In which the rookie Ben Gal falls for Cincinnati's number one quarterback.
Now that football season is upon us I thought it would be fun to write a little Joe Burrow story.
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Back in Cincinnati, reality hit hard after the serene days in Hawaii. The Super Bowl buzz had died down, but the media's fascination with Joe Burrow had not. And by extension, I still found myself in the spotlight, even though neither of us had officially confirmed we were together. For now, we were just....something.
It had been a couple of weeks since we returned, and although Joe and I spent a lot of time together, we hadn't had 'the talk'. That conversation where we'd define what we were and where we were going. I knew Joe cared about me, he'd made that clear in Hawaii, but there was still this unspoken distance between us, probably because our lives were so different.
One afternoon, as I was going through my email, I noticed one subject line that caught me completely off guard: 'Offer from Dallas Cowboys Cheerleading Team'. I blinked, rereading it just to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Sure enough, it was an offer, apparently the Cowboys had taken notice of my time with the Bengals and wanted to bring me on board as one of their cheerleaders for the next season.
I stared at the screen, a mix of emotions swirling inside me. This was huge. The Cowboys cheerleaders were iconic, and an incredible opportunity for anyone in the industry. But at the same time, it would mean leaving Cincinnati. Leaving Joe.
I was still processing the offer when Joe called me later that day, asking if I wanted to come over for dinner. It was the perfect chance to talk to him, but as I made my way to his house, I felt a knot of anxiety forming in my stomach. What would he say?
When I arrived, Joe greeted me with that familiar smile, pulling me into a hug that melted away some of my nerves. He was dressed casually, looking every bit the guy I had gotten to know away from the football field.
As we sat down to eat, there was an ease between us, like we were finally getting used to being just Joe and Alessandra, without the cameras or the scrutiny. But tonight, something felt different, like there was an unspoken tension in the air.
Midway through dinner, Joe put down his fork and looked at me intently. "Alé, I've been meaning to talk to you about something."
I froze, my heart racing. "What is it?"
He cleared his throat, looking uncharacteristically nervous. "I don't want to make this awkward, but I feel like.... We've been sort of dancing around each other for a while. I care about you, and I've been thinking that maybe we should, you know, make things official."
