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The memories have all returned to her now, like leaving Jacob’s flat has somehow released them for her.

They’d had cocktails across three of Adriana’s favourite bars where he was very generous insisting on paying for all their cocktails.

They’d talked about everything and nothing – early on they’d decided not to talk about work, jokingly saying that they didn’t want to have the old date chat where you feel like it isn’t a weekend at all – concentrating more on Adriana recommending places in Manchester to him, as he mentioned he’d only just moved there, that very week in fact.

‘I must say, I’m finding Manchester to be very welcoming so far,’ he’d smiled, before smoothly leaning in to kiss her.

Then they’d walked along the water under glowing streetlamps, and got indecently hot and heavy on a public bench, until he’d hastily called them a taxi back to his place, where it turned out he’s just as generous with his tongue.

‘So all in all,’ Adriana smiles, ‘a very, very good evening. So why am I feeling a bit… sad about it?’

Mohammed, the name of the taxi driver she’s quickly befriended, catches her eye in the mirror.

‘Because you liked him? Because you had a nice time and you want to do it again?’

‘Oh sure, I want to do it again, and I’m sure I will – with someone else.

’ She sighs. ‘I could do it again tonight if I really wanted to. And okay, sure, he was particularly goodlooking, and interesting, and yes, particularly good in bed. But… ooh, we’re here!

Thank you so much, Mohammed,’ she says, tipping him and quickly leaving a five-star review. ‘You literally saved my life.’

‘Just give the man another chance!’ Mohammed calls after her.

Adriana laughs and wishes him a good day, closing the door behind her. She teeters on her heels and pulls the dress barely over her thighs, and when she looks up, she sees an unimpressed Maeve waiting for her.

Maeve looks immaculately put-together and clear-headed as ever, her blonde hair in her high ponytail, her pale face free from make-up.

She’s holding out a gym bag of Adriana’s spare kit, and a homemade breakfast smoothie in Adriana’s keep-cup.

Adriana got them matching tiger-print ones for Christmas last year, a gesture of thanks to this one of Maeve’s consistent acts of service (and selfishly encouraging her to keep to it).

She can always be relied on to bail her out.

‘Oh my actual God,’ Adriana sighs, almost fainting into Maeve’s arms, kissing her cheeks repeatedly. ‘You are literally an angel on earth and I love you so very much.’

‘Get off me,’ Maeve mutters, putting the bag between them. ‘You reek of alcohol and I don’t want Coach to think I was the one being irresponsible last night.’

‘I somehow think that’s unlikely, babe. Also wow, your hair looks good today, did you use a different gel or something? No flyways at all , how do you do it?’ Adriana tries, desperate to get back in her friend’s good books.

Maeve rolls her eyes, but the tips of her ears are a little pink – a sure sign that Maeve’s secretly pleased with the compliment.

Unabashed, Adriana puts on her training top and leggings, before slipping on her trainers.

She will run to the changing rooms to speed-change properly – it’s one of her great talents and something she’s had a lot of practice of lately.

Adriana puts one hand on her heart and with her other gestures with her pinky.

‘I one hundred per cent pinky promise that I will never ever drink before training ever again.’

Maeve just sighs and puts her arm around her best friend, steering her to the changing room. ‘I would be more likely to believe you if you hadn’t already said that three times in as many weeks.’

‘Have I really been out so much lately?’

Adriana pauses for a moment, her eyes settling guiltily in the middle distance, questioning her life choices. Then she grins. ‘God, I love my life.’

Five minutes later, Adriana bounds into the locker room, having masterfully changed to cover up last night’s antics.

‘Goooood morning!’ she sings.

She is met with a resounding, tense silence.

Her stomach churns in horror. What did she do wrong? Why today, of all the days she’s been cheekily hungover and late for training, do her teammates hate her for it?

She looks around at her beloved team, arms folded over in their distinctive orange and black kit which gives them their Tigresses team name.

Adriana prides herself on her ability to read a room, and right now her eyes are skimming like she’s taking in a whole novel at a time.

As she follows everyone’s eyeline, she realises they’re staring at Kevin, the assistant coach?

‘You just missed an announcement,’ he sighs, finally breaking the quiet.

‘I’d hardly call it an announcement,’ mutters Milo, one of the Tigress’s forwards. Milo has always had a complete disrespect for authority.

‘Well, a pre-announcement, then,’ Kevin backtracks. ‘An announcement of an announcement.’

‘Oh my God,’ says Adriana, ‘the transfer window literally just opened, do we already have news of a new player coming in? Or has an offer come in to tempt someone away?’

Adriana looks to Maeve, who, as club captain and their star player, she thinks is the most likely candidate for being poached by another team.

Perhaps she would even be targeted by the Women’s Super League, the tier above them in the Northern Division National League. Maeve shakes her head imperceptibly.

Kevin coughs, trying to regain some dignity among the frustrated team.

‘The club has been sold!’ he announces. ‘We have a new owner! We have been bought by the Astor family!’

Kevin is really trying to sell it as if it’s good news, but it isn’t at all convincing.

‘Astor? As in the owner of that tech company?’

‘Mark Astor, yes, that’s right. He’s a huge football fan, apparently. He’s bought the Manchester Tigers and Tigresses as an investment.’

‘Oh…’ Adriana doesn’t like to concern herself with the money side of football – she only cares about the people , and the game itself. ‘So what does that actually mean for us ? Like, do we get more equipment? They’re not changing the kit again are they? I love our tiger stripes…’

‘The new owner is also bringing in a new manager.’ Maeve tells her in a low tense voice.

All the alcohol from last night twists and spins in Adriana’s stomach, like she’s back writhing on the dance floor.

