beautiful mistake - joe burrow

62

Elle felt that Joe and her bond only grew stronger since he knew about her past. It felt good to be fully open and honest with him now, and she realized that Joe could also better understand one or two of her quirks.

That's why she decided it was finally time to take the next step. A week later, as they stood in Joe's kitchen on Monday night, fixing dinner that Jose had put in Joe's refrigerator as he did every morning, it burst out of her.

"I want to make it official" Joe looked at her in surprise. "What?" he asked, not quite understanding what Elle meant.

"Us. Our relationship. I want us to be a real couple, with funny pet names, holding hands and showing the others that we're happy. I want us to tell the team and the board members. I want you to meet my family and friends. I want your mum to finally meet me. I want...I want everything a normal couple gets to do" she sighed dreamily.

Joe stared at her in surprise for a moment before he started to beam and pulled her into his arms, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around in circles laughing. "Yeah, I mean, of course. I want...I want all of that too" beaming he placed her back on the floor and immediately pulled her back to him kissing her overjoyed.

Elle just giggled as they pulled away from each other and looked at Joe with a smirk. "About time, isn't it?" she asked with a grin. Joe nodded. "It was about time. I also don't think many will be surprised when we make it official" he replied laughing.

The meeting with the board members was scheduled for the next noon. It was rehabilitation day, which meant that no one was really stopped from important tasks. The meeting was organized by Nick, after Elle had called him the night before and asked him to invite all the important people.

Elle was quite excited when Joe and she were the last to enter the meeting room and immediately all eyes were on them. Besides President Mike Brown, his two kids who were Vice President Paul Brown and Katie Blackburn, Katie's husband Troy, also Vice President and Nick, Paul and Zac, there were all kinds of people who had something to say. PR Manager, Player Personals....

"Well, you two, what's so urgent that you call us all here?" Mike Brown smiled at the two as they sat down between Zac and Nick. "Are you guys planning on playing a game against each other again?" he added with a laugh.

Elle smiled politely, but then shook her head. "No, sir, that's not the purpose" she let her gaze wander around the group until it finally lingered on Nick, who just smiled at her encouragingly and nodded slightly. She cast one last glance at Joe before taking a deep breath.

"we wanted this meeting to share that...." she took another deep breath as Joe took her hand from under the table and gave it a light squeeze. She smiled at him before looking around again. "That Joe and I are a couple" she finished the sentence.

"Knew it" grinning Zac clenched his fist and laughed. The others in the round seemed a bit surprised, but no one said a word.

"We...we wanted to let you all know so that you can come to a conclusion as to what the consequences will be now. Whether we can continue to work together, whether it's allowed. Neither of us have any intention of our relationship affecting our work or performance" Joe stated before rising and Elle, whose hand he was still holding, followed suit.

"Elle and I are going to step out of the room now so you can talk openly and honestly about how we're going to handle this going forward. We figured that half an hour would be enough for you to come to a decision and then tell us. Otherwise Nick would get back to us and we would come back as soon as you were done" With Elle holding his hand Joe walked to the door.

"we'll see you later" He smiled at the round again and nodded confidently to Nick before opening the door and leaving the room with Elle.

"That..that went easier than I thought" Elle breathed a sigh of relief as they walked through the hallways towards her office. They had decided to pass the time there. "The hard part is yet to come" Joe sighed "The waiting".