41

Although they lost the Friday night game in Washington, nothing could spoil Joe's mood when they got back to the hotel that evening.

Since the game had been in the evening, they would stay overnight and not fly back to Cincinnati until morning.

He hadn't been allowed to play again, though he had joined in warm-ups and had waited at halftime for the coach to send him to change, but it hadn't happened.

Still, he just couldn't stop grinning since he'd woken up Friday morning, which was quite possibly due to the attractive atheltic trainer standing off to the side during the game with a shoulder brace and smiling at him constantly, who'd told him Thursday night that she'd give their relationship a try.

"Dude, can you actually stop looking so stupid? You'd think we won the game the way you're grinning" Ja'Marr, standing in the elevator with Joe, sighed in annoyance.

"Because in case you didn't notice, since you had your eyes on someone else, let me be more specific, Elle, the whole time, we did NOT win"

"Sorry" Joe muttered, trying to stop his grin, which he managed for a full two minutes. No sooner had they arrived at their floor and stepped off the elevator than he noticed the corners of his mouth go up again.

Ja'Marr rolled his eyes and stopped."ok, you're pissing me off big time, so now I'm going to give you a choice..." he nudged Joe to stop as well.

"...Either you tell me right now what's going on between you and Elle or I'm going to get my cleats out of my bag and beat the shit out of you until you lose that stupid grin".

Joe looked at his friend in shock. A bit violent, but understandable after a loss, he thought to himself.

Thoughtfully, he looked at his cell phone. Actually, he had texted Elle and asked her if she wanted to stop by his room tonight, since they hadn't really seen each other since he had left her last night.

Elle had actually replied to him.

I can't tonight, got some stuff to do ugh, sorry.

He sighed before turning back to Ja'Marr. "Alright. In my room in ten minutes" he suggested.

Maybe it really was time to tell Ja'Marr about everything, especially if things were getting more serious between Elle and him now, and if Elle didn't have time tonight anyway, he could just take the opportunity.

Besides, he wasn't quite sure how serious Ja'Marr was about his threat.

When Joe opened the door to Ja'Marr pretty much ten minutes later, Ja'Marr seemed to have calmed down a bit, because excitedly he pushed his way into Joe's room and settled down in the little chair in the corner, crossing his legs and folding his arms behind his head, beaming at Joe with a curiosity as if Joe were about to tell him what the eighth wonder of the world was.

"So go ahead. What happened?" Ja'Marr urged Joe to start telling. "Okay, so here's the thing: Elle asked me yesterday if we could talk, so I went to see her last night after she got off work, and yeah... we decided we'd take it slow and see what came out of it" Joe summarized in short words the events of yesterday.

"Wohoo, wait, I feel like I skipped the entire middle part between getting to know each other and getting together in a romance movie. Could it be that you've been holding out on me quite a bit?" Ja'Marr asked, offended.

Joe shrugged his shoulder. "Yeah, seems so" he muttered. "Okay, then tell me about the kiss. There was a kiss or it wouldn't have all come to this" Ja'Marr suggested.

Joe suddenly had to grin. "Ok, which one do you want me to tell you about?" "there were more than one?!" Ja'Marr asked, staring indignantly at Joe. Joe just nodded with a smirk.

"How about you just tell me the whole story? From beginning to end and leave nothing, absolutely nothing, out. If I somehow find out that there are gaps in the story, I'll get my shoe" Ja'Marr raised his finger threateningly.

Grinning, Joe began to tell the story of how Elle had to come with him because she didn't have her keys with her after the night at the bar, and how that had led to the first kiss.

Ja'Marr clapped his hands in delight. "I knew it, bro. I knew from the beginning that something was going to happen between you that night. I told you that's why I didn't come along. So you can thank me."

Joe just gave him a confused look before continuing. That Elle wasn't there the next morning. That she had been avoiding him and about the dispute when he confronted her.

Again Ja'Marr interrupted him with a loud exclamation of understanding. "That was the reason, which wasn't really a reