Page 49

Maeve sighs, shakes her head a little. ‘While you’ve been at your family’s recovering, I think it really showed for me how fucked up my relationship with mum is.

There I was, with this injury, and all she could do was text me to remind me whatever the medical advice was, it was just a guideline and I should try to make it back quicker to show I was diligent. ’

Adriana clucks her tongue with repressed anger.

Maeve shakes her head. ‘I have a lot of talking and letting go to do and the stuff with my mum is definitely going to be a process for sure. But I think it’s also showing me how deeply these worries go for my mum, of her feeling like she was so easily replaced, she wants me to always be the best so that I don’t have to go through what she did.

And… I want to talk to her about getting back in touch with my dad.

I want to finally be able to talk to him.

To even have him come to one of my matches one day. ’

Adriana grips Maeve’s hand across the table, her blue eyes shining.

‘But suffice to say,’ Maeve says, as if coming back from her imagination.

‘I think it will be nothing but good for me, for the team, for everyone, to accept that I am not the best fit for captain any longer. You are. Not only do I truly believe you are, and have always been, a brilliant choice for Captain, you are exactly the captain the Tigresses need right now. We need you! I definitely need you.’

Adriana reaches her hands out to Maeve’s cheeks, clasping her affectionately, and Maeve holds them there with her own hands.

‘Sunny, you’re the best person to be on a team with, whether that’s on the pitch or off it.’

Adriana throws her arms around Maeve, and they hug tightly, Adriana nodding into her shoulder.

When she pulls back, Adriana’s wiping her eyes.

‘God, I thought I’d run out of tears by now,’ she laughs. ‘But I’m glad these are happy ones.’

‘So… you’re going to be staying with the team and becoming our captain permanently?’ Maeve flashes her an encouraging smile.

‘I mean, first I need to check if the rest of the team want me. I know Hoffman apparently consulted some people, but I want to be sure that there is a consensus now that people have had a chance to think.’

Maeve bites her lip, smiling mysteriously. ‘Would you… want to hear from them right now?’

Adriana tilts her head, frowning. ‘What? You think I should like, video call them or something like that?’

‘Well something like that…’ Maeve says cryptically before giving the signal in the group chat.

And within moments, the door of The Old Pig oinks open, and a rowdy crowd descend upon their corner of the pub.

There’s the whole Tigresses team, all in their bright orange kit, led up by Kira.

And there’s Adriana’s family, holding their handmade signs with golden suns on.

And bringing up the back, closing the pub door carefully behind them, there’s Jacob.

He’s not in one of his suits anymore, but in the simple white t-shirt and jeans he wore on their first not-date to Honey, his tortoiseshell glasses fogging a little in the heat from all their bodies.

Over the crowd, he smiles and nods at Maeve, and she mirrors it back.

She looks forward to getting to know him better as Adriana’s date.

Maybe they could double date with Kira… Maeve has a rush of giddy pleasure at the thought.

Then the Tigresses are gathering into a huddle in front of Adriana.

‘Right,’ says Charlie, shuffling some sheets of paper, which seem to have lots of different handwritings on them. ‘We all wanted to write you a speech, to try to say why we think you’d be such a great captain.’

‘But really, Maeve’s the best at speeches like this,’ says Elisa, ‘and she’s probably already done hers to you.’

Adriana laughs and tells them that’s true.

‘So instead, we thought we could best communicate with that old football tradition – a chant!’

‘We know you’re a fan of Chappell Roan,’ adds Milo. ‘So we tried changing the lyrics of one of her songs to try to convince you to stay.’

Adriana gasps, lifting a hand to her mouth, laughing.

‘And then I’m afraid we may have got a bit carried away,’ says Nat.

They gesture to the bar. ‘Hit it!’

A karaoke version of Chappell Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club’ starts playing.

Charlie and Elisa step forwards dramatically, producing karaoke microphones from nowhere.

‘We want you to know,’ they sing, batting their eyelids, ‘we all want you to stay.’

Adriana still can’t believe this is happening, but the team keep singing for her, not afraid to make idiots of themselves to show how much she means to them.

‘We can’t ignore the lovely visions of you in the FA.’

Adriana laughs, tears in her eyes.

‘We heard that there’s a perfect place, where football girls can all be queens every training day.’

They pass the microphone quickly to a bunched together Nat, Milo and Liv who join in laughing.

‘You’re having quitting dreams, of leaving the Tigresses-ee–, But hear us, we’re calling Adrianaa-ee– Make your family proud, cause a scene, they see their little girl, they’re gonna scream...’

They run and hand it quickly to Adriana’s mum. Adriana starts fully crying now as she realises that they’ve been in on this together, watching her parents and Felix sing with complete tone deafness and out of time.

‘Addy, what have you done? You’re an orange Tigress girl, and you play at the women’s club...’

Everyone joins in now, all loudly shouting the altered chorus, at all their levels of tone deafness.

‘Tigress Football Club, please keep on playing at the Tigress Football Club , please keep on playing down at, Training Pitch Two.’

After another rousing chorus of Tigress Football Club where the team try and fail spectacularly to do some coordinated choreography, the music from the bar suddenly glitches and stops.

In the sudden silence, Kira, improvising, steps forwards and does some jazz hands, singing, ‘Please be our Captain!’

Adriana takes a deep breath looking at them all gathered, and then, the happiness visibly bursting from her, she says proudly, ‘I would love to.’

The team all cheer and hug her, lifting her up in a celebration worthy of the end of winning a championship game.

The rest of the pub whoop too, clearly all having been invested in this, and the original ‘Pink Pony Club’ blasts from the bar.

Maeve watches Adriana squealing with delight as Charlie and Elisa parade her round on their shoulders.

She feels a light tap on her back, and it’s Kira, interlinking and squeezing her hand, not trying to hide it from the celebrating team around them.

They smile at each other, before Maeve lets go, to head over to the bar, where The Old Pig staff are bopping festively.

Maeve orders, requesting for part of it to be delivered to their now hectic table, and taking one bottle over with her.

Adriana turns to her, and Maeve holds out the sweating cold bottle of Champagne.

‘This was a tradition we had to keep. For you, my Captain.’

Adriana’s eyes tear up as Maeve hands her the bottle, and she closes her eyes as if to savour the moment. Then Adriana expertly pops the cork, and joins in the whoops of her team around her. Maeve takes over pouring the rest of the glasses and handing them out, then leads raising a toast.

‘To our Queen of the Tigresses, Adriana Summers!’

Everyone cheers and raises the glass, and sips along with Adriana, who takes a generous gulp, grinning.

As Maeve tastes the golden bubbles pop on her tongue, she meets her best friend’s eye, and they beam at each other. Celebrating the brilliance of her best friend is going to be one of her new favourite memories.