Page 51

On Thurday, when Maeve’s doorbell goes, she instinctively wants to skip down the stairs to see Kira, but instead she has to manoeuvre herself down to avoid putting weight on her ankle.

There is Kira, changed out of her training kit, looking impossibly hot in a white vest under a brown leather jacket, sunglasses resting on her hair. She’s holding a delicate bouquet of irises, tied in paper.

Maeve breathes in their scent. ‘But what’s the occasion?’

‘Just excited to spend the evening with you,’ shrugs Kira.

Maeve closes the door, and kisses Kira against it.

Up in her flat, Maeve has kept all the overhead lights off (obviously), but has lit plenty of tall and sweet-smelling candles carefully in pastel-coloured holders.

She’s also moved some of the cow themed items from the living room to her bedroom cupboard.

Adriana would understand it’s not the vibe right now.

Maeve puts the flowers into a vase, humming, and places them at the centre of the small table she’s already set, with olives and bread with oil.

‘Sit! Sit!’

‘Mmm, it smells delicious ,’ Kira swings off her jacket, putting it over a chair. ‘What’s this secret dinner you’re cooking me?’

‘Well, I wanted to make something special,’ says Maeve, flustered, tucking her hair behind her ears. ‘I made Adriana this apology galette the other day, and it didn’t… er, end so well, so I wanted to rewrite that memory.’

Kira sniffs contentedly again. ‘Wait, is that miso? And aubergine? I love miso and aubergine! How did you know?’

Maeve laughs. ‘You said the other night on the phone when you called after training, when you were talking about that restaurant, remember? So I started there…’

Kira kisses her. ‘You’re so thoughtful, thank you. I wanted to bring wine, but I know neither of us are big drinkers, so I got us a couple of non-alcoholic wines to try. A white and a red. Shall I pour you some?’

Maeve takes both bottles laughing.

‘I love that we keep trying to outdo each other, even when it’s about thoughtful gestures.’

‘ There’s a rivalry I can get on board with,’ Kira chuckles.

She pours them each a glass of cold white wine, and they toast. Maeve holds Kira’s beautiful golden eyes, feeling at peace.

Then Kira takes a breath, and Maeve’s hand over the table.

‘Before we eat, there’s something I need to tell you.’

Maeve’s stomach flips with anxiety that it has all been too good to be true. Just as she feared.

Kira touches her cheek affectionately. ‘Hear me out,’ she says gently. ‘So another team have come in with an offer for me.’

Maeve’s eyes widen.

‘Already? Kira, that’s incredible.’

‘I had other offers in the summer before I signed for the Tigresses, because I was prioritising staying with Serena as my coach. But this is an offer which would mean me stepping up a league. For the Leeds Ravens. Their striker has just been injured, and I’ve made a pretty big entrance scoring for the Tigresses in the games so far so… ’

Kira might be playing it cool, but she’s grinning proudly, running a hand through her hair.

Maeve’s chest is a rollercoaster of emotions.

She’s glad that she doesn’t feel jealous – all the processing around the Adriana getting the captaincy has helped with her concentrating on her own career not on comparing to others.

In fact, the overwhelming feeling is of sheer pride.

It’s amazing a WSL club have come in for Kira.

Maeve has no doubt she’ll continue to rocket up the tables.

But the bittersweetness is that she’s disappointed at Kira moving to another city when they just started dating and put their stupid rivalry aside.

‘I’m really pleased for you. You absolutely deserve it. The Ravens will be lucky to have you,’ says Maeve, trying to show she means it.

‘It’s also a good thing for the Tigresses,’ says Kira.

‘Because, well, it’s a big fee, which will go to help improving the squad.

And I feel really excited about it, as an opportunity.

I think it’s the best thing I could do for my career.

Serena has been so incredible for me. I mean, she’s basically been like a parent to me for years with my own family not living here.

But I’ve realised that maybe that’s going to stop me from growing and learning new things under a different coach. ’

Maeve smiles and nods again, but her hands are shaking a little. This dinner now feels a bit more like a big check-in conversation than a date. Is Kira preparing to end things all over again?

‘Plus, there’s someone in the Tigresses team who keeps distracting me in training…’

Maeve glances up at her. Kira meets her eyes steadily, and smiles, reaching out to take her hand.

‘In fact, the only drawback to all of this is that I… right now, I kind of just want to spend all my time with you.’

Maeve feels her shoulders lighten. She bites her lip, smiling back at her.

‘But you know…’ Kira continues. ‘The train from Leeds to Manchester is only fifty-six minutes.’

Maeve laughs properly then, and leans across the table to kiss her.

