beautiful mistake - joe burrow

27

"Bro, by the way, I sent you a hilarious video on Instagram two days ago and still no response from you, did you even see it?" Ja'Marr asked as he waited for Joe to get changed after this morning's weight training session, as training on the practice field was about to begin.

"I cleared all social media apps so I can fully focus on training camp. I have a lot of catching up to do to be as fit as I was before my injury" Joe replied as he tied his shoes.

"All of them? Then you don't get to see anything of life outside of here" Ja'Marr stated in surprise. "That's the point, Ja'Marr. I don't have anything to distract me" Joe stood up and adjusted his knee brace again.

"Oh yes you do, here comes your distraction" Ja'Marr suddenly murmured to him. Questioning, Joe lifted his head and saw Elle who had just entered the locker room and was walking toward them. She looked fit again. Hair tied in a high braid as usual, dressed in sports pants and Bengals T-shirt. 

"Elle, girl, how are you?" Ja'Marr greeted her as she stopped in front of the two men. "Good, thanks. But I'm not here to chat about my health. I don't have that much time" she gave Ja'Marr an apologetic look before turning to Joe who was staring at her a bit surprised.

"I'm supposed to take over the check from you today for Nick, which was interrupted yesterday. Six o'clock in 209, ok?" she looked at him questioningly. Joe just nodded. "Ok, see you later then" she smiled at him first, winked at Ja'Marr and turned around.

Confused, Joe looked after her. Why was she being so nice to him again? Hadn't she been the one who had told him to stay away from her? Then why had she grinned so sweetly at him? Why had she agreed to let her take over his check-up?

"See, she's distracting you" Ja'Marr nudged Joe with a grin, who was still looking fixedly in the direction Elle had just gone. Joe just cleared his throat and shook himself out of his trance. "Let's go. I'm sure the coaches are waiting" he answered Ja'Marr without responding to his provocation and ran out of the locker room.

at a little after six Joe knocked on the door to 209. "just come in" he heard Elle's voice from inside and opened the door. Elle was standing over a table with an open file on it, which she appeared to be reading. "Go ahead and sit down on the table, I'll be right with you" she gestured with her hand towards the table without looking up from the file.

"Ok, so I don't quite know why Nick gave me a whole half hour to check you over, because reading yesterday's report from him it actually looks like he did everything before you were interrupted by me, but well, he's the boss" Elle flipped the file closed, pulled her latex gloves over her hands and stood in front of Joe.

"Had any problems today?" she asked as she removed the brace from his knee and laid it aside. Joe shook his head. "Okay, fine. If it feels wrong in any way, let me know" carefully Elle palpated the knee but couldn't find anything unusual.

"yeah well I can't detect anything more now than Nick did yesterday. Neither he nor I notice anything that looks or could become dangerous. As Nick had written in his report yesterday, just slow down a bit. Don't put too much stress on the knee, but also make sure you don't take a relieving posture and thereby put too much stress on the other knee, you understand?" Joe nodded as Elle went back to the table, taking off her gloves and tossing them in the trash before grabbing a pen and writing a few things down.

"well then, we'd be all the way through. Looks like we both have an extra twenty minutes" Elle looked at the clock on the wall. "Unless there's anything else I can help you with, kind of massage you or something, so if you want" she shrugged. "I'm good, thanks" Joe declined as he put the brace back on.

"Ok....then...maybe we can use this time to talk?" Elle asked uncertainly. Joe looked at her in surprise. "Uh...yeah, sure" he replied, sitting back down on the table. "What do you want to talk about?" sighing, Elle grabbed a folding chair from the wall, unfolded it, and dropped into the chair across from Joe.

"About what happened yesterday. I wanted to...thank you for being there" she began. "Oh...you don't have to thank me for that" Joe replied. "Yes I do, Nick told me this morning that you didn't hesitate for a second when you heard something was up with me. And not everyone sits next to me when I'm hyperventilating and manages to calm my breathing. It helped me to hear a familiar voice"

"Sounds like that happens a lot" Joe noted. "I mean Nick knew right away that you needed medication, anyone else would have called an ambulance" Elle shrugged. "It wasn't the first time Nick had witnessed it" "Stress attacks?" Joe asked. "Panic attacks, but yes, triggered by stress" Elle clarified.

"Considering what you've been working lately, it's no wonder" Elle laughed out. "Yeah, Nick has me doing mostly desk work in his office for the next two days for starters. I'm getting very few assignments with players so I can relax for now. He's also making sure I have everything I need in his office."

"He's just worried about you" "I know. This morning in the pre-meeting he announced that it's not going to continue with Michael and I always doing the night shifts. We are now alternating every other night and getting assigned someone different each time" Elle explained further. "That's not a bad decision from Nick, you shouldn't be working every night and barely sleeping" "yeah, maybe" Elle nodded thoughtfully.

"Sad that you won't be hanging out with Michael every night anymore?" Joe asked. "What, no, not at all.I mean, Michael's really nice and fun to work with, well, fun again, but sometimes he's like that annoying roommate you can never get rid of, even if you really want to spend an evening alone" Elle sighed, while Joe laughed.

"You gave quite a few people a big scare yesterday Elle" he looked at her seriously. "Tell me about it" Elle smirked. "A dozen people have come up to me in the last few hours and they've all said the same thing. They heard what happened, want to know what was going on and if I'm okay. Even Morgan, Kayla and Gracie were texting me last night as apparently the boys were telling them at home"

"can you blame them? It's not every day someone passes out at our house" Joe shrugged. "I know and I was going to try to finally stop being the topic of conversation in the locker room" Elle smirked. "Well, tough luck. It had gotten quiet around you, well, until yesterday" Joe grinned.

For a brief moment they were both silent and neither dared look at the other. Both knew that the unspoken hung in the air, making the mood tense and awkward.

"Well, I guess I felt I had to thank you for yesterday, because without thinking about it, you helped me right away, even though...." Elle broke the silence and sighed before continuing. "....even though I was unfairly so rude to you." Guiltily, she lowered her head and tugged at her braid.

"Oh, no, you don't need to apologize, Elle. I really wanted to hear from you that it wasn't just a simple kiss so bad, that I pushed you to change your mind" Joe clarified.

"But you were right, Joe. It wasn't just a stupid kiss...it was a good kiss. I...really liked it" Elle admitted softly. "Really? Then why did you run off in the morning? Why did you snap at me like that?" Joe asked, surprised and confused.

Elle sighed. "Because...I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to face you after that, what the kiss meant for you. I wasn't even sure if it was just an attempt for you to have a one-night stand with me. I didn't want to see you until I knew what it meant to me, Joe"

"So you've been avoiding me?" Elle nodded. "Yes, I have. But I didn't even have to try. The stress and the constant work wouldn't have let me talk to you even if I'd wanted to. Well, then somehow you found a way for us to talk, but I kept having an excuse through work to not find an answer to the question of what the kiss was for me, that I just snapped. I was tired, mad at myself and stressed out and I just transferred all of that onto you" moaning Elle ran her hand over the back of her neck.

"I guess what I really wanted to say, Joe, is that I'm really sorry. For everything. That I just walked away. That I tried to stay out of your way. That I yelled at you like that and that I still don't have an answer for you."

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