Maeve
“Oh, what time is your flight? Maybe we can go to the airport together!” Jake practically squeals as he reaches for my hand, over the corner of our table in a restaurant just off St Stephen’s Green on a busy Friday night in Dublin.
“Midday,” I say, putting my wine glass down and taking his hand.
“Perfect! We fly out at two o’clock!” he declares, flashing a quick look at his boyfriend, Rami.
“Then you’ll be waiting for two hours longer than you need to,” I point out.
“We don’t mind, Maeve,” Rami says, settling his knife and fork together on an empty plate. “We have to check out before eleven anyway.”
“But you could get a late check-out.”
“I’m starting to think you don’t want our company!” Jake squeezes my hand before dropping it and giving me an over-emphatic, pained look. “Do you not want to spend time with us, Maeve? You know we can get in the lounge too. My boyfriend is disgustingly rich, and arguably more famous than you.”
“Jake,” Rami says with a wince.
“I don’t know,” my brother nods at me from the opposite side of the table, his hand resting on Jenna’s pregnant belly next to him, “Maeve here is pretty famous these days.”
“Nah, Jake’s right.” I nod at Rami. “You are a lot more famous than me, which is why I will like travelling with you tomorrow because you’ll get more attention than I will. I will just sit and eat all the free food while you get mobbed.”
“Mobbed?” Rami wipes his smiling mouth with his napkin as his grey eyes sparkle. “Luckily, thanks to the masks I wear performing, I’ve never been mobbed in my life.”
“At least not by anybody other than me!” Jake’s hand is now squeezing his partner’s thigh and they share a look.
Sitting at the end of the table, with Jake and Rami on my right and Jenna and Marty on my left, I have had a full view of both couples’ public displays of affection all evening, and while I feel like I’ve tolerated it all pretty well, I am starting to get a bit fed up. Although I can’t decide what I’m most fed up about. The fact that I’m a third – or fifth wheel – at this dinner, or the fact that I’m letting that ruin what should be a get together with some of my favourite people in the universe. I’ve just been working so hard on not thinking about how very single I am – filling my days and sometimes my nights with work – and yet, it seems I can’t avoid it if I want to spend time with those I love most, which I know is very much a me problem, not a them problem.
“I would offer to drive you all to the airport myself,” Marty reaches for his glass of water, “but I have to do the day shift tomorrow.”
“I could take them,” Jenna offers, placing her hand over Marty’s as he continues to absent-mindedly stroke her bump.I take my eyes off the sight. I’m the least broody person in the world but there’s something about them sharing this tender touch with their unborn child that has my jaw tightening. “What time would you need to be at the airport?”
“Jenna, no,” I say, gently. “I won’t have you driving into the city to pick us all up in—
She interrupts me. “If you say, ‘in your condition,’ I may have to stab you with my fork,” she says, holding the cutlery in her fist.
“Jenna doesn’t like that expression,” Marty leans over his partner to tell me.
“Jenna doesn’t like being talked about in the third person when she’s right here.” Jenna grips my brother’s face, squeezing his cheeks and forcing him to stare into her eyes. “I’m pregnant, not useless.”
“We have a driver, Jenna.” Rami leans forward. “He’s already scheduled to pick us up tomorrow. All I have to do is call and change the time and tell him there will be another pick-up and it’s done.”
“Yes, you stay in bed being a baby microwave.” Jake waves his hand at his sister
“Jake,” Jenna says warningly and points the fork at him.
“When is your next scan again?” I ask. I know I’ve got it in my diary, but I can’t remember if it’s when I’m in the country or not. I hope it is.
“Two weeks,” Marty answers. “And it’s the big one. Full body scan.”
“I’m not sure that’s the medical term.” Jenna laughs lightly. “But yes, it will be the most thorough scan yet.
Being forty-three, Jenna has had more scans than some other pregnant people would, but she has taken it all mostly in her stride, and so far, they have all gone well with no problems. And Marty has been there at her side for each one, despite my motherand I offering to go with Jenna instead, should he have to work. But he won’t hear of it.
It’s a little strange seeing my brother so… settled. Growing up, he was the wild one. Yes, he’d had a long-term boyfriend in the form of Arnie, his one-time childhood best friend, but his behaviour – his antics – were anything but settled. And that didn’t really change until he and Jenna finally got together a few years ago. Or maybe that’s unfair.
It’s just I always imagined I would be the one in a long-term relationship. I thought I’d be the one with a partner before Marty. Granted, I’ve always known I don’t want to be a parent, but I’d thought I’d be building a life with someone long before Marty was even thinking about settling down.
And yet here we are with his live-in partner pregnant with his baby and he’s borderline obsessive about preparing for the birth. And the thing that bugs me the most is how easily it seems to come to him, how naturally he is able to fall in love and stay in love. I saw it with Arnie, and I see it now with Jenna. He makes it look easy.
