beautiful mistake - joe burrow

14

The next two days were, as Paul had announced, very exhausting. The morning workout with Joe was the only fun part, and thankfully he didn't bring up the whole Michael thing with her again. Rather, he talked about how excited Ja'Marr and he were that she was coming with them Thursday and that the other players were excited to meet her, too.

With Michael, she tried to be as normal as possible, but always kept her conversations with him very brief and was glad that when they did analytics together in the room, they were usually so busy that chatting was impossible.

To make sure the other atheltic trainers still had time for their families in the evenings, Elle had pushed overtime the last two evenings, not getting home until after 10 p.m. and just going to bed both nights after a 14-hour shift before her alarm went off again way too early and she had to get up and go to work.

She lived on fruit, lunch from the cafeteria and coffee, plus the glucose Paul slipped her from time to time. but the exhausting next few days only made her anticipation of Thursday grow.

The alarm clock woke her up much too early, but after a cup of coffee and an apple, she got into her car in a good mood and drove to the facility. After a negative covid test, she immediately went into the conference room, listened to what Paul had to say for the day, and then quickly fled the room to avoid a possible conversation with Michael.

Joe was already waiting for her, as he was every morning, and grinned at her as she entered the room. They went through all the exercises that were on the training schedule before, as usual, they both remained seated to chat for a while.

"I have something else for you by the way" Joe said suddenly and jumped up. A moment later he held out a piece of cloth to her. "Here, we got these for today" curious Elle unfolded the piece of cloth, which turned out to be a jersey of FC Cincinnati. "We are all supposed to wear them today" Joe reported.

"oh cool, thank you so much! I was going to ask you anyway how we were going to do it today. Are we meeting at the stadium or before that in the parking lot or somewhere else?What do you have planned?" she asked as she lifted the jersey in front of her body. It might have to be a little too big for her, but that was totally okay.

"Uh, that's a good question. So Ja'Marr and I are going together, if you want we can pick you up too, then you don't have to drive and we don't have to kind of look for each other in the stadium" Joe nervously ran his hand over the back of his head.

"Ok, sounds good to me. I'll be home from like two, what time would you pick me up then?" Elle smiled at him. "About three? If that works for you" Joe suggested.

Elle nodded, pulled open her backpack and walked to the door. Before she left the room, she turned around. "Oh, you still need my address" she smiled, pulled a notepad and pen from her backpack, scribbled her address on it and handed it to Joe.

"Well, I'll see you later. Looking forward to it" she smiled sweetly at him and raised her hand. Joe stared at the note in his hand before looking at her, raising his hand and mumbling a "see you later. Me too" , which Elle probably didn't even hear since she was already out the door.

After a small lunch, Elle got ready for the stadium and was standing in front of her apartment building by the street at a little before three.

She had decided to wear a pair of light colored high waist jeans and her black Chucks with the jersey. Since the jersey was too big, she had knotted it at her belly so that it ended just above the waistband of her jeans.

She had her purse and keys in her small shoulder bag, and her favorite sunglasses were stuck in her open hair. Dangling from her arm were her bracelets, which she was not allowed to wear to work, around her neck she wore the silver necklace with the star pendant that had once belonged to her mother.

Elle was looking at her cell phone to check the time when a black Porsche pulled up to the sidewalk. The passenger door opened and Ja'Marr grinned at her. "Heyyy Simmons, get in" he got out and opened the back door.

Elle was about to thank him and get in the back when Ja'Marr stopped her. "I'm a gentleman, you can sit in the front" he winked at her, got in the back and pulled the door closed.

Confused, Elle sat forward and greeted Joe with a brief smile. "He's not a gentleman, I just promised him he could do the music if he sat in the back" Joe grinned.

The ride was a lot of fun. Elle had never been in such an expensive and fast car before, and Joe's one-handed, playing it cool driving style as they weaved through Cincinnati traffic made the experience very exciting.

To top it off, Ja'Marr was going off to his own music in the back, as if they were at a festival, but that immediately spread good vibes and Elle had to grin every time she watched him through the rearview mirror.

When they finally arrived at the stadium, they were of course allowed to park in an extra VIP parking lot, at the entrance of which they all had to identify themselves with their cards before the barrier opened and they were allowed to drive in.

They got out and Elle put on her sunglasses so she wouldn't be too blinded by the sun. "That's the first time I don't see you in a Bengals Tshirt" Joe remarked as he eyed Elle and leaned against his car. They would wait for the others before heading into the stadium.

Elle laughed. "Well, I'm not at work, so I don't have to wear that weird sign on my chest" she shrugged. "Oh, you don't like the Bengals?" Joe asked, grinning. Elle shook her head. "Sorry, I just can't like them, their quarterback is a real cocky idiot"

"Guys, can you stop flirting and just stipulate that Simmons looks good even in jerseys, unfortunately not a Bengals and not a number 9?" Ja'Marr rolled his eyes with a laugh and again watched in amusement as they both immediately took their eyes off each other in embarrassment.

Before he could make fun of it, two strong hands suddenly placed themselves on his shoulders and squeezed tightly."we're here" Sam squeezed even tighter before letting go of Ja'Marr's shoulder and giving Joe a handshake.

"And you must be the athletic trainer. Simmons, right? Sam Hubbard" he turned to Elle, who smiled politely at him. "My reputation precedes me, apparently. Nice to meet you, Sam" she grinned.

"You should hear the way Joe talks about you!" "see, he's raving about you" Ja'Marr clapped his hands in delight as the two guys behind Sam introduced themselves as Drew Sample and Thaddeus Moss.

"Ja'Marr, we've been over this! I don't gush over her" Joe rolled his eyes. "Oh yes you do, bro" Drew laughed and high-fived Ja'Marr. "Guys, you're bugging me" Joe sighed.

"It's ok, I can see why you have a crush on me. I'm just great" Elle winked at Joe laughing "no, I...." "wait a minute, you don't think Simmons is great?" Ja'Marr interrupted Joe laughing.

"No, that's not what I meant. I just don't have a crush on her, okay? I'm happy with her work" Elle had to laugh when she saw how desperately Joe was trying to come out of the whole thing. "nice try" Encouragingly, she patted him on the shoulder.

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Question: What other fandoms are you reading stories from? 👀

My answer: I read some criminal minds ones, some German soccer ones, some original ones (so no fanfiction, only original characters), some Marvel/Bucky ones and a Peaky Blinders story. 😅

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