beautiful mistake - joe burrow

93

❗️please read the first paragraph at the end of the chapter, I need all the help I can get, thank youuuuu ♥️

After Elle checked Joe's knee the next morning, she sent him to Nick, who was in the training room with Dan, doing the injured man's recovery training. Joe was to tell him that Elle ordered him to do light exercises to stabilize the knee.

She would write the Injury Reports during that time, since that was her responsibility this week, and would put Joe on them, even though she was sure he would be fit and ready to go soon.

She checked the status of the rest of the injured and sent the list to Paul and Zac so they would know who was back to normal training and thus out of the ATs' jurisdiction as of Wednesday.

Joe finished just before her and waited patiently in her office while she briefly checked in with Paul to make sure everything was correct. Paul was pleased with her work, which is why he gave her the day off and explained that they would be working with a small staff tomorrow, Elle would only have to come in at noon because of it.

She thanked him, wished Paul a good day and went back to her office. After shutting down her computer and stowing her things in her backpack, she stopped by to say goodbye to Nick, accompanied by Joe, before heading toward the exit.

"I'll see you back at my place in a minute" Joe pressed a kiss to her lips before walking out of the building with a few minutes to spare and getting into his car. Elle, as agreed, waited the two minutes before walking to her car as well.

She was just sitting behind the wheel when her cell phone rang. Leila.

"Hey, what's up?" Elle asked as she tucked the cell phone between her ear and shoulder and buckled her seat belt.

"Where are you right now?" Leila asked, sighing. "In the car outside the facility. Just finished working, why?" Elle immediately noticed that Leila seemed stressed and not exactly happy.

"In that case, you don't know yet that you trend on twitter?"

"Excuse me?" Her phone almost slipped away as she sat up, startled. At the last moment, she just caught it with her hand and put it back to her ear.

"Please don't tell me Joe and my relationship went public. I figured there was too much risk of me being in the locker room" she sighed.

"Don't worry. That's not the reason" Leila reassured her. Elle realized that a big load fell off her mind. Relieved, she breathed out a sigh.

"Thank God, but...what is it then? I'm not in a skimpy costume anywhere this time, am I?" she asked nervously.

"No. Do the names Brittany Matthews and Jackson Mahomes mean anything to you?"

Elle sucked in an annoyed breath. "What did they do?" she pressed out between clenched teeth.

"So you know who they are, good. So from the beginning...." Leila sighed. "last night a video went viral on Twitter showing you standing with them. I think it was before the game against the Chiefs, right?"

Elle just growled a confirmation as she rested her head against the headrest and put her free hand on her face.

"ok, good. Anyway, the video shows you raising your hand to shut Jackson up and well, people on the internet are celebrating you for it. Apparently Brittany and Jackson don't exactly have a lot of sympathizers on their side, because all of twitter is posting about how someone should have silenced them a long time ago"

"So people don't hate me, it's good that I'm trending?" Elle asked, sighing.

"Well, that wasn't all. Half an hour ago, Jackson tweeted. He didn't mention your name. It just says „she was so mean to us and you celebrate her, the other way around I would have been hated on again". It's pretty clear that this tweet is about you and Brittany has liked and reposted" Leila explained.

"So what do they expect me to do now?" Elle asked.

"Well, first I want to know what's behind this video and what you guys have been talking about on the sidelines. After that, let's just see how this plays out for now. If Jackson and Brittany continue and try to make you the villain of the story, then we'll step in, make a statement. Before that, I would advise you not to say anything about this whole thing for now."

"Ok, yeah. I'll get that" Elle assured Leila before telling her about the conversation between Jackson, Brittany and her.

"so those two were rather mean towards you?" Leila asked in surprise when Elle finished.

"I wouldn't say mean, more like ungrateful and uncomprehending".

"Ok, fine. But I'm sure there are videos of that too. If there's video of you silencing Jackson, I'm sure someone filmed the other stuff too. So if they keep shooting at you, we're going to get you out of there, Elle. You didn't do anything wrong."

Elle sighed, "I know. I just don't want to start beef with anyone over something so unnecessary. Brittany and I, we stand for the same thing. Women trying to fight for their allies in sports. I don't want to stand against her"

"Even if she is visibly against you?" Leila asked.

"no. Even if we post a statement, I don't want to accuse her. I don't want a fight, no way" Elle clarified.

"Ok, that's your decision and I respect that. It's best we discuss this in person. I won't be in Cincinnati until tonight. How are you working tomorrow?"

They agreed to meet tomorrow morning, before Elle left for work at noon, to review the whole thing and, if necessary, formulate and release a statement.

When the conversation was over, Elle sat in silence in the car for a few moments. She had hoped to avoid as much confrontation as possible, even though she was getting more and more in the spotlight, but really she should have realized that every action had to have consequences somehow if she was constantly in the public eye.

After a few minutes, she started her car and finally drove off the grounds of the facility, on her way to Joe's house. His hug, that was what she needed most right now.

"There you are, finally. Where have you been? I thought you were leaving just two minutes after me" Joe stood up from the couch, relieved, as Elle stepped through the front door.

"sorry, Leila was just calling me. We had to work something out" sighing she wrapped her arms around his torso and pressed herself against him.

"That bad?" Joe asked worriedly, putting his arms around Elle as he pressed a kiss to her hair.

Elle just sighed against his chest.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Joe asked gently. Elle shook her head and buried her face in Joe's tshirt.

Sighing, Joe gave her a kiss on the top of her head as he rocked back and forth slightly. "Then you don't have to either" he murmured to her.

❗️OK I NEED YOUR HELP FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!! I WANT TO CREATE SOME (OBVIOUSLY FAKE) TWEETS FOR ELLE TRENDING ON TWITTER, SO PLEASE WRITE SOME TWEETS IN THE COMMENTS ABOUT THE SITUATION. For example: the team defeating the Chiefs and Elle shutting up Jackson and Brittany. Good times to stand the Bengals
SO TWEETS WHO SHOW SUPPORT FOR ELLE.
I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP!!!! THE MORE WE GET THE FASTER I CAN WRITE THE NEW CHAPTER

How's excited for the game today? Im really looking forward to it cause its the first game of the Bengals that I will watch since the Super Bowl and its only 10.25pm for me when its starts, so its not too late to watch it.
I hope Joe makes a better game the last week and we will win this time but Im pretty sure we will!
Who's watching it too?

thanks for the support and for 134k reads!!
WHO-DEY 🧡