beautiful mistake - joe burrow

13

Elle resolved to avoid Michael as best she could. She suddenly didn't know how to face him anymore, was afraid of still sending him the wrong signals. Or had he perhaps realized until now that Elle dealt with everyone the same way she dealt with him?

She was lucky, talking to Joe after training made her late for lunch, none of the others were around except Paul, which Elle had no problem with at all. While she ate her salad, she told Paul about the workout with Joe.

"Oh, by the way, did you know that Nick was going to a FC Cincinnati soccer match on Thursday with some of the players? As a sign of friendship between the clubs or something?" Elle started the topic low key.

"Well, looks like he won't be able to go. He's still stuck in quarantine, after all" Paul replied with a laugh. "Did Joe tell you that before?" Elle nodded as she speared more lettuce leaves onto her fork.

"He asked me if I wanted to go as a substitute, but I know we're shorthanded as it is and it's going to be a busy week, so I cancelled" she recounted before shoving the lettuce leaves into her mouth.

"Well, if you really want to go, maybe you can switch with someone. On Thursday some have home office since we don't have to be here that many at noon. If you can find someone to switch with, you can go to the game with the guys and just have to give me the analytics on time" Paul shrugged.

"Really now?" Elle asked in surprise. "Sure, you're quick with the analytics, you'll easily manage to watch the game and still do them in the evening. Wait, I can check who this affects on Thursday" Paul pulled the clipboard, on which the weekly schedules of the atheltic trainers were written, towards him.

"Well, that would be Roberto, but he specifically asked for that noon off so he could be there for his daughter's fourth birthday and...." Paul looked over the schedule. "Ah, here, Michael! You can ask him!"

Elle's features slipped. Of course it had to be Michael of all people, not even an hour after she had vowed to avoid him before she didn't know how to face him.

She quickly regained her composure and smiled gratefully at Paul. "Then I'll go find Michael and ask him right now. Do you know where he is?" she asked as she packed the rest of the salad, hunger was definitely out of her, but if she had a chance to maybe go away on Thursday with a few players and of course Joe, she wasn't going to pass it up.

Paul skimmed the schedule. "202, fitness check on Chase" he read ahead. Elle just nodded, mumbled only a thank you, and walked out of the room. At least she wouldn't have to be alone in a room with Michael, though she wasn't sure if Ja'Marr's presence wouldn't make the whole thing more awkward, too.

Well, at least she wouldn't have to tell Joe tomorrow if things got extremely weird, surely Ja'Marr would love to take care of that.

She didn't have anything against him, not at all, she found him very amusing and sympathetic when he had been with Joe for a massage last week, but to have Joe's best friend with her now, while she had to face the man she actually wanted to avoid because of something Joe had said, felt very strange.

She took a deep breath before knocking on the door to 202. After a muffled come in that sounded like Michael, she entered the training room, which was a bit smaller than the one she was training in with Joe.

"Simmons! Good to see you, am I getting a massage again?" Ja'Marr greeted her as she just walked in the door. "Sorry, not today Ja'Marr" she smiled apologetically at him.

"Simmons, what's up?" Michael asked as Elle turned to him. "I..uh...I'm not interrupting anything right now, am I? I just wanted to ask you something real quick" she stuttered, but couldn't look Michael in the eye.

"you're not interrupting" Michael replied. "Ja'Marr, we're going to take a short break, have a drink" he then called over her shoulder.

"So, what's going on? Are you ok?" Michael asked, suddenly sounding quite concerned. Elle just nodded. "I'm fine, I just wanted to ask you real quick if you would trade shifts with me. Thursday noon for Saturday" she gathered all her courage and looked him in the eye, but couldn't interpret his look. Did he really want something from her?

"You're voluntarily giving up Home Office Saturday for Thursday? Why?" Michael asked, surprised.

"I was asked to go to the FC Cincinnati game on Thursday with a couple of players instead of Nick, who is still in quarantine" Elle explained, leaving out Joe's name specifically for some reason.

"With a couple of players? That'll be cool" Michael replied smiling.

"You're going with us as Nick's replacement? Joe asked you? Man, that was my idea" Ja'Marr spoke up from the background laughing and Elle would have loved to give herself a facepalm. Thanks for that, Ja'Marr.

Looking back up into Michael's face, she realized suddenly how forced his smile was all of a sudden. "Burrow asked you this morning?" he asked. Elle nodded slowly, a bit worried what the reaction would be.

"Dammit, looks like I still had to manage to do that workout with him today to be invited to the game" Michael laughed and Elle immediately noticed how fake it sounded. Why was it only now that she noticed all the signals?

"But you're going to let her go, right? Come on bro, you have to let her go with us" Ja'Marr suddenly stood behind Elle and she wasn't mad at him at all, rather quite grateful that he asked the question.

"Sure, I'll let you go, Simmons. Being allowed to spend all the Saturday at home is a lot better than having Thursday noon off, isn't it? So it's a swap. Will you check with Paul to let him know?"

Elle just nodded. "Thanks" she pressed out, while Ja'Marr let out a loud "woohoo" and rubbed his hands together in delight. "you're coming with us" he winked at Elle with a laugh.

"I'll...be off then. Gotta get back to work. You guys too. Have fun" she muttered, smiled quickly at both of them and left the training room with brisk steps.

Only when she arrived in the analysis room and dropped onto the desk chair she took a breath. Joe really seemed to be right, Michael was jealous of him. Elle hadn't just imagined the change in his smile after Ja'Marr mentioned Joe's name, had she?

Perhaps Joe had slipped Ja'Marr something, and maybe that was why he'd put his name in on purpose? They had certainly had lunch together again today; last week at the massage Ja'Marr had told him that they actually did that every day. Joe had surely told there about how Elle had fled when he had claimed that Michael had a crush on her.

Sighing, she clasped her hands together in front of her head. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn't avoid him when they shared space in the afternoons most of the week and were at conferences together in the mornings.

Should she call him on it? Tell him it seemed like he wanted something from her? Maybe it was all just a misunderstanding and she was just being paranoid. Maybe she had only felt that his smile had changed because she had imagined it.

But what would she do if it wasn't that? If he really confessed to her that he was into her? Wouldn't their relationship get weirder if she rejected him?

She couldn't call him on it, that just wasn't possible. She would just have to keep living with the knowledge that Joe was probably right and try to be as normal as possible with Michael.

Thanks for 4K reads!!!🤭🤭

I'm a bit stressed today so I couldn't think of a question. Im so sorry

But if you want you can write questions in the comments and all the others and me can answer them

WHO-DEY 🧡