beautiful mistake - joe burrow

24

"yo, Joe, I'm about to have my massage with Elle" Ja'Marr grinned delightedly at his friend and did a little happy dance. It was Wednesday by now, training was still going well, but Joe was still frustrated by the altercation with Elle, but tried to let it show as little as possible in training.

"Oh, great" Joe muttered, tying his shoes. "First time I've seen you react so unemotionally to her name. everything ok?" Ja'Marr sat down worriedly next to Joe, who only made a grumbling sound.

He hadn't told Ja'Marr about the kiss or Elle's sleepover at his place, so he couldn't talk about their conversation. "She asked me to stay away from her because she already has enough stress as to deal with my cocky personality as well" Joe explained without giving any more details.

"Really now? Is that what she said?" Joe nodded. "More or less her words" "funny, she was so taken with you on Saturday. I mean, no one missed the way you were grinning at each other. And when you guys were dancing really close I was pretty sure you guys were going to make out that night. That's why I let you guys drive back alone" Ja'Marr shook his head incomprehensibly, while Joe suppressed the urge to scream in Ja'Marr's face that they had kissed and that had set it all off.

"Do you think it has something to do with Michael? I mean, you said at one point that things were weird between them because you tipped her off that Michael might be into her, right? But, well, the way they've been having fun on the sidelines the last couple of days, it doesn't exactly look like Elle is uncomfortable around him" Ja'Marr pondered aloud and Joe had to admit, sadly, that he'd noticed it too.

For the past two days, she hadn't disappeared as she always did as soon as Joe looked to her a second time, but was laughingly watching the training with Michael by her side. They whispered constantly and seemed to be having a great time, which was a pain in Joe's neck. No sooner had she pushed him off, now she was throwing herself at Michael? Who was next after she dumped him? Ja'Marr? Sam?

"Joe? What's wrong with you, bro? Your face just got so angry and if you keep pulling on your shoelaces you might as well get new ones" Ja'Marr brought Joe out of his thoughts. "oh, just had to think of something" " something or someone?" Ja'Marr asked. Joe rolled his eyes.

"come on bro. Don't let Michael take away your chance to grab Elle, what does he have that you don't?" Ja'Marr tried to build up his friend. "Unlike me, Elle isn't annoyed with him and hasn't yelled at him to stay away from her" Joe finished knotting his shoes and stood up. "Have fun with the massage. I have a press conference to go to" he said goodbye to Ja'Marr and stormed out of the locker room.

"Hey girl" grinning Ja'Marr entered the treatment room where Elle had already prepared everything as she had to disinfect everything after T.B who had just been on before she was allowed to treat Ja'Marr.

"hey Ja'Marr, go ahead and lay down and get comfortable. Be right with you" Elle smiled briefly before spraying the disinfectant on the surface of the cabinet and wiping it off.

While Ja'Marr jumped onto the couch and sighed, crossing his arms under his head, she quickly pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, checked her messages, which she couldn't answer now, and put on some music from her playlist.

When she had put on the latex gloves, they had to wear them for hygiene reasons when they treated players, she rolled over to Ja'Marr in her office chair. "So, any areas where it's pinching or I should massage especially or just a little bit everywhere?" "A little bit everywhere, please" Ja'Marr said relaxed.

"You, tell me, what's going on between you and Michael? When you came to see us at my fitness check, the atmosphere between you seemed so tense, but now watching you on the sidelines like that, you'd almost think you were flirting with each other" Ja'Marr interrupted the silence, which was only filled by Elle's music in the background, while Elle started kneading Ja'Marr's legs.

"I don't think my personal life is any of your business, Ja'Marr. Besides, maybe you shouldn't focus so much on what's happening on the sidelines during practice, but rather on the situation, maybe you'd catch a throw or two better" Elle patted him comfortingly on the thigh as Ja'Marr made an indignant noise.

"But is it your personal life if it happens during work hours?" Ja'Marr asked with a grin. Elle sighed. "Since I don't have time right now to not spend my personal life during my work hours, I would say yes, but you're right, it's not really my personal life since Michael is my work colleague. So because you're so keen, no, there's nothing going on between Michael and I, we just get on well again and working with him makes the stress a bit better"

"You guys just get along well? Like Joe and you did?" Ja'Marr asked and Elle stopped and looked at him startled. "What did he tell you?" she fortunately caught herself quickly and tried to sound as disinterested as possible. Had Joe gone straight to his best friend and told him everything? About the kiss, the conversation, and her tantrum?

She hadn't even told Celine, who usually learned about every detail down to what Elle had shopped for the week. Of course, this was also due to the lack of time, since she was always working or sleeping when she wasn't working. She hadn't even had time to call her mother, only sending her short messages several times a day when she had a few minutes so she wouldn't worry too much.

"He didn't tell me anything. Just that you told him he was cocky and you had enough stress than to deal with him too. Took a lot out of him, I think" Ja'Marr told, shrugging his shoulders.

Elle was relieved. He didn't seem to know anything about the kiss, but that made her look like she had just dumped Joe for no reason.

"he knows why" she just mumbled as she continued to massage. "are you sure about that? He didn't seem that way to me" "he knows, ok? He knows exactly why" Elle rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Wohoo, ok. Well then, what's going on?" Ja'Marr asked, but raised his arms innocently, a bit intimidated by Elle's sudden change of mood. "Why don't you ask him yourself? Now change the subject or shut up, ok?" she grumbled at him.

"Bro, Elle's completely sensitive about you" after the press conference, which was pretty ok, Joe ran into Ja'Marr again in the locker room, who seemed to be waiting for him. "Why?" Joe asked, unsure if he really wanted to hear it.

"Well, I approached her about Michael, there's nothing going on between them by the way, she told me. Anyway, then I moved on to you..."Joe sighed. "Ja'Marr, why do you have to bring it up to her anyway?" "Because I care, bro, and because I can see how much it's bothering you" Ja'Marr looked at him pityingly.

"Anyway, she reacted all shocked when I brought you up, almost like she was afraid I knew too much, or something. Then when I asked her about why she dumped you, she suddenly got all pissy and said you knew, and then when I mentioned that I didn't feel like you knew, she got really pissed at me. I then wanted to ask, I'm just interested, so she told me to ask you and now change the subject or shut up" Ja'Marr shrugged.

"She said to you to shut up?" Joe asked in surprise, immediately having deja vu from the first training session where Elle had told him to do that too. Ja'Marr nodded. "the mood was gone, I was really afraid she was going to break something in my body, but well, the massage was good anyway" Ja'Marr shrugged.

"more importantly now, do you really know what the reason is?" he looked seriously at Joe, who nodded. "I know it, Ja'Marr. But the reason she has, it's not true. She just took it the wrong way and she's mad at me for it" "so you know the reason, but the reason isn't really a reason because it's not the truth?" Ja'Marr asked, confused. Joe nodded.

"and you're not going to try to clear that up?" "I don't think Elle needs me on her back all the time now, on top of all the stress, explaining to her that she's wrong. Let her calm down a bit for now and I'll keep my distance" Joe explained.

"Are you going to tell me what the reason is?" Ja'Marr asked. Joe shook his head. "The less you know, the less, you can get involved. It's between Elle and me, okay?" Sighing, Ja'Marr nodded.

Im in a writers block rn so it's good that I have written so much chapters before. I don't know how long the block will be and if it's affects the times im posting but I should have enough chapters for the next two weeks.
Hope you liked the chapter!!
comment something to get me out of the block please 🥺

WHO-DEY 🧡