Page 43 of Couple Goals

Even Kira is brought into the huddle, previous hesitancies set aside in the elation of winning.

Kira leads them in shaking hands with the opposing team – her vibe is definitely more cocky and gloating than how Maeve would be doing it but she’s doing what’s expected of her as captain all the same.Adriana goes down the line shaking their opponent’s hands and enjoying briefly catching up with a few of the opposing players who she knows, promising going for drinks soon, asking how their families are doing, complimenting their games.

Adriana turns to the stand to wave again at her still-cheering family. She notices Maeve’s mum has already left. But there’s something about the flashing of the sun sign that catches her eye towards the technical area. She had been so caught up in the game that she hadn’t noticed that Jacob has been in the director’s box all along.

Adriana’s heart leaps to her mouth. He’s wearing a petrol blue suit with the jacket off, his tie remaining firmly tight up to his neck but his sleeves rolled up to show off his toned arms. Despite the jubilation on the pitch, his team having just won, he’s watching with his arms folded, with even more intensity than usual. As Adriana watches, he leans to say something to an older man, unfamiliar to her – a colleague perhaps, or could it even be his father? Both men’s eyes turn to look, it seems to Adriana, right at her. The smile freezes on her face. They don’t seem happy, and she worries they’re talking about her. She doesn’t know exactly what she did to piss Jacob off – did she mess up that much by asking him for coffee? Although she didn’t get on the scoresheet today, she ran the midfield well, so she can only hope that Jacob couldn’t justify her being transferred to another club.

Adriana feels a hand gripping her shoulder, and turns to see Maeve next to her.

‘Great game, Addy,’ says Maeve.

‘You too!’ says Adriana fervently, to try to reassure her. But Maeve’s thinking the same thing.

‘Ha, I mean, I barely had anything to do with it.’ Maeve tries to smile but it’s a little forced, and makes her look more like her mum. ‘It was a great game. Really aggressive and dominating possession, just like Coach wanted.’

‘Do you know why she…?’

Maeve shakes her head ruefully, again trying and failing to brighten her expression. ‘We didn’t talk about who would be captain today, so I guess I just assumed I would stay. It was silly of me.’

‘Do you think this is a… permanent choice?’ Adriana asks tentatively.

Maeve swallows and can’t seem to bring herself to answer, just shrugs.

‘Anyway,’ Maeve tries to compose herself. ‘Itwasa great game. Choksi did… I suppose she did a good job of leading with the aggression Coach wanted.’

‘I heard that,’ says a voice behind them. ‘Careful, Murphy, I’ll start thinking you don’t hate me.’

Amongst the cheering and hugging between the players, Kira has been standing right behind them, and Adriana wonders how long she’s been hovering. Is she going mad or does she always seem to be close to Maeve?

‘Hey Kira, you smashed it!’ Adriana gives her a warm hug. ‘That was an incredible goal! Right in the first five minutes!’

Kira seems surprised, and Adriana quickly pulls away, worried that Kira’s not a hugger – as she loves hugs so much herself,she always forgets that some other people don’t and maybe sometimes they think she’s too much.

‘It happened so fast!’ Adriana rambles instead. ‘When I played you in, you did such a great job to control it with just one touch!’

‘Well,’ Kira, glances at Maeve. ‘I’ve been practicing my touch a lot recently.’

Maeve looks quickly away and if Adriana didn’t know better she would think Maeve is blushing. There’s definitelysomethingbetween them and she’s not sure why her best friend can’t talk to her about it, whatever it is.

‘Thanks, Adriana,’ Kira turns back to her. ‘You did a great job setting it up for me, honestly. I wouldn’t have been able to score without you. Great game. I couldn’t believe Coach just dropped me into being Captain like that for today’s game, it was so–’

Maeve clenches her jaw and walks off abruptly, making some excuse about talking to Georgia. Adriana’s heart sinks. It must look like she’s too busy being pally with Kira, when Maeve’s still hurting from losing the captaincy.

The team all head jubilantly back to the dressing room where Hoffman gives them a rare, if not broad, smile of approval. Adriana feels suddenly nervous because there, too, beside her, is Jacob.

His expression is still neutral, even among the cheers, like he’s about to have a board meeting or something, not that his new team has just made a super strong debut. Adriana tries to catch his eye to see if he smiles, but he doesn’t look at her at all, facing towards the other end of the huddle.

‘Congratulations Tigresses,’ says Hoffman. ‘You played the game I hoped you would, executing our plans well. Zuri, that was a brilliant goal, well done. Kira, watch out for your spin.’

God, she is never happy! But Kira simply nods, as if this is something they’ve talked about a lot in the past and she’s eager with the constructive criticism.

‘And great control in the midfield too,’ Hoffman continues. ‘I’d like in particular to bring everyone’s attention to Adriana.’

Adriana, who had been staring at Jacob’s forearms, starts in surprise.

‘She has responded brilliantly to our training, and this is exactly what I was talking about with midfielders leading the press. Excellent game playing from you today, Adriana. You’re working well with Kira. I can see that you two can become a duo that other teams will fear going up against. Well done.’

Everyone claps.

---