Page 19 of Couple Goals

Jacob blinks rapidly. Adriana smiles broadly as she watches him. She loves discombobulating men, especially ones as serious and hot as Jacob. He swallows, then recomposes himself.

‘I want to make something very clear,’ his voice is firm. ‘I would never have– if I’d known that you were a member of this team, of course I would never have–’

‘Would never have what?’ teases Adriana, wanting to make him blush. But his expression is stony, and he folds his arms.

‘Well no, obviously not,’ she relents, realising she needs to play this a different way. ‘Neither would I, to be clear! But it’s not our fault, neither of us knew. It was an innocent mistake.’

Jacob wipes his glasses on a neat cleaning cloth he magicked from somewhere. ‘It is very unfortunate.’

‘It didn’t seem that unfortunate at the time,’ she says under her breath. ‘I’ve been thinking about it a lot ever since, actually.’

Adriana glances up at him. She thinks she sees his expression soften, just for a moment, and is reminded of that evening they spent together, the way he’d looked at her when she thought he wasn’t looking, the way his whole face had lit up when he’d laughed in the bar. But now, the stern man before her looks incapable of that kind of delight.

He just puts his glasses back on, and takes a step back from her. Even his tailored suit can’t handle his muscles as he rubs his arm awkwardly.

‘I think it would be better for everyone if we kept what happened between us, as, well, exactly that,’ he tells her. ‘Just between us.’

‘I don’t know, Jacob. I’m not used to being anyone’s dirty little secret. I’m not ashamed of having sex.’

Jacob’s hazel eyes are unreadable as he speaks slowly, his voice low.

‘It’s not because of that, Adriana, believe me. Have you not considered that if your teammates found out, that they might think you were trying to sleep your way to the top?’

She scoffs. ‘As if! I’d just tell them I didn’t know who you were! That I thought you were just a random hot man in a bar!That it’s just a crazy coincidence that you’re also the son of the new owner.’

‘And you think they’d believe you?’ His question hangs in the air.

‘I–’

Adriana falters. A few days ago, she would have been defiant. She would have said that she had absolute faith in her teammates, and they had absolute trust in her too. But now… Adriana remembers Maeve snapping at her, Milo accusing her of favouritism from Coach Fernandez, and all the micro conflicts and insecurities rising to the surface now that the players are being pitted against each other. The way Coach Hoffman’s new regime is breaking the team apart, now that everyone is so scared about the changing squad. Of course they would all be more suspicious of her sleeping with Jacob.

Adriana hates keeping secrets, but she agrees with Jacob. It’s better this way, for everyone.

‘You’re right,’ she admits. ‘This is a time of a lot of change for the team. Everyone is really on edge, and I just think that the fewer surprises my teammates face right now, the better. I don’t want anyone to think there was anything at all, you know, below board, between us. And I’m sureyouwouldn’t want anyone to think that you’re using your position of power as a rich man involved with a women’s team.’ She looks at him unwavering.

Jacob winces. ‘That’s true too.’

But the two of them still stand there together, the atmosphere still tense. Adriana hates it. She would hate it with anyone, but Jacob isn’t just anyone. Even if she wouldn’t admit it to him, or even to herself, Adriana had kind of, you know…likedhim. It wasn’t like her to keep thinking about someone afterwards.He had just seemed so kind. And hot. And into her. But now…

‘Well. If that’s all,’ he says abruptly, looking round, and walks towards the stairs.

Adriana is trying not to be offended by how quickly this man has done a 180 on their night together – she understands that they’re both just trying to be practical and, after all, her no repeats rule would still be in operation even if they weren’t in this unhappy proximity together. But does he have to be quite so standoffish? They’d seemed to have a real connection, didn’t they?

Adriana reaches forwards and grabs his arm.

‘Jacob, wait.’

He turns, looks down at her hand and shakes her off. This seems particularly outrageous given the other ways this hand had touched him the other night.

‘Look, I really want to clear the air,’ she forces a smile. ‘I agree with you that we shouldn’t tell anyone. But if we’re going to keep this a secret then you need to be, you know, normal with me. Is there something else going on?’

He looks away from her.

‘I–’ he sighs. ‘I just wish you’d at least told me that you’re a footballer. We could have avoided this whole… mess if we’d known we would be working together.’

‘Yeah, well, sorry, but men tend to freak out if they find out that I play football for a living! I didn’t want to go through yet another evening of someone trying to mansplain the offside rule to me. Most guys can’t stand the thought that I’m way better at football than they will ever be.And besides, we’d already agreed that it was a one-night thing so it just didn’t seem that hugely important to give you my life story!’

This is all perfectly reasonable to Adriana, but Jacob still looks sour, avoiding her eyes. She throws her hands up.

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