‘A… a new manager? Now? But what about Pappi?’ Adriana bites her lip. She can imagine Maeve’s glare without needing to see it. ‘I mean, what about Coach Fernandez?’

Behind his back, the Tigresses affectionately refer to their coach Pablo Fernandez as Pappi, due to an old in-joke of him bringing his three children to their first training session, as well as his kindly, paternal approach to training them.

But Adriana would never normally say this in front of Kevin.

She must be flustered, and she realises needs to take a breath before she speaks next time to censor herself.

‘Alongside meeting your new manager, Coach Fernandez is going to come and talk to you this morning to announce his… retirement,’ says Kevin.

Milo rolls their eyes and scoffs indignantly, ‘He’s been sacked.’

‘Sacked? You can’t sack Pappi!’

The players around Adriana snicker, then laugh at her outburst and Adriana can’t help grinning at the sound.

She definitely thinks it’s worth the embarrassment to lighten the tension a bit in this room.

Other people’s tension messes way too much with her own nervous system and she doesn’t like the idea of anyone being upset.

Sure, there is actually a part of Adriana which is excited about the thought of meeting this exciting new coach, and proving herself by charming them.

But it feels like she only just got to know Pappi and his systems. He’s been the coach of the Tigresses for five years now, which is a pretty long time for a coach in football, but she only joined the team two years ago, with Maeve here a little before her.

The first year felt like such a steep learning curve for her, getting to know everyone, getting used to the rhythm and routine, but in the past year, she feels that both her and the team have really found their groove.

This season they were hoping that this solid, secure base would finally pay off onto improvements on the pitch in the off-season to build ready for next year and a potential promotion push.

Frankly, their track record isn’t brilliant right now.

Adriana, of course, firmly believes they are all talented players, truly with the potential to move to the top of the league table.

Of course, Adriana believes all of her friends have the potential to be the best in the entire world.

But so far that hasn’t exactly been, umm, translating into tangible results on the pitch.

She feels sure that with just a bit more time, now that they’re all a bit more familiar with each other and if they didn’t have any big upheavals…

Her body is pumping out adrenalin. Adriana is fine with change in theory, especially if it’s the fun kind of change – a new challenge in training, or new club night, or handsome stranger to seduce – but it will all depend on what the new coach is like.

However, not everyone on the team likes change.

Adriana glances up at her best friend, whose jaw is tightly clenched.

Oh God, poor Maeve. Adriana remembers when she got stressed for weeks after they changed the football kit ( and that was just from black stripes on light orange to black stripes on…

dark orange). Hell, Maeve got stressed when Müller changed the recipe for their high-protein yoghurt.

As Maeve is their captain, she’ll be expected to work even more closely with the new manager than the rest of them, and set an example on the pitch, being a leader to her teammates.

Adriana longs to give her friend a huge supportive hug – even if Maeve would probably shrug her off because she thinks the dressing room is in their workplace, and therefore a place they need to be professional.

‘Who is it?’ Adriana asks, realising nobody has posed the question. ‘Who is our new manager?’

‘Kevin hasn’t told us yet,’ Nat, another midfield player replies, arms folded.

‘Enjoying the suspense, are you, Kevin?’ Milo goads him. ‘Does it make you feel powerful?’

Kevin looks at the large stopwatch dangling around his neck.

‘Well,’ he mumbles, awkwardly adjusting his jacket. ‘I can tell you that you are all scheduled to go and meet her in five minutes. Pitch one, chop chop.’

Milo throws their hands up. ‘I bet the men’s team don’t have to put up with this kind of bullshit.’

Adriana nods in agreement, almost despite herself.

Adriana isn’t a huge fan of Kevin because he hit on her after training in her first week at the club.

It’s not that she isn’t used to getting hit on, thank you very much, but come on !

Time and place! It makes her feel like he sees the women’s team as a group of potential dates, not as professionals, and she knows it’s not how her male counterparts are treated.

Besides, even if she fancied Kevin (which she doesn’t, he’s nearly ten years older than her and way too laddish) she wouldn’t sleep with someone that she works with.

Not only would that be a slippery slope nepotism wise, but it would be way harder to never see a man again if she works with him, and that could lead to sleeping together more, and that would be against her ‘no repeats’ policy, which is working so well for her.

Free and easy, that’s what Adriana wants. That’s what Adriana is sure she needs.

The thought of ‘no repeats’ reminds her of last night.

She wonders what her fond nickname will be for him, when she’s laughing about it later with her friends, to show it meant nothing to her and she’s proudly not caught any feelings.

Jacob-not-Jake? Prince Charming? No, that makes it sound way too romantic.

Maybe to make light of it, he should simply be ‘Great Bum Guy’…

As the squad around her start trooping down to the training pitch, Adriana shakes her head unable to believe she’s thinking about some random man she’ll never see again when her precious team are going through a big change.

She needs to snap out of it and get her head in the game to make a good impression on the new coach.

Adriana is worried about the way this tension is showing the cracks in the team.

Milo, Nat and Liv are muttering mutinously together, and the birthday girl Elisa (their first-choice goalkeeper) is looking morose.

And worst of all is Maeve, sweet Maeve, who is looking an odd shade of light green.

Adriana has a chance to squeeze her friend’s elbow to show her support as Maeve’s face softens for a moment, glancing down at her, although they don’t have a chance to have a proper pep talk.

Adriana tries to put all her love and support and pride for her friend into her smile back at her, in an attempt to let her know that everything is going to be alright.

But the truth is – as the doors open onto the pitch to meet their new coach – she doesn’t know if it will be.