beautiful mistake - joe burrow

8

❗️Disclaimer: First, I just wanted to note that this whole story here is just fiction. Even though I try to keep it as close to reality as possible and incorporate events and places as accurately as I can, I obviously have no idea about the relationships, personalities or backstories of the real people like Joe Burrow, Nick Cosgrey , Zac Taylor or Ja'Marr Chase.
Also, I have no idea what the job of an athletic trainer for the Bengals is really like, however, I have studied the subject extensively with the help of articles and videos before writing and try to give you a representation as accurate as possible with the information I have.
As I mentioned before, I have dealt with the Bengals, Joe's story, the NFL and football intensively and extensively before writing and hope you could see my effort to give you a story that is not too unrealistic.

The ringing of her cell phone made Elle sit upright in bed. Sighing, she fell back and pulled her pillow over her face while tapping the nightstand with her hand to turn off the alarm on her phone, but couldn't find anything. Only now did she realize that it wasn't her alarm sound but her ringtone.

She swung her legs out of bed and blinked a few times to get a clear field of vision. She then tried to locate the ring of her cell phone. It sounded like it was coming from the floor and when she looked down, she discovered her jeans, which she had just thrown on the floor before going to sleep, ringing from its back pocket.

Just as she picked up her jeans and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, the ringing stopped. Sighing, Elle looked at the screen.

Missed call from Nick.

So he had disturbed her sleep. However, when she looked at the clock, she was shocked to realize that it was now 7pm, so she had been asleep for over 5 hours, and was suddenly glad that Nick had woken her up.

He had also left her a message on her voicemail, which she immediately played.

"Hey Kiddo, Joe called me earlier and was all worried because you seemed so exhausted today and I overheard that Paul sent you home early. Just check in with me for a minute when you get this so I know what's going on with you, okay? We're all just worried about you."

Elle stood in the room speechless. Joe had been so worried about her that he had called Nick. How bad must she have come across this morning that he would do that? She quickly dialed Nick's number so she wouldn't have to think about it anymore.

"Elle, thank God, I was about to stop by your house" Nick took the call and sounded genuinely relieved.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Are you even allowed out?" Elle replied.

"No, but then I wouldn't have cared. I swore to your dad that I'd take care of you, well, ever since you became the problem child. What's been going on?"

"I just had a really bad night. Nightmares and insomnia, you know how it is from time to time" Elle explained.

"Pills didn't help?"
"no they didn't"
"is this happening more often again at the moment?"
"no, it was the first time in three months"
"would you lie to me about something like that?"
"no, Nick. I don't know why exactly last night either"

Nick sighed.
"alright, but you feel better now?"
"Yeah, I just got five hours of sleep"
"good, that's good"

"I must have looked really awful if Joe actually called you about it" Elle tried to joke.

"He really did sound extremely concerned Elle. He just said you looked totally exhausted and tired, talked something about your eyes not looking like they usually do. He was totally out of it about that."

"Wow, ok, well I'm definitely feeling better, sleeping has really done me good. I think I'm going to get some more work done and then go back to bed to be ready for tomorrow"

"Please don't overwork yourself, Elle. Tone it down a bit if you have no choice. You are doing a outstanding job, your report I got yesterday is perfect. They will be fine without you for a few days"

"we both know that's not true. Camp starts in a week and a half, everyone has to power through until then"
"Not if it affects your health, Elle".
"I can take care of myself, Nick"

"I hope you do. Alright, I'll let you work in peace then. And Elle, if you ever have those problems at night again, call me, ok? You don't have to go through this alone, and I don't want to hear from a worried Joe next time it happens again, do you understand me?"

"Yes, Nick, thank you. I appreciate that. Have a good evening." 
"Have a good evening, Elle."

She hung up and had to take a breath. Somehow she liked the idea of Joe being so concerned about her. She wondered what he had meant by the fact that her eyes didn't look the way they usually did. Why had he noticed that? Was there some truth to Ja'Marr's ribbing of Joe after all?

Quickly, Elle shook the thoughts away. She shouldn't let herself think too much about it. He'd told her this morning that he definitely didn't have a crush on her and that was okay, she didn't either, did she? Well, she couldn't get enough of the sight of his body yesterday, but that wasn't a crush, after all, just respectful appreciation.

Joe was nothing more to her than a patient she was treating, even if he was THE Joe Burrow, the Bengals' shooting star, the great hope. She was probably nothing more to him, either, than the athletic trainer who would get him back on the field.

If he was doing poorly, she'd be worried, too. She might also call Zac and tell him. She would also ask him to contact Joe to make sure everything was okay.

Joe and she had a friendly working relationship, one worried about the other sometimes, it had nothing to do with crushes or other things. She was sure of that.

She decided to get to work quickly before she got even more caught up in the chaos of thoughts surrounding Joe.

Wearing sweatpants and a too-big sweater, she snuggled down on the couch and set the laptop down on her thighs.
She sipped the warm tea she'd made in the meantime while looking at newly posted training data from various players, comparing it to old, creating charts and graphs, and then analyzing the progress. 

She was faster than expected, did more analysis in less time than usual, and finally emailed everything to Paul so he could upload it to the database that Elle couldn't access from home.

It was shortly after 10 when Elle decided to call it a day, closed her laptop, put the cup in the sink, which already had far too many other dishes piled up, and got ready for bed. She checked her messages one last time before turning off the light and lying down.

Is there any player of the Bengals you would love to see in the story?
I can already tell you that there will be a lot of players in future chapters (Sam Hubbard, Logan Wilson, Mike Hilton,...) but just wanted to know if there is someone you really want in.
Doesn't have to be a player, there will also be some girlfriends/wives/fiancés in the net chapters. Just tell me and I will try my best to put them in.
I will not bring Olivia (Joes gf in real life) in this story!!!

Thanks for all the love you sending by reading, commenting and liking 😊
I really appreciate that!!
WHO-DEY 🧡