Page 27 of Couple Goals

‘What?’ Adriana pauses, somehow managing to forget what the point of this conversation had been.

‘Coffee. Sunday. Midday. Did you have a location in mind?’

Adriana does a happy little celebration dance. Jacob’s placid face twitches in barely contained amusement.

‘Yes! Ooh absolutely I do, I knowallthe cutest little coffee shops around here. I know somewhere that does alife-changingbrunch. Most incredible hash browns I’ve ever had in my life, they’re almost like little fried tater tots!’ She suddenly stops in her tracks and becomes serious again. ‘Do you have any dietary requirements?’

‘I do not have any dietary requirements,’ says Jacob. He folds his arms, studying her, frowning, like he can’t work something out. He chooses his words carefully.

‘And you really expect me to believe you’re inviting me for a life-changing tater tot hash brown brunch just for business? Is that really the right… place for a work meeting?’

‘As far as I’m concerned, a life-changing tater tot hash brown brunch could never be wrong.’

Jacob’s eyes twinkle, and Adriana loves so much seeing him look at her like that again.

‘But if you’d prefer,’ says Adriana, ‘we can just have pastries? Surely even the most serious business people are allowed pastries.’

His lips twitch into a smile now, playing along.

‘Business pastries,’ he says. ‘Croissants or, at a stretch, a pain au chocolat. No cronuts.’

Adriana grins properly at him now. She’s never heard someone try to be stern when they say the word ‘cronut’. They smile at each other with a sense of a shared joke, being in on something together, and Adriana feels relieved and excited. She’s won him over.

‘I know just the place.’

Chapter 10Maeve

‘Murphy.’

‘Choksi.’

Maeve and Kira nod curtly at each other, and start jogging in silence, beginning their warm-up around the empty pitch.

This has become a ritual between them in their additional one-on-ones so far this week. No niceties, no chit-chat, just straight into it. They talk during the workout and are very vocal about any critiques either can find about the other’s playing, but they haven’t had anyactualconversations since Kira came to check that Maeve’s wrist was okay.

Maeve always arrives at their additional one-on-one training a little early, to prove her reliability and conscientiousness in case it gets back to Hoffman, but Kira is inevitably late.

Today was no different. Maeve had been waiting for nearly fifteen minutes when Kira finally rocked up. Her face looked recently splashed with water, and she was chewing an energy bar. Maeve is absolutely exhausted after an already intense week of training with Hoffman and the team, but she won’t show any weakness now.

They’ve ended up unusually having another one-on-one on a Friday night, after they were discussing schedules and realised neither of them had Friday night plans. A part of Maeve felt pleased Kira wasn’t going out either. It made her feel less of a loser.

‘You’re late,’ Maeve snaps.

‘Oh, get over it,’ laughs Kira.

‘You’re so disrespectful.’

‘You’re so uptight.’

‘You’re so annoying.’

‘You’re so hangry.’

Kira, still chewing as she jogs, hands over the last bite of her protein bar. Maeve hates to admit it but she is pretty hungry, now she mentions it. Reluctantly she grabs it and, even more annoyingly, does feel better.

Then it’s just the two of them and the pitch, naturally synchronising their thudding feet.

‘Ah, what an exciting Friday night,’ says Kira.

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