That had been exactly what she was about to look up.

She’s so relieved that Kira still wants to make time to see her, enough so that she’s looked it all up already.

That Kira is already thinking about how Maeve will fit into her future is enough for her to feel at ease again.

‘I want to see you as often as we can,’ says Kira.

‘We can alternate visiting each other, maybe? I know you’ll be recovering until Christmas, but then– I know our careers are a priority for both of us, and it’s early days for us dating but I…

I really think we can make it work. You’re already so important to me. ’

Maeve takes a second to close her eyes, to actually let herself process this information, to let the sensations move through her body. Kira’s eyes flick over Maeve’s face. ‘But I just said a whole lot at about a hundred miles an hour, I’m sorry. I should let you talk. What do you think?’

Maeve puts her hand on Kira’s knee, and clinks her glass smiling to hers.

‘Congratulations, Choski. I am so proud of you.’

Kira’s face lights up in surprise, then out of nowhere crumples a little.

‘God,’ she laughs, self-deprecatingly, wiping at her tearing eyes. ‘That really hit hard.’

Maeve gets up to hug her, and Kira pulls her onto her lap for them to hug more tightly.

‘We’ll make it work, of course we will,’ Maeve says. ‘And while I’m sidelined with this injury, maybe I’ll even get to come and watch you make your debut.’

Kira laughs, stroking her back. ‘Every time I score a goal, I’ll blow you a kiss from the pitch.’

They kiss then. Kira’s mouth tastes moreish, like wine and olives.

Maeve doesn’t know how long they’ve been doing this, but she could do it forever.

‘Wait,’ says Kira, pulling apart, her cheeks warm. ‘Can you smell burn–’

The fire alarm goes off. Maeve leaps off her, limping to open the kitchen door which spills out steam and smoke.

The alarm is easily stopped by Kira hurriedly fanning a teatowel vigorously underneath, but as Maeve opens the oven and pulls out the painstakingly twisted galette she finds that… it’s completely ruined.

‘I swear this pastry is cursed,’ she shakes her head. ‘Urgh!’ She flops onto the kitchen floor completely given up. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘Babe! It’s just pastry!’

‘It’s not just pastry,’ Maeve wails. ‘I’m such an idiot, I’ve ruined everything.’

Kira puts her hands on her hips, sighs affectionately, and then gets right down onto the kitchen floor with her.

Maeve looks over at her, face flushed. Kira’s composed and teasing, and puts an arm around her.

‘Maeve, you didn’t do anything wrong. I cruelly distracted you with my fantastic kissing.’

Maeve sniffs, laughing.

‘It’s not always your fault when something goes wrong,’ Kira says gently. ‘Sometimes shit just happens, okay?’

Maeve feels her shoulders release their tension and she sniffs, nodding into Kira’s shoulder.

‘Thank you,’ she mumbles.

‘You don’t need to thank me for anything,’ Kira says, kissing her cheek. ‘Except maybe for the huge takeaway I’m about to buy us.’

Kira pulls her up from the kitchen floor and helping Maeve into the living room, places her on the sofa, and hands her a topped up glass of wine. Finally, they make their way through the options and place their order.

‘Okay,’ says Kira. ‘Dim sum is going to be here in an hour.’

‘An hour ?’ Maeve sighs dramatically. ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry for being a terrible host, are you going to starve?’

Kira slowly, deliberately, places a kiss on Maeve’s neck.

‘Oh no, I don’t think I’ll get hungry,’ she says, into Maeve’s neck. ‘In fact, I worry an hour isn’t going to be enough time for what I’ve got planned.’

Maeve bites her lip, savouring the sensation of Kira’s mouth on her skin.

They’re kissing then, hungrily. Their tongues dance with each other, and Maeve bites Kira’s bottom lip, knowing it will get the groan she wants to hear from her.

Maeve hopes her delicate ankle won’t make things too awkward, but actually, they can just laugh together about it.

Maeve at one point wants to straddle Kira but can’t – so Kira slides her legs over to straddle Maeve instead.

Kira grips Maeve’s hip bones, then strokes the soft curves of her cheeks.

Maeve tugs Kira’s t-shirt off over her head, then her sports bra, and then Kira does the same for her, so that they can feel each other’s soft chests pressed against each other, tracing their hands over each other’s backs.

Maeve loves when Kira’s hair looks wonderfully messy like this, and runs her hands through it to rustle it even more, feeling the velvety sharpness of Kira’s shaved undercut at the back of her neck.

Kira copies her, tracing her hands over Maeve’s face and neck to her hair, where she grasps Maeve’s ponytail and tugs, so that Maeve’s neck is pulled back and she gasps.

