of the app and threw on her favourite murder podcast. The crime girlies were being seasonal, with a series on creepy Halloween deaths. The one advantage of the shorter days was that Ollie could do all the childcare in the afternoons with the boys. What they lost out money-wise in the gardener’s slow season, they saved on crèche and afterschool-minding so they basically broke even.
The boys liked him being at home more often and Clara had noticed that he was making an effort to do more around the house.
A beep from the phone interrupted the hosts discussing dismemberment. It was the list from Ollie. That Friday, Maggie and the girls were coming over to trick or treat and drink wine. Ollie was heading out with some of his running buddies – the marathon was nearly a month ago and he was back in the saddle. Clara was making an effort to be supportive.Just as long as he doesn’t announce an Iron Man next, she thought darkly.
Clara whipped through Eurosaver like the pro that she was. Her secret was that she wasn’t above elbowing children and the elderly out of her way. She gathered the sweets and costume bits and was walking in the door of her house just after 6 p.m.
‘Muma! Muma!’ Reggie ran at her legs before she’d even closed the door. She swung him up into her arms.
‘Hello, my beautiful little Face Sucker.’ She nuzzled his warm neck as she walked into the dining room, where Tom and Josh were savaging pumpkins. ‘Hey, you two, should you actually be using those knives?’
‘They’re only butter knives.’ Josh held his one up. ‘That’s why they’re notworking!’
‘Dad did the big cutting,’ Tom informed her.
Ollie walked down the stairs, partially hidden by the enormous mound of laundry in his arms. ‘Are they complaining again?’
‘Yes!’ said Josh loudly.
‘Good day?’ Ollie asked pleasantly as he walked into the kitchen and crouched to stuff the clothes in the machine.
‘Yep,’ Clara replied pleasantly.
‘Spag bol for dinner?’ Ollie asked pleasantly.
‘Lovely,’ Clara replied pleasantly.
‘I’m going to play a bit of Xbox when the boys go to bed,’ Ollie said.
‘Great, I’ll watchEmily in Paris,’ Clara replied. This was their way of communicating that they would be staying out of each other’s way later and no one would be trying to cuddle up on the sofa.
‘Things are fine but also awful in their fineness?’ Clara was pouring wine for Maggie in her kitchen four nights later.
They had brought the kids around trick or treating and now the five of them were watchingHotel Transylvaniain a sugar-induced k-hole while Clara and Maggie whispered in the next room.
‘It’s so shit. I thought by the end of the show you guys weregetting closer again.’
‘I know.’ Clara nodded vigorously. ‘Me too. But now I think it was just because we were stuck with all those other people. It brought us together cuz other people are shit. It’s mad how unfun the majority of people are. But anyway now … I dunno … he has forgiven me for the whole Provincetown thing, I know that. But, not to be a total cliché, the spark is gone.’
‘Ah luv, it sucks.’ Maggie sipped her wine thoughtfully, then spoke. ‘If we’re being clichés, may I suggest a date night?’
Clara laughed. ‘Maybe we just need to accept that long-term monogamy is a failed experiment. The stats on it are horrible. Look at Conor and Annie.’
‘If we’re talking monogamy, look at Annie andRachel.’ Maggie’s eyes widened meaningfully.
‘I know.’ Clara made aneekface. ‘I think we need to let that mess play out of its own accord. I tried to suggest that bringing both Rachel and Conor to the big scan was a bad idea, and she got very ratty.’
‘I know,’ Maggie replied. ‘Although I think they all agreed in advance that Rachel would be waiting outside.’
‘Thank God everything seemed to go okay with the appointment.’ Clara picked up her phone and brought up the picture of the baby Annie had sent through earlier that day.
