Page 10 of Couple Goals

Maeve shakes her head. ‘I’m even more under her scrutiny. Sure, it’s obvious that she is watching me, for me to prove my worth as Captain. But being in the spotlight like that means I cannot get away with any mistake, none at all. Not a stupid basic mistake like today. God, it’s so humiliating! I have been passing since I was a toddler! Our Academy coaches would be so ashamed! My mum would have disowned me…’

‘Maeve, sweetie, you’re spiralling. Come back to earth. You are being way too hard on yourself. You know that, right? I mean, sure it’s notidealthat the first time you touched the ball in front of the new coach it was a dud.’

Maeve groans again.

‘But she’s played the game at the highest level!’ says Adriana. ‘She’ll know that doesn’t mean you fumbleeverypass. I mean, you’re the captain for a reason!’

‘For now,’ says Maeve, her voice cracking. ‘And if I keep playing as terribly as I did today, I won’t be the captain for long.’

‘What do you mean, “as terribly as today”, come on! You fumbled the ballonce! Out of a hundred times!’

‘Once is already a hundred times too many,’ Maeve says sternly. ‘I need to practice more.’

‘You need to relax,’ Adriana urges her.

‘Relax?’ says Maeve in a high pitched squeak. ‘Do you realise how insane you sound right now? I can’t relax!’

‘Do you realise how insaneyousound right now? Iknowyou can’t relax, that’s exactly the problem!’ Adriana. ‘You’re getting in your head already, I can see it. Please remember Maeve, that I know you. I’ve seen you go through this before! Remember the end of league game at the Academy? Under 16s?’

Maeve puts her head in her hands.

‘Oh my God, Addy. Reminding me of all my past failures is not helping me right now.’

‘No, no, because you only failed then-’

Maeve winces further into her hands. All Adriana can see is her ponytail, waving from side to side as Maeve shakes her head repeatedly.

‘- I mean, you only didn’t succeed as perfectly as you wanted to-’

‘Keep digging, that’s right,’ she mutters.

‘Because you were so in your head! You were so worried that if you let them score a single goal, there was no way you’d make the team, that you got rigid! You need to be able to be dynamic and play without fear out there.’

Adriana looks at her friend, how devastated and tense she is, and fears that she knows the end destination to her spiralling. She feels her own chest getting tight in sympathy too. She can’t let them both sink under. Her friend’s feelings are her responsibility, and Maeve needs cheering up. Fast.

What would cheer anyone up?

‘Look, I have an idea,’ says Adriana. ‘Let’s go out tonight.’

Maeve’s head springs up so fast Adriana’s worried it might pop right off.

‘You’re joking. Please, for the love of God, tell me you’re joking.’

She looks so utterly horrified that Adriana has to laugh. ‘No, I don’t meanoutout. Seriously, I have learnt from yesterday, that was the last time. I’m not going to get drunk before training under a new coach, I do have some sense of self-preservation. I don’t mean gooutout. Just hang out. A soft drink, somewhere relaxing. The Old Pig! For old time’s sake.’

The Old Pig is their local pub, a studenty bar with cheap pints and free-flowing gossip, and the place the team go to all the time when no one has made other plans. All of their best stories start, ‘Remember that time at The Old Pig, when…’

‘We can get two piglet mocktails and a vegan sausage roll,’ coaxes Adriana. ‘I want to tell youallabout this man I met last night. Maeve, he was so cute, honestly. If I was ever going to break my no repeat rule, he’d be a contender. I told my taxi driver this morning – he was as generous with his bank card as he was with his tongue.’

‘Addy!’ Maeve laughs, and the sound is music to Addy’s ears. But then Maeve puts a hand on Addy’s shoulder. ‘I do want to hear about it, you know I do. Just not tonight. I’m sorry, I know when you’re stressed you just want a distraction and a good time, but I am not like you. I’ve had a big day, and what I need is some small sense of routine. I need a meal-prepped high-protein dinner, and to do a Peloton workout to get rid of this lactic in my legs, before an early night.’

Adriana’s heart sinks. Not just because she made the wrong suggestion – which feels as terrible a mistake for a people pleaser as, say, a footballer missing a basic pass – but also because she really doesn’t want to spend the evening alone.

The truth is, Adriana hasn’t actually spent an evening alone in... weeks. It’s part of why she’s been going out so much. Recently, it’s been feeling better to wake up in an unfamiliar bed with someone else than to wake up alone in her flat which feels too empty. She can’t hear her own thoughts if she’s grinding up against some stranger in a dark nightclub.

‘Okay! Okay!’ Adriana says quickly. ‘That was completely the wrong suggestion. Come to mine! Or I’ll come to yours! I’ll cook us dinner! I can make high-protein meals!’

‘Addy, I say this with love, but the last time you tried to cook for me you literally set my kitchen on fire.’

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