Page 33 of Our Song

The first text arrives at around seven o’clock in the morning, but even though my phone is in my room it’s on silent so it doesn’t wake me.

The second, the third and the fourth all arrive in quick succession around half-past eight, and the combined vibrating of my phone on the chest of drawers makes enough noise to rouse me.

The first is from Aisling.

Aisling : Laura I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything to Kev. He didn’t realise what he was doing but he’s a fucking idiot. He feels terrible. That’s no excuse I know. Please please ring me when you get this.

My stomach lurches. What the hell is this about? And why have so many people been texting me first thing on a Sunday? I feel shaky and sick as I click on the next message. It’s from Aoife, my old work pal.

Aoife : I’m so sorry, Laura, you have to believe me, I had no idea anything I said was going to appear anywhere. The woman said she worked for Tadhg Hennessy. I’m so so sorry, please ring me. I’m sorry.

The other two messages are from unknown numbers. I feel light-headed. What are Aoife and Aisling apologising for? And what has Tadhg got to do with it? I’m about to click on the next message to see if it can tell me any more when there’s a gentle knock on the door.

‘Lol?’ It’s Katie. ‘Are you awake?’

‘Come in,’ I say. My mouth is dry.

Katie’s expression is grave when she opens the door. She’s holding her phone. ‘So first of all, your family are fine, no one’s sick, no one’s had an accident or anything, but …’

‘But what?’ I say. ‘What’s going on? I’ve just got these weird texts and—’

‘Sarah just rang me,’ says Katie. ‘There’s a story in the paper. About you.’

‘About me ?’ I say. ‘What kind of story?’ I remember her and Jeanne warning me I might end up in the tabloids. I know I said I didn’t care if that happened but it turns out I might care after all. My blood runs cold. ‘Oh Jesus, it’s not something about me being Tadhg’s mystery woman, is it?’

Katie swallows. ‘Not exactly.’

And she hands me her phone.

Tadhg’s ‘Little Cinderella’

Rock Star’s Charity Case

Pop superstar Tadhg Hennessy is known for his good works and charitable activities.

Now Saint Tadhg has found his new cause: his homeless, unemployed former bandmate Laura McDermott.

McDermott, 37, recently lost her home after the breakdown of a long-term relationship, and then her job as an advertising copywriter at Visions, the prestigious agency purchased by Zenith in 2017.

But salvation has come in an unlikely form: her former friend Tadhg Hennessy.

‘Laura and Tadhg Hennessy were close back in college,’ says Kev Lacey, an old friend of McDermott.

‘They weren’t a couple or anything but they were in a band together.

And then they had some sort of fight and stopped talking to each other.

That was about fifteen years ago and they haven’t seen each other since.

’ The reasons for the fight are unknown; what is known is that Hennessy and McDermott went from close collaborators to strangers seemingly overnight.

Until this month, when Hennessy reached out to McDermott and invited her to take part in a two-week songwriting workshop.

‘Tadhg was really happy to do this for Laura,’ said a source close to the star.

‘She’s been through a tough time and he’s so glad he can cheer her up with some time in the studio.

It’s a Cinderella story – except instead of going to the ball for a night, this little Cinderella’s getting to spend two weeks working in Tadhg’s state-of-the-art studio.

He’s got an incredible collection of musical instruments so Laura will be able to play his guitars. ’

Hennessy, 37, famously shot to stardom twelve years ago when his song ‘Winter Without You’ went viral.

Since then he’s released three critically acclaimed platinum-selling albums, headlined the Glastonbury Festival and Electric Picnic, and toured all over the world.

With his rich vocals and innovative mixture of pop, rock and even trad folk, he’s generally regarded as one of the most talented musicians and performers of his generation.

His old bandmate McDermott, meanwhile, did not go on to make a mark on the music world after her and Hennessy’s band split.

After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, McDermott studied communications in DCU and went on to work in marketing and advertising, eventually becoming a copywriter.

There’s no evidence that she ever played with another band.

‘We’ve been friends for a good few years now but I had no idea Laura was ever in a band,’ says McDermott’s former colleague Aoife Keogh. ‘Let alone that she knew Tadhg Hennessy. She’s kept it very quiet.’

‘Their band in college was really good,’ says Ruairí Flynn, who organised gigs for Hennessy and McDermott’s group several times when they were all students at Trinity.

‘Tadhg? Well, I don’t think anyone who saw him play back then was surprised when he ended up becoming really huge.

He just had star quality. But Laura was brilliant too.

