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When Joe woke up at ten, he wasn't quite sure if the kiss had just been a dream. But he was lying in his parents' bed and could still feel Elle's lips on his. It couldn't have been a dream!

Happy, he got up and thought about stopping by Elle's to see what she wanted for breakfast. Outside his bedroom door he paused for a moment, what if she was still asleep? Should he just open the door very carefully and check? But surely he couldn't just burst into the room unannounced.

He knocked softly. "Elle, are you awake?" no sound was heard from inside, so he knocked louder. "Elle?" again nothing. Confused, he opened the door and bristled. The bed was made, the door to the bathroom was open, but there was no light on. There was no sign of Elle far or wide.

It was after one o'clock noon when Elle woke up. After waking up in Joe's room shortly after seven this morning, she couldn't help but flee his house. How had she ever let them kiss? He was her patient, her job, she should have remained professional.

She had cleaned up the room as best she could, packed her things and stuffed the shirt she had slept in all night into her bag. She would give it back to him washed somehow.

By the time she had snuck out of the house, the cab she had called had been waiting for her. She gave her address and hoped that Mrs. Conely, her neighbor, would already be awake so she could get into her apartment. On the other hand, she was sure that Mrs. Conely never slept past seven, even if it was Sunday.

She had paid the cab driver, gotten out, sprinted up the stairs, and had her fingers crossed as she had pressed her neighbor's doorbell. It had taken what felt like an eternity, but eventually the older woman's voice had sounded from behind the door. "Who is there?"

"Good morning, Mrs. Conely, it's Elle from next door. I forgot my key and I would need the one you have from me" Elle had called through the door. You had heard the lock being unlocked and when the door had opened Mrs Conely had smiled kindly at Elle.

"Good morning, my child. Why were you out so early?" she had asked as she rummaged in the dresser beside the door. "I spent the night at a friend's house and just got home" Elle had explained to her.

"Oh yeah. I was out a lot when I was your age, too" Mrs. Conely had sighed as she handed Elle the spare key. "Thank you so much. You're really saving my day right now" Elle had smiled gratefully at her. "No problem dear, that's what neighbors are for".

Now as she lay in bed, she wondered how this was going to go with Joe and her. She wasn't ready for anything serious, especially with Joe.

Sure, he was cute, extremely attractive and she liked spending time with him, but he was part of her job and because of that, there just couldn't be anything going on between them.

After all, she didn't even know if he wanted anything serious. Maybe he had just tried to take the chance that she would sleep at his place anyway and wanted to do a one time thing with her. In the end, she had been the one to close the door and end it all.

Yet somehow that didn't match the kiss they'd had. yes, Joe had his hands on her body and had pulled her pretty close to him, but he'd made no effort at all to get under her clothes in any way. Besides, she had felt so much affection and passion in that kiss that she could hardly imagine that Joe just wanted a one night stand.

She didn't even know if she would classify him as an ONS type. He was far too sweet and caring to drop girls after a one night stand, on the other hand, she hadn't even known him for two weeks and she'd been wrong about such things before.

Sighing, she stood up.If she kept lying in bed, she would only think about it more and that would drive her crazy in the long run. She decided to take a shower first so she could get the smell of the bar and party night out of her hair and maybe clear her head.

With wet hair and wearing her favorite sweatpants with an oversized hoodie, she then headed downstairs to the laundry room of her apartment building to put Joe's T-shirt and a few clothes that were piling up in her laundry basket into the washing machine.

She decided to spend the rest of the day sprucing up her apartment, on the one hand so she would have something to do and not have to think about Joe and the kiss all the time, and on the other hand because she knew she wouldn't get much done in the next week, so she could work through the current mess.

She sorted the remaining laundry into piles, thought about what she could put in the machine one by one, before cleaning her bathroom, working through the pile of dishes in the kitchen, and then cleaning out her refrigerator.

In between, she would take laundry down to the basement, throw the washed items in the dryer, and bring the already dried items back to the apartment. She folded the clothes, cleaned out her closet, and stuffed Joe's Tshirt into her backpack so she wouldn't forget it.

By evening, she had also vacuumed her entire apartment, freshly made her bed, washed, dried, and folded over five machines of clothes, dusted all the surfaces, and disposed the trash.

At eight o'clock in the evening, she picked up her cell phone for the first time and checked the messages.

Nick had told her he was negative and would be back at work tomorrow.

Celine had texted her about what she had done over the weekend and that Elle should get back to her sometime.

Leila had sent her new pictures of Ian. Her mother told her how much she missed her and that she was worried that Elle hadn't contacted her yet today. Sighing, Elle flopped down on the couch.

She wanted so badly to forget about Joe and last night, which she could only do when she was stressing herself out or lost in work, that she hadn't even managed to reply to anyone else.

Immediately, she wrote back to everyone. How happy she was that Nick would be back at work. That she had a good weekend and would call Celine sometime when she had time. How sweet she thought the pictures of Ian were and hoped she would see him again soon, and how sorry she was that she hadn't checked in with her mom today, but had just been stressed out.

She then made herself some dinner and turned on the TV. She would go to bed early tonight and once again get as much sleep as she could before what might be the most stressful week of her life ahead of her starting tomorrow, but somehow she was looking forward to it.

Stress meant she wouldn't have time to think about Joe, and if she also avoided him as best she could, the kiss after training camp would surely be long forgotten.

Sorryyyy, I can't just let them become a couple in the 21. chapter. Where's the fun in that? 😂
Hope you still like the chapter and thanks so much for 10k reads!!!!

Question: what's your favorite story trope in movies, books, shows or on Wattpad?

My answer: I really like the enemy to lover or strangers to lovers trope, don't ask me why 😂 my least favorite probably the typical high school trope with the prom queen and the nerd or the quaterback and the wallflower. It's just overused.

Comment your answer and tell me what you would say my story's trope is!!
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