Page 51 of Couple Goals

‘I hope my future wife looks like you.’

Adriana laughs, leaning into his shoulder. ‘That’s not a chat-up line I’m used to hearing.’

He smiles and leans in close again. ‘I take Beyonce’s advice! If I like it, I’ll put a ring on it.’

Adriana hesitates, not knowing if he’s a fuckboy who says this to everyone, or if he really is looking for something more serious with someone and is being upfront about that, even in a nightclub. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

‘I’m just a good-time girl,’ Adriana shouts over the music. ‘I’m not wife material.’

The stranger tilts his handsome face, frowning with disarming sincerity. ‘Who told you that?’

Adriana blinks, taken aback.

‘I– I have to find my friends. Have a good night.’

But she doesn’t go to find her friends immediately. She goes to the toilet, sitting there quietly in the cold of the bathroom cubicle for a while as the buzz of her drinks starts to wear off. She puts her head in her hands, mind swimming with Jacob, yearning to text him, but still sober enough, thank God, to know that would be idiotic.

She wants to splash her face but her gorgeous sparkling blue cat-eyeliner took too long to perfect, so she settles for cold water on her wrists.

She takes a deep breath, eyeing herself in the mirror and gives herself a pep talk.

‘You donotneed him. He’s just a man. A grumpy, grouchy, sexy man. There will be others.’

‘Yessister,’ a stranger next to her, clicks her fingers emphatically. ‘If he wanted to he would! He doesn’t deserve you! Carpe Diem! YOLO! Shots!’

Adriana laughs and kisses the stranger on the cheek, feeling genuinely buoyed. Ah, the rollercoaster emotions of a night out.

Back on the dancefloor, she looks for Kira and Maeve. She feels most responsible for them– one the fresh blood, the other the least used to going out.

She decides she’ll bring the two of them to the bar with her and down a tequila shot followed by a pint of water. It’ll be good for them both, to have a bonding moment together to put the captaincy situation behind them.

The strange friction between the two of them was palpable even at the pre-drinks at Adriana’s earlier after the game. Kira had been full of bravado even off the pitch, like leading the group in directions to the club, even when she’s lived in the city for the least amount of time – but Adriana felt like it was coming more from a place of assumed independence than anything malicious. She could sense that Kira’s bossing people around, encouraging drinking games, or having strong opinions about which of their outfit choices was the right choice, was her way of trying to fit in and find her place in a new team. Plus, she’s really funny, and that comes across so much better when she was in group settings socially outside of the training ground. Adriana had been delighted when she’d seen Charlie and Elisa creasing up over Kira’s anecdotes about a time she’d had terrible food poisoning but still tried to play competitive football, nearly ending in a Gary Lineker incident.

Maeve, on the other hand, had been distinctly off at the pre-drinks. It was difficult to put your finger on at first, because Maeve was trying so hard to be the image of a sociable person, laughing just a bit too loudly at everything, and drinking a bit too much, and it all just feeling like Maeve was trying to be someone she isn’t. Adriana knows she isn’t really used to drinking, or indeed nighttime socialising recently, so she is trying to give her the benefit of the doubt – but the issue was that the more Maeve drank, the more obvious it became that she was trying to ostracize Kira.

At first it was just little things that Adriana had overheard when she was herself being a social butterfly going round and topping up everyone’s drinks – like Maeve rolling her eyes at everything Kira said in a group,or, behind her back, bringing up things Kira had said that she knew the other teammates had found abrasive. She noticed the two of them never spoke directly to each other, and if one of them moved circles, the other would go to another cluster. It was like they were repulsing magnets, pushing each other away around the room.

There had only been one moment she’d happened to walk in on the two of them alone in her kitchen, whispering something heatedly, but they’d pulled apart immediately when Adriana had walked in with her empty bottles. Adriana hadn’t been able to get from either of them what the hell was going on between them, but that isn’t the first time.

Now, Adriana spots all her other friends on the dance floor, doing a mental head count of the gang, and assuring herself that they’re all paired up with each other and/or new friends. But she can’t find either Kira or Maeve, even when she paces back and forth between different rooms including the smoking area, the toilets, and even pops her head out to the road outside.

She pulls out her phone to text them, despite knowing that the signal in the club will render this pointless, when she finally spots the long blonde hair, cropped white t-shirt and understated black jeans of her best friend.

She almost doesn’t recognise her because Maeve is doing something so unexpected. It takes Adriana a moment to realise what she’s seeing. Amidst the crowds of the other partygoers and dancers, in the flashing lights and pounding music, Maeve is making out with someone. Their hands are in each other’s hair, Maeve pulling the other woman’s waist closer to hers, pushing her a little up against the wall.

Then they pull apart, and Adriana sees the other woman’s face.

She’s a pretty woman with bambi long eyelashes, pink lipstick, blusher on her olive cheeks, and dangling earrings. Adriana’s first thought is ‘she’s not even Maeve’s type’. But her second reaction is to squeal with excitement for her friend. Surely it would be good for Maeve’s stress levels if she finally got laid.

Then Adriana sees Kira who folds her arms. Adriana wonders if she’s jealous that Maeve has paired up, maybe Kira wants a snog herself this evening to celebrate scoring another goal in their game today. Adriana still doesn’t know for sure if Kira is queer, and scolds herself for having assumed so definitely just from her vibe.

Maeve and the woman part, their fingers lingering flirtatiously in each other’s, as the stranger goes with her friends to smoke. As soon as they stop kissing, Maeve immediately seems to be meerkating around for someone else. Adriana herself, maybe? Maeve doesn’t even notice that the woman she’d just been making out so passionately with had looked back smiling at her.

‘Woohoo!’ Adriana strides over, clapping her friend on the back. ‘Maeve! Kissing a stranger in a club! This is huge!’

She skips delightedly. But her friend is barely looking at her, only at Kira.

‘Yeah, she’s hot. Isn’t she so hot? She’s my type, for sure,’ Maeve slurs loudly.

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