Page 24

Her boldness and confidence sets the Tigresses up for an aggressive game, inspiring the rest of the team to maintain their lead and push for a second goal to kill off the game. The Robins are on the back foot, rattled by the Tigresses constant pressing.

Adriana and Kira link up well together, along with Rebecca and Zuri out on the wings. Maeve barely touches the ball in the first half, not having to make a tackle as the Robins are never out of their own half.

Not long into the second half, Zuri scores a goal and it’s 2-0 to the Tigresses. The match feels very much in their control. The team all highfive and lift her up, as she celebrates by blowing kisses up to the sky.

By the time the final whistle blows, the home team fans roar in celebration, impressed by their team’s dominant performance today. Adriana squeals wildly and leads all her teammates into a huddle hug.

‘We won! We won!’

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. ‘It was a 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 definitely something between 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.

Kira does a half-joking, half-serious, bow, accepting the credit for the goal.

Adriana instead finds herself trying to laugh off the compliment.

She doesn’t like being singled out in a team sport, and feels particularly embarrassed with Jacob watching her, knowing even he won’t be able to avoid looking at her while she’s the centre of attention.

‘Oh!’ mumbles Adriana. ‘Umm, thank you, but really, it was, it was a joint effort. Everyone had a great game.’

She can’t bring herself to look up, even as her teammates applaud her, and she just waves for them to stop.

‘Now. You’ll notice that I am not alone here and our club director watched today’s game,’ says Hoffman. ‘I know Jacob wants to say a few words so over to him.’

She gestures to him, inviting him to speak.

‘I’d like to take the opportunity to congratulate you on today’s victory in such comprehensive style, Tigresses,’ says Jacob.

His voice has a practiced authority to it, but Adriana wonders if underneath that there’s a sense of him not really wanting to be there, perhaps more used to being behind the scenes than communicating directly.

‘I know this has been a time of a lot of upheaval, so I’m very pleased to see that the changes Coach Hoffman has been making in the team are already improving your performance on the pitch. If there aren’t any questions for me–?’

He says it in something of a hypothetical way, but Adriana feels it’s her chance that she has to seize. Show she has their backs. And if it means Jacob will have to finally look at her, well, that’s just a bonus. She coughs loudly, and the team all stare at her.

‘Uh, Ja-Jacob? I believe I speak for everyone when I say that the thing we’re most concerned about is further changes to the squad. I hope today showed what a great team we already are.’

She looks around for reassurance, and everyone nods along with her which gives her the confidence to go on.

‘We were told that with this new phase of the team, there are going to be significant changes – we want to know, how will you be deciding which players you might want to move on, if any –’ she adds, to try to plant the seed of that not being necessary especially after the way they performed today.

‘And, also, how you’re making decisions about who will be selected as captain on a permanent basis? ’

Adriana hopes speaking out like this proves that she doesn’t want their one-night stand to cause any awkwardness between them, and she’s also putting the team’s best interests first.

‘I- I’m sure we all care a lot about doing good business for this club, you know? We– we are not, you know, only here to put in our all to this team for one night , and then to just be thrown out tomorrow.’

Jacob’s eyebrows raise with surprise at her mention of ‘one night’, and she can tell he has understood that she’s trying to refer to their fling, but unfortunately, she doesn’t think she’s made much sense beyond that. Think, Adriana, think !

‘I just mean,’ she improvises quickly, feeling like she’s digging herself a hole. ‘I’m sure all of us want to be here with this team for the long haul. Not just for the sake of our individual careers but because we care about the cohesion of the group. Many of us are very loyal to the Tigresses.’

Jacob frowns and makes a gesture of being about to answer that immediately shuts Adriana up.

‘Thank you, Ms Summers, I hope I can set you more at ease in this matter,’ he says.

‘As club director, it’s only the commercial side which is my concern.

As for the role of the captain, it’s true that I will have some say in this, as a captain has additional responsibilities off the pitch, such as forging new relationships with sponsorships.

But Coach Hoffman is making her decision based on the necessities of the captain on the pitch.

And, as long as I have faith that her choice will also be suitable for any of these responsibilities off the pitch, then I will see no need to interfere.

I believe that Coach will be making her recommendations to me by the end of this month after another few games, where she can gather more information to make her final decision. ’

He looks to her to confirm, and Hoffman nods back.

‘I will be informing Jacob of my decisions in two weeks. If he accepts them, then the last stage will just be a majority vote from the team to confirm that you all trust my choices.’

‘So we’ll all get a chance to vote?’ Adriana checks.

Hoffman grimaces a little, as if it is a shame that this is given such a spotlight. ‘It’s not a popularity contest. It’s a vote that you agree with my decisions. I may ask a few of you for your opinions, if I see fit, but I am not expecting any resistance to my expertise.’

‘Are there any other questions?’

Jacob’s blue eyes pierce Adriana for a moment, and then turn very deliberately away from her to show they’re done here.

No one else has anything to add.

‘In that case, I would like to congratulate you all again on your brilliant result today, and to thank you for your hard work over pre-season. I’ve ordered a selection of pizzas for you all, which have just arrived, if you’d like to follow Kevin. Thank you all.’

And then Jacob turns, and heads off alone, as the rest of the team chat excitedly about their food, and how fit Jacob Astor is.

Adriana’s stomach does somersaults. Unfortunately, she agrees with them. Jacob seems to get hotter every time she sees him; every time he becomes more off-limits.

When Adriana’s at home that night, the elation of their victory wearing off, she finds herself sliding open her messages from Jacob yet again, the empty conversation between them. Adriana types out an impulsive message and sends it before she can stop herself.

Are you mad at me? I feel like I shouldn’t have said that earlier but I just don’t know what’s going on between us x

She throws her phone across the room, immediately regretting what she’s done. Then she rushes to pick it up and read it again to see if it’s as bad as she fears. She sounds so desperate and clingy! She sounds deranged! And why did she put a kiss?

She spends the next hour pacing and madly cleaning her flat – scrubbing parts of her kitchen floor she’s never scrubbed before.

She notices that horrible blue tick that shows he’s read her message, but not replied.

Later she lies in bed, scrolling to distract herself, praying a message from him will pop up. But it never does.