Page 26 of Couple Goals

‘Oh, it’s fine, I’m here with a business proposal,’ says Adriana brightly.

Jacob folds his arms.

‘Well?’ he seems unimpressed.

‘I think we should get coffee together! A professional coffee,’ she adds. ‘At a professional daytime hour. Sunday afternoon?’

‘You… want to meet me at the weekend?’

Jacob blinks behind his stylish glasses. Adriana wonders if he’s remembering, like she is, her explaining to him her rules of not meeting people for dates after sleeping together, and how she would never go on a date on a weekend – weekends are for friends and family only. Although Adriana has thought about this,it wouldn’t be sensible for them to meet in an evening after training – then they’d meet in a bar, and even if they didn’t drink, it would feel too much like a second date. Whereas this, a coffee on a Sunday… is as far from a date as you can get!

‘Yes! For business. To tell you about the team. From the perspective of someone who knows all the players well. If you or Coach have any concerns, then I can provide context, information you might be missing from your records.’

‘Like… an informant?’

She doesn’t like how that sounds, but Jacob seems curious so she just nods.

Jacob raises an eyebrow. ‘I didn’t see you as someone who would want to play the traitor. You want to snitch on your teammates so that I don’t move you on from the club?’

‘Wh-What? No! No! I’m not going tobetraymy teammates. Never!’

Jacob still looks unconvinced.

‘I don’t understand what you actually want to meet for, Adriana.’

Adriana racks her brains for how she can persuade him.

‘One week of monitoring player’s performance in practice drills during training is simply not an accurate indicator of their overall applicability. I want to ensure that you have all the information available. New perspectives. Performance… indicator… business… reports?’

‘Ah yes,’ Jacob says deadpan. ‘My performance indicator business reports.’

‘Urgh,’ Adriana, throws her hands about. ‘You know what I mean!’

Jacob cocks his head.

‘But I have every faith in Coach Hoffmann’s ability to test the capabilities of the players. Why should I need any additional information from you? Over a Sunday coffee?’

Adriana tries not to shirk under his intense stare or the abruptness of his questioning. They are clearly misunderstanding each other, but she doesn’t know what Jacobthinksshe’s asking him.

‘What if a player was just acting a little oddly this particular week? Off their A-game in times of stress? It wouldn’t be fair – I mean, it wouldn’tmake good business sense –for them to be released from the team, if they’re usually the glue that holds the whole team together?’

‘Are you referring to yourself?’ He pauses, seeming wary.

‘What?’ Adriana is taken aback. ‘No, no, I’m not talking about me!’ She considers talking about the captaincy or even saying Maeve’s name, but it’s too risky, it can never get back to her best friend. ‘I’m being hypothetical.’

‘Really? Because from what I’ve seen so far, youarethe glue holding the team together.’

Adriana blinks rapidly.

‘I– What? No I’m…’

The thing is, that is exactly what Adriana aspires to be. She’s just never thought about it that way before. She can’t believe that Jacob has immediately and intuitively identified something about her that even she didn’t know.

‘Huh,’ she muses. Then, saying aloud her train of thought, ‘I bet you’re really good at your job, aren’t you.’

It’s Jacob’s turn to look surprised now.Arms folded, they just frown at each other for a moment.

‘Fine,’ he says abruptly. ‘I agree to your proposal.’

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