beautiful mistake - joe burrow

97

The days went by, the Bengals lost the last game against the Browns 16-21 and without Joe, as he was supposed to rest his knee for the upcoming play-off games.

Leila, who had given Elle quite a lecture after the publication of the posts, because Elle had put herself in the limelight without her consent, had managed in the past week that almost no one talked about the incident between Brittany and Elle.

While there had been countless articles online with headlines like "Catfight on the sidelines" or "Bengals vs Chief, that was the real fight in week 17," it had been pretty quiet from Brittany's side since it was published, and so Leila had also forbidden Elle from talking about it in interviews or posting anything more on social media.

Twitter and pretty much the entire internet had been on Elle's side, of course, but even the tweets had stopped in a matter of days after no recent news. However, Elle's follower numbers on Twitter as well as Instagram had once again risen to record levels over those days.

Now Elle was back in her old everyday stress with the job and planning the future is female and was glad that she had dates after the evening that were about a good cause and not about her name trending on Twitter.

It was Friday night and the wild card game against the Raiders at Paul Brown Stadium was coming up tomorrow. While Joe and the players only had walkthrough drills and independent workouts today, Elle had been at work all day today to get as many players as possible still ready to play tomorrow from the Injury Report.

She'd gotten home half an hour ago, had just given Joe a quick kiss hello, and immediately disappeared upstairs, where Joe heard first the shower and then the hair dryer.

Just then she came back down the stairs. She had changed her clothes. Instead of the sweatpants and Bengal sweater she always wore to work these days, she now had a plaid pantsuit with a black shirt.

"You're looking good. Are you getting dressed up for a night on the couch with me yet?" Joe asked with a grin. Elle laughed out loud. "No, that's not for you. Got another appointment" she grabbed her shoulder bag hanging in the dressing room by the door and packed her cell phone and keys.

"At this time?" Joe glanced at his watch. It was already seven-thirty, and he was actually looking forward to a nice, cozy evening on the couch with Elle so he could really wind down before tomorrow.

"Yeah, is the only time Julia and I are able to" Elle explained.

"Who's Julia?" Joe asked in wonder.

"The woman who plans to turn the future is female from a campaign into a real organization. With scholarships and financial support for women in sports"

"oh, that's great. Why didn't you tell me this before?" Joe looked at Elle in surprise and Elle immediately heard the reproach in the undertone.

She shrugged her shoulders. "You never asked about it" "never asked about it? I ask you every morning what came out of the meetings the night before and you never mentioned it" the tone of reproach was now clear.

"Joe, what are you trying to say?" Elle asked directly, putting her hands on her hips.

"You're not telling me anything about your campaign. I have to drag everything out of you, or overhear you telling someone else. Why don't you tell me, Elle? I'd be happy for you" Joe looked at her with a sigh.

Elle shrugged again. "I have a feeling you've got enough on your plate. You're leading your team to the playoffs right now and you've had enough important games. I just don't think you're interested in what my campaign is doing"

"Not interested? Your managers and campaign people see you more often than I do in the evenings. Of course I care about the thing that's taking my girlfriend away" Joe rolled his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elle hissed tensely. She didn't like the direction this conversation was going right now at all.

"It means I hardly see you anymore, Elle. You work all day and when you come home at night, you're gone immediately because you have to go to some meeting. Do you know the last time we went to bed together? When was the last time I was still awake when you got home?" Joe had gotten up by now and was looking at Elle with a mixture of disappointment and hurt, but his voice was loud.

"I'm sorry I'm not here in the evenings, but the campaign takes up a lot of time and I chose to go through it to help women. You knew, we both knew, that it would take up a lot of my time, which meant I wouldn't be here as much" Elle fired back, her stomach tightening. She didn't want to argue with Joe.

"Elle, I'm just worried about you. I've seen what happens when you have to live with little time and a lot of stress. I've been there for two of your attacks. I know how stressful your job is, especially now that we're going to the playoffs" Joe's voice softened again.

"Joe, I'm 24 and I know when it's going to be too much. But it won't. I can take care of myself" Elle rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest "And don't use my health just because you don't like that I don't have as much time for you"

"I don't, Elle. I really care about you" Joe groaned. "Oh yeah, because if you really cared about me, you'd support me in what I'm doing" Elle sneered back.

"Elle, damn it. Don't talk shit to me. You know I like what you're doing. That I would love to help you, with anything. But you're right, I can't support this whole thing if you're going to risk your health in the process. It's not worth it"

"Wow" Elle whispered through tears that she brushed from her face in annoyance. "It's worth it to me, but it's nice to see I don't have your support".

She grabbed her bag and opened the door. "Elle, wait. You can't leave now" Joe tried to stop her.

"Yes, I can. Because I've set a goal to make a difference in the world, even if I don't have you behind me to do it, and I'm already almost late for my appointment"

"Elle, please, we should work this out before you leave" Joe called after her as she was about to pull the door shut behind her. Just before the door slammed into the lock, Elle stopped it and opened it a bit again.

"what's there to work out? I think you've made yourself pretty clear" her voice sounded cold, but the tears streaming down her face revealed that she was deeply hurt.

"And don't wait up for me tonight. I'd be home so late again anyway, you're already asleep, so I might as well spend the night with Leila. After all, she supports me in everything" with these words she pulled the door shut behind her with a loud bang.

She almost sprinted to her car, she didn't want Joe to catch up with her because she just couldn't take more arguing right now. As if in a trance, she got behind the wheel of her car, pulled out of the driveway and parked on the side of the road a few minutes later.

She leaned over the steering wheel and let her tears run free. How could the evening have started so badly?

Ok, so it's Wednesday and tomorrow is the next game against the Miami Dolphins but can we talk about the last game? WE WON, finally and shout out to the defense, they were incredible! No TD allowed and only four FG. It was so good! And the first drive of the offense, they scored three TD but two didn't count but wtf, I was so excited!!!! Looking forward to the game tomorrow!

WHO-DEY 🧡