beautiful mistake - joe burrow

17

Elle hated that she had to go to the facility on Saturday. It was deserted because the only players who needed care were those who had a health check today. There were a few who did their workouts in the facility gym to stay fit, but unlike usual, an athletic trainer was only on call in case something happened.

For today, that applied to Elle. Paul and she were the only ones working on site today, the rest were in the home office and since Elle had never done a health check before and needed the introduction to it first, but there was no time for that today, Paul took over while Elle sat in the conference room with the phone on her lap in case someone needed her, analyzing the health check data.

It was ok, unlike the last few days, she didn't have anything to do consistently since she had to wait for Paul to send her new data each time, so she could do other things on the side.

It was just after lunch when the phone suddenly rang for the first time. Sighing, Elle answered it. "Simmons, here. Tell me where you got a problem?" she asked. "Simmons? Hey, it's Sam! We're in room 206 and Mike's complaining of thigh problems. Will you come check it out for a minute?" Sam greeted her. "On my way" Elle replied.

"Simmons, what are you doing here?" Ja'Marr beamed at her as she entered training room 206, which contained about five players. "I'm...working?" Elle replied with a laugh. "Oh, yeah, I remember. Saturday for Thursday. Nice to have you" "yeah, well, pretty great" Elle nodded.

"So who and where is the problem?" she asked looking around. "Here, leg press" Sam pointed to a guy sitting on the leg press machine. "Ok, hey, we haven't met yet. I'm Simmons, athletic trainer and emergency number today" she raised her hand in greeting before squatting down next to the machine.

"Mike Hilton. Heard a lot about you" the guy on the bench also raised his hand. "Already overheard that people like to talk about me, but nice to meet you Mike. So what's the problem?" she asked. "Uh...do they all have to watch this?" Mike asked, nodding his head behind Elle.

Confused, Elle turned around and sighed when she noticed all the other players watching her intently. "Guys, don't you have a practice schedule you need to get through? If not, I'd be happy to give you some drills" she looked at everyone warningly.

Immediately the boys shifted to some equipment. "And I see everything, so if you don't do it perfectly, I'll show you right now why I was nicknamed hell at my internship".

She turned back to Mike. "So where does it pinch?" she asked with a smile. "Right thigh" "ok, tell me if it hurts, ok?" Carefully she pressed around on the right thigh.

"Looks like it's just muscle tension. If you want and have time, I can massage it out for you. If not, I'll report it and you'll be treated next week" Elle explained after narrowing down the pain. "So if you could do it now, that would be great. But surely you have other things to do, right?" "not important ones. So, off to the couch over there" she ordered him.

"Oh, am I getting a massage again today too?" Ja'Marr asked as Elle unwrapped the massage gun that was in the emergency bag that was part of the on-call equipment.

"Ja'Marr, I don't massage people just for fun, I do it so they can perform better and not get seriously injured. So you better be happy if I don't have to massage you" Elle replied to him before giving a little squeeze to the spot where she located the pain. Mike drew in a sharp breath in confirmation.

"does it feel better?" Elle put the massage gun in her pocket and looked questioningly at Mike, who was sitting down. "yeah, like new. You really have magic hands" Elle laughed. "Thank you so much. Well then my work here is done. Great time with you guys, you did a great job on your exercises. I'm going back to my analytics now. I'm sure I'll see you again the next few weeks" she said goodbye.

The next two hours passed very slowly again. Elle had nothing to do, Paul only brought in new work every half hour, which she finished within ten minutes, and the additional analyses she had to do today were also ready.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and for a brief moment she wondered if it could be Joe bringing her a coffee like last time, but after her invitation to come in, surprisingly Ja'Marr stood in the room.

"Hey, I thought maybe you could use some company. I've got cookies too" he held out a package of cookies to Elle. "Sit down. Company is never bad" she pointed to the chair next to her laughing.

"How's it going?" he asked as he opened the cookies and held out the package to Elle. Hungrily, she reached in and took a bite of the cookie. "Slow and soporific. I'm going too fast, but well, I shouldn't complain. The next few weeks are going to be busy enough"

"You got that right" Ja'Marr bit off his cookie. "While we're on the subject, a bunch of us players are going out tonight. Is our last Saturday night before training camp starts next week and then the Season. We want to celebrate our last night of freedom. Do you want to come?"

"I don't know. Me among all the players? Besides, I'm tired from the whole week" Elle sighed "Come on. A few are bringing their girlfriends or wives or whatever, so you won't be alone with us players and besides, how else are you going to spend your Saturday night?"

"On the couch and falling asleep in front of a movie" Elle shrugged. "Alone?" Ja'Marr asked, giving her a look that looked almost pitying. "Yes, alone" "Simmons, come on. It'll be fun, and besides, it would be really pathetic to spend your last Saturday night of free time alone in your apartment"

"Ja'Marr, I really don't know..." Elle started again, but Ja'Marr interrupted her. "You'd get to meet a few more players and their partners. And if that convinces you, Joe will be there too"

Elle looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know why you think that would convince me, but I'll think about it, okay?" Ja'Marr stood up, pleased. "Great, I'll pick you up at your place a little after eight. Dress up, so party outfit, but not too wild, ok? If you don't come after all, write to me. See you tonight" with quick steps he disappeared from the room.

"Wait, I don't even have your number" Elle called after him sighing, but he already didn't hear that. Well, he didn't want to hear it, because Elle noticed what he was doing. She couldn't cancel on him, so now she was more or less forced to come along tonight.

It wouldn't be that bad. Ja'Marr was right, it was a good chance to meet some more players and even some partners. Since she hadn't had much contact with players for the first few weeks, it would be a good opportunity to finally make some contacts.

Besides, she had tomorrow off, so an evening out with a few people would certainly do her good. She wouldn't have to think all the time about how much stress she was facing in the next few weeks, and as Ja'Marr had mentioned, it would be the last free Saturday before training camp and then the Season would start, so she wouldn't be able to leave Saturday night that soon.

It would probably be the last time this year and for it only being the end of July, she couldn't pass it up tonight. Besides, Joe was there too, so it would certainly be good, she reasoned.

Sorry for updating so late but I hated the chapter so I rewrote it completely. Still not satisfied but well here it is!

Thanks for all the reads, likes and comments on all the chapters!

Question: do you listen to podcasts?

My answer: I'm not really into podcasts but I started to listen to a German one about the Bengals called german jungle and it's really good. It helps me to get details and information for the story. Maybe I will get more into it and will start to listen to more podcasts.

Comment your answer and maybe what podcasts you're listening to and what topic you would do a podcast about!

WHO-DEY🧡