‘God I love it when you do that,’ Maeve whispers.

‘Oh, I know,’ says Kira, kissing her taut neck.

In retaliation, Maeve traces a nail down Kira’s shoulder then, lightly at first, increasingly harder, scratches Kira’s back. Kira arches in pleasure.

‘Shit,’ she says. ‘Harder.’

‘Even harder?’ Maeve checks, tracing her nails down her back again.

‘More,’ groans Kira – and then in one smooth motion, too turned on not to move against her, Kira flips Maeve round so that Maeve is now on the sofa and Kira is on top of her, her leg between Maeve’s.

Kira’s pressing her knee hard into her and grinds, Maeve gasping in pleasure and mirroring the motion with her own thigh against Kira’s, the textures of their jeans between their legs adding to the layers of sensation.

They keep moving hard against each other, Kira’s hands on Maeve’s chest, Maeve’s hands on Kira’s back, then grasping Kira’s buckle, pulling her closer, wanting to touch her.

‘Okay, wait, sorry,’ says Kira. She seems to be furious at having to stop what they were doing for a single second. ‘These need to come off now.’

Maeve enjoys hastily unbuckling Kira’s buckle, and Kira doing the same back, unzipping.

Kira kicks off her white boxers, and then groans fiddling with the lines of Maeve’s black pants, which takes longer to get over Maeve’s bandage.

They laugh together for a moment, but then Kira kneels in front of Maeve and they become serious again.

She’s kissing and biting up Maeve’s thighs, then presses her tongue into her.

Maeve groans, her head falling back into the sofa cushions as Kira’s tongue flicks, savouring how good it feels.

Maeve almost blacks out in pleasure for a moment, but then her hands, reaching into Kira’s hair, pulling her up.

‘Please,’ Maeve stops her, a flush of pink in her cheeks. ‘I want to touch you too.’

Kira groans, caught between two brilliant options, but returns to the sofa, kissing Maeve deeply.

Pressed against each other on the sofa, legs and arms entangled, mouths gasping together, they touch each other.

Kira says into Maeve’s mouth, ‘I want you to touch me like you touch yourself.’

Maeve closes her eyes, moaning as their fingers mirror the other’s smooth motions, tracing their wetness. Their bodies melt into each other, not knowing where one begins and the other ends. Each gets as much pleasure from the other’s as her own.

And then, sensing, their bodies shift as the waves of pleasure build, Kira moves the tip of her finger against Maeve and Maeve’s against hers – until both of them in the same moment slide a finger into each other.

‘Fuck,’ Kira gasps. ‘More. Harder.’

Maeve nods into her, using another finger now, then pins Kira’s hands down behind her so that she can concentrate on fucking her harder. To Maeve’s great satisfaction, it’s only seconds later that Kira’s face contorts.

‘Oh fuck,’ she cries, ‘I’m gonna come if you keep doing that, stop– stop–’

Maeve grins, enjoying feeling powerful.

Kira breaks free from Maeve’s grip, wrestling and jostling for a moment, until they finally agree in a position where they can fuck each other at the same time.

Maeve readjusts so that she can oblige, her thumb against Kira’s clit as she fucks her, and Kira in return is fucking her too, and the pleasure is so great that Maeve forgets everything else, left panting and desperate.

‘Not so cocky now are we?’ Kira whispers in her ear.

Maeve just groans, rocking against her.

‘God, I love making you lose control like this,’ says Kira. ‘That’s right, just like– fuck, yes, yes–’

And then they’re just saying yes over and over as they fuck each other, and they build together, until rapidly they’re both crying out, and feeling the other tense and pulse around them as they climax.

Then they fall back against the sofa, naked and breathing hard, spent by their exertions. They cuddle against each other, both shaking their heads and laughing gleefully, amazed.

‘Ah,’ says Kira, sighing happily. ‘ Now I’m hungry.’

And as if on cue, there goes the doorbell.

Maeve leans back naked on the sofa, her hair loose around her, smiling as Kira leaps down the stairs to collect their takeaway. She sips on her wine. She can’t believe she gets to spend her time off the pitch like this now. Relaxed, at ease, and laughing.

This weekend, her, Kira, Adriana and Jacob are going to go on a double date to crazy golf, and Maeve can’t wait to see how ridiculously competitive they get. It feels like a good level of competitive to Maeve right now.

Soon, Kira will be playing for a bigger league, and Adriana will be Captain of the Tigresses while Maeve is vice. She’s not ‘the best’ anymore. But she finally realises she doesn’t need to be. She’s never liked herself more.