Men Trouble
We spoke to Samia Ghadie about Maria's somewhat dysfunctional love life and whether she knows what kind of trouble she's letting herself in for with Caz!
Talk to us about Maria’s feelings towards Luke?
Maria and Luke... well they’re engaged... for now! He’s a nice lad and she is fond of him, but she’s very much aware that he’s younger than her. They’ve been arguing a lot because Luke hasn’t been happy about Caz staying with them. He isn’t sure about her and he thinks she’s outstayed her welcome!
He’s been getting on Maria’s nerves a lot with the way he’s been acting, so things aren’t great between them. There’s been a lot of bickering!
What does Maria make of Caz?
Maria is defensive of Caz and wants to protect her. A few months ago Maria had a meltdown of her own over the whole Tyrone stalking business! So Maria knows what it’s like to be vulnerable and to be going through a tough time, so she’s quite sympathetic towards her. Maria doesn’t see the bad in Caz, which is why she’s so defensive of her.
Do you think that Maria believes there’s a possibility that they’ll be genuine friends?
Maria’s got friends of her own, I guess she doesn’t really need anymore, but I think she’s just being there for Caz more than anything and is giving her a helping hand really because she doesn’t have anyone else to turn to. Maria feels sorry for her.
There’s a bit of a mix up with some flowers, what does she make of that?
Maria doesn’t think it’s Caz’s fault. Maria’s told Luke to be nice to Caz so Luke orders some flowers for Kate from Caz, but by mistake he orders the type of flowers that Kate’s mum hates, carnations. So Maria has a massive go at Luke in the Rovers and Luke storms off. That’s not Caz’s fault, but that then causes Luke to throw his keys at Maria, which is what causes it all to kick off. Luke just sees this as another example of Caz coming between them!
Why does she get so angry with Luke?
It’s been building up over time with them not getting on and they’ve been arguing a lot. So in some ways, her doing what she does with Aidan is a way for her to get out of the relationship with Luke.
By doing that she thinks that she can’t be in love with Luke or else she wouldn’t have done it, and that’s why she ends it with him.
Talk to us about Aidan – they have a bit of history, do you think that she fancies him?
She possibly does...we’re led to believe that they’ve known each other for years, because obviously Aidan is Liam’s cousin – Maria’s husband. So they have got that history there, and then when Aidan comes round to apologise for what happened with the flowers and Kate, he defends Maria and says he’s on her side. He gives Maria a shoulder to cry on.
Then they get chatting and realise that they’ve got lots to talk about and he starts to tell her that she’s funny and asks why they’ve never spoken like this before. He calls her beautiful and gives her a lot of charm, and she falls for it and they end up sleeping together! She hasn’t intentionally done it because Eva is her friend as well...she’s not set out to hurt anybody but she ends up in this situation before she’s even thought about it!
Aidan went round to her flat with the best intentions but after a bottle of wine they were both a bit tipsy. Immediately afterwards they realise that what they’ve done is wrong.
Aidan seems to be regretting it more than Maria because he has more to lose.
When Maria and Luke split up, how does he take it?He is absolutely gutted because he feels like it’s come out of nowhere, as far as he was concerned everything was ok. They were engaged and were talking about dates for the wedding, but Maria’s thrown him this curve ball that it’s over so his head is all over the place.
How is Maria feeling after the deed with Aidan? Does a part of her wonder whether he likes her?
Yeah definitely, the next day she sees him in the street and she’s smiling when she goes over to him... I think part of her is thinking he is it going to say let’s do it again, it was fun - but he doesn’t. He says it was a massive mistake and that they can’t let Eva know.
Maria feels like a bit of a fool really, like he has used her. And she sort of likes him more than she realised that she did.
Do you think that she would tell Eva?
I don’t know. Aidan keeps telling her that they can’t tell Eva, and because she likes him she’s not going to tell her. Eva is really annoying her because she keeps going on about her perfect life and when Eva knows that Maria and Luke have split up she’s in her face rubbing her relationship with Aidan in.
Me personally, I’d love her to tell Eva – but I do think that Maria would be quite scared of telling Eva because they go boxing, that would be a fight and a half!
Do they almost get caught at any point? Does anyone suspect anything?
Not really, no. Caz mentions it, she asks Maria ‘is something going on with Aidan’ and Maria says no, and then ends up throwing Caz out of the flat. But that’s not the reason she throws her out; it’s because Caz has told Liam that Maria and Luke have split up and Maria is upset because it should have been her to tell her son that. But when Caz mentions Aidan, Maria just flips and is like ‘get out my flat!’
When that happens does it cross her mind that Caz might use this?
No I don’t think so, because up until that point she still doesn’t think Caz is devious in anyway. She’s still quite naïve to that.
Are you enjoying working with Shayne and Rhea?
Yes, definitely, it’s really nice. They’re new characters for Maria to work with.
Personally, do you think Maria should stick with Luke or pursue Aidan?
I think Maria should just stick with being on her own for a while, I don’t think Luke is the guy for her, he’s too young and he’s not the love of her life.
I think Liam was the love of her life and she’s never really found anyone who matches up to him. She should be on her own for a while now.