Page 59 of Couple Goals

She slips on her shoes. Thankfully, she made the decision to wear trainers to the club – better for dancing.

‘And it’s such a shame I don’t have any spare underwear with me,’ she says coquettishly. ‘I guess I’ll just have to go without any.’

Still not believing the turn her weekend has taken, Adriana skips off out of his front door. Jacob groans happily, and follows her.

Chapter 20Maeve

Maeve only makes it out of her house in the late afternoon on Sunday, wearing sunglasses to hide her puffy eyes with dark circles underneath them. She decides that given her body feels like it’s been through a meat grinder, she will just have alightjog today.

She heads down towards the park, thinking it will be quieter than town but immediately regrets it when she sees that the park is full of couples and groups of friends spread out on picnic blankets, blasting reggae music and laughing with each other enjoying the late September sun. Maeve is ashamed at how lonely she feels. Without Adriana, and without the rest of the team, who she felt were all increasingly off with her on the night out, who does she have? She can hardly ring her mother – that would be even more punishment, because she’d just ask if she’s won the captaincy back yet. It’s tempting even to message that pretty woman from last night, Jess, just to have some company and take her up on that offer of a hungover coffee. But she thinks it would be cruel, to meet someone only as a distraction. Maeve still has some moral compass, even if it feels like she’s been confused by its swings recently.

She sees a short-haired woman sunbathing on her front, bikini nonchalantly open to show her glistening brown shoulders, and for a moment Maeve thinks it’s Kira and stumbles. But of course it’s not her.

The memory of Kira’s message ignites a fire inside Maeve, the hurt and embarrassment fueling her to make her jog into a run now. She strides past groups with adorable toddlers or playful puppies, full families with proud parents and happy children, couples holding hands and kissing, rubbing suncream into each other’s backs. She pushes herself harder and harder, through her hangover, through the pain, through the regret and doubt and worry, until it’s just physical exertion. Maeve’s favourite way to cope.

She reaches the wall but pushes through it. She has nearly lapped the park now and with every stride, her body aches but her mood improves.

Then she sees a familiar mass of bright red hair. She’s not imagining it this time – it really is Adriana, just further down the path with her back to Maeve. She’s with a tall man wearing a navy cap and sunglasses. Maeve, breathing heavily, slows her run to a slow jog as she squints to make out who he is. It’s against Adriana’s self-dictated dating rules to be with a man on a weekend daytime – it breaks her ‘casual’ boundaries. She spends one night with a man but doesn’t stick around for breakfast. It’s definitely not her brother but could he be some distant family member or friend Maeve hasn’t met? Adriana does have a lot of friends…

The two of them buy ice-creams from a parked-up van, and itlookslike Adriana is on a date. The way she’s hanging off his arm, and he’s looking nowhere but at her,like she’s the true sun lighting up the summer’s day. She has a comically tall triple stacked cone with strawberry, chocolate, and mint-choc chip; he has one ball of vanilla in a tub. As Maeve continues to watch, she sees Adriana playfully offer the man a lick of the ice-cream, which he does slowly, in a way that seems to be very suggestive to Maeve – she thinks she should look away, feels she’s intruding on an intimate moment – but then he gets some on his nose. Adriana laughs, and he leans down to bring his face close to hers so that she can kiss the ice-cream away. This leads to them kissing on the mouth, Adriana’s ice-cream starting to drip to the ground, forgotten.

Maeve adjusts her baseball cap lower on her face and steps back into the shade of a tree to keep watching without being seen, wanting a better glimpse of this mystery man. Adriana is clearly into him enough to throw all her dating rules out the window, yet she hasn’t mentioned him at all to Maeve.

Could this be someone she’s slept with before? Maeve just thought last night that Adriana was trying to have fun with the team, but maybe the real reason that she wasn’t interested in any of the men that approached her was because she already has someone in her life. As Maeve watches he does seem to be a bit familiar somehow but she can’t quite work out why. Does he match up to the descriptions of any of the men Adriana used to show her on dating apps, or as friends of friends met at one party or another? Could Maeve recognise him from any of Adriana’s one-word descriptions of them? ‘Marvel-lous Mike’ (who was very into comic books) or ‘Too Much Tongue Tom’ (does what it says on the tin)?

Maeve watches, feeling like a spy (or just a bit of a pervert).

Adriana and the man have remembered their ice-creams and started walking again, towards the duck pond happily strolling hand-in-hand. Oh God, are they going to go on the swan-shaped pedalos? Maeve can’t bear it.

The man seems to be serious, rarely smiling as he speaks, and yet Adriana looks adoring at him, laughing in a way Maeve can tell is completely genuine. Maeve hates to admit it but it makes her stomach ache with jealousy, not just for having someone to flirt with, but because it used to be Maeve making Adriana laugh like that. She feels replaced in yet another area of her life. She has missed seeing Adriana’s eyes teary with laughter, her golden mane dancing with each new delight. Adriana’s always so quick to find joy in things, and she casts a glow over the people she’s with too – Maeve feels desperately sad that she hasn’t been part of that world for what feels so long. In fact, the last few times they have talked it’s mainly been Maeve chiding Adriana for not being professional enough, and even though she really believed it was coming from a supportive place, she regrets it now.

She wants to reach out, but feels insecure that Adriana doesn’t want her anymore – after all, she didn’t reply to her message checking in about her being okay this morning. Clearly too busy.

And then Adriana playfully swipes at the man’s cap, and puts it on her own mass of curls. He takes his sunglasses off to put on her face too. Maeve sees his face clearly, and a jolt of recognition goes through her.

No, it can’t be. She looks again and really tries to focus which is when she realises her suspicions are right.Jacob Astor? The son of the new owner. The man responsible for all this mess in the team.

What the hell is Adriana playing at?

What would her other teammates think, if they knew? Adriana’s been getting praised by Coach Hoffman recently – Maeve had thought it was all well-deserved, but has that been Jacob’s influence? Surely Adriana isn’t trying to sleep her way to the top? But then Maeve checks herself, hating that she’s even entertaining this idea for the briefest of seconds. It’s like all the worstDaily Mailarticles ever written that if a woman achieves something, it’s because of who she was sleeping with rather than her talents. Still, it doesn’t look great for her professionalism.

Maeve shakes her head. She is so utterly confused. She should give Adriana the benefit of the doubt. But she realises the only way she can get the truth about this is to actually talk to her friend. It’s clearly overdue. She will confess her own secret about Kira, now that whatever they were doing is so painfully and permanently over between the two of them. And hopefully that will make Adriana feel comfortable enough to tell her whatever is going on here. Maybe Maeve can advise her to leave this man alone, before it’s too late and things get even messier than they probably already are. There are way too many complications going on, and Maeve just thinks everything would be better if things went back to how they were before.

Maeve texts her friend, it still stinging she hasn’t already replied to Maeve’s earlier message checking she’s okay.

Hey Sunny, I want to apologise for how I was last night. I can’t hold my drink, but that isn’t a good enough excuse. You were right, there is a lot going on with me, and I wish I could talk to you more about it. I feel like we haven’t caught up in too long. Come round for dinner? x

She sends it and watches Adriana anxiously across the park. She watches, waiting for the moment Adriana will look at her phone, nervous to see how she’ll react to Maeve’s message – if Adriana will open the message and look pleased at Maeve’s name, or, worse, if she doesn’t and then puts her phone back away.

But as Maeve watches Adriana doesn’t check her phone at all. She just pulls Jacob Astor into the queue for the swan pedalos.

Maeve walks home feeling more alone than she can remember.

Adriana finally replies later that night, saying she’s busy that evening and the following, but yes to dinner after training on Tuesday. Maeve felt upset by the way the message was not in their usual tone, rushed, without even any of Adriana’s baffling but cute emojis.

Maeve tries to remind herself of her plan to make Kira seem un-captainlike to the rest of the team to have something to focus on, but it already isn’t sitting right with her. She tries to channel Kira’s confident, aggressive attitude, but the truth is that she’s actually feeling vulnerable, twitchy and paranoid.

She and Kira had previously organised meeting for one-on-one training on Monday, but Maeve isn’t sure whether Kira’s text to her over the weekend – ‘I don’t want to see you alone anymore’ – includes the one-on-one trainings? It isn’t in Maeve’s nature to go against Coach’s orders, but she feels so ill at the thought of seeing Kira, and while being watched by Kevin too, that for the first time in her life she feigns sickness. It doesn’t even feel that much like she’s feigning.

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