Offstage she was this ordinary nice girl, but she was incredibly cool onstage.

I think everyone fancied her when she was playing the guitar. ’

Sources close to Hennessy say that he has no expectations of what will result from his time in the studio with McDermott.

‘It’s just two weeks,’ said one source. ‘Maybe they’ll write something, maybe they won’t.

The important thing is that he’s cheering up an old friend who’s going through a tough time.

’ While Hennessy was unavailable for comment, his management confirmed that ‘Tadhg is working on some songs with his old friend Laura McDermott, who will, of course, get full credit on anything they release as a result’.

Could Tadhg’s Cinderella end up with a smash hit? That would be a fairy-tale ending.

When I finish reading the story I feel numb. It’s like my head is full of white noise. Katie gently takes the phone from my hands. I don’t say anything.

‘Lol?’ says Katie anxiously.

I feel like I’m watching myself from a distance.

Did I really just read those words about me?

Did I really just see a photo of me outside Tadhg’s gate, looking like some sort of pitiful orphan, clearly taken with a telephoto lens by someone lurking in the park at the Crescent?

I did, I did. But it doesn’t feel real. It can’t be real.

‘I think you should sit down.’ Katie guides me gently over to the bed and I drop down onto it.

‘Give me back your phone,’ I say.

‘I don’t know if that’s a good—’

‘Just give it to me!’ I say.

Reluctantly, Katie hands me her phone and I read through the story again. It’s almost worse the second time.

‘His little Cinderella!’ I say.

‘It’s total nonsense.’

‘His little Cinderella !’

‘I know. Look, come downstairs and I’ll make you a cup of tea—’

‘It says I’m homeless!’ I say. ‘And unemployed!’

‘It does but—’

‘There’s nothing wrong with being homeless or unemployed!’ I say. ‘But I’m not either of those things!’

‘No, you’re not—’

‘It’s lies ! If I wasn’t doing this thing with Tadhg I’d just be freelance!’ I say. ‘Plus I’ve got a job lined up! And I’m living here and paying you rent!’

‘You are,’ says Katie.

‘And Kev! Fucking Kev ! What does he know about me and Tadhg? He didn’t even know him! The band was like two years before we met Aisling!’

‘I know,’ says Katie.

‘And saying I’ll be able to play Tadhg’s guitars. Like I don’t have one of my own. I’ve got a guitar, thanks very much! I’ve got a great guitar! I’ve got two!’

‘You do,’ says Katie. ‘Why don’t we go downstairs—’

‘And Ruairí! Ruairí! What’s he doing popping up here? I haven’t seen him for ages. Calling me an “ordinary nice girl”, like I was, I don’t know, a plate of mashed potato!’

‘But he says you were really good,’ says Katie. ‘And everyone fancied you.’

‘Well, we know that’s a lie,’ I say. ‘Because some people definitely didn’t.

Oh my God, look at the photo.’ I zoom in on the picture, which must have been taken on a day when it was raining.

The hood is up on my parka, but I’m facing the camera and looking up to the heavens like I’m checking the drizzle.

It is both very recognisably me, and also not like me at all.

‘I look like a teenager!’ I say. ‘A very haggard teenager who’s had an incredibly hard life!’

‘That’s it.’ Katie grabs the phone out of my hand and puts it in her dressing-gown pocket. ‘Come on. Downstairs.’

Shock and anger mean I’m still in such a stunned state that it’s not until I’ve followed Katie down the stairs and into the kitchen that the obvious question hits me.

‘How did the journalist know about me working with Tadhg?’ I say.

‘She talked to Kev. And Aoife. And Ruairí. But I don’t think any of them would have made the first move and contacted the press.

And none of them knew about Tadhg and me working together again – I mean, Aisling might have told Kev, but I really don’t think he’d have, like, approached a journalist about it. So how did the journalist know?’

Then an awful possibility hits me. And I feel physically sick. I sit down very quickly at the kitchen table.

‘Oh my God,’ I say. ‘What if Tadhg and his team leaked it?’

‘No!’ says Katie. ‘Absolutely no way. He wouldn’t do that.’

But I’m remembering what he said when he first mentioned Hugo.

I think I’ve got Hugo off my back about working with those other producers, anyway. So don’t worry, he’s not going to make a fuss about us working together anymore.

I tell Katie about Hugo’s plan.

‘Maybe this was how he got Hugo off his back,’ I say. ‘Maybe he said there was another way to get loads of positive publicity and it was to leak a feel-good story about Saint Tadhg plucking some sad sack from obscurity and letting her write songs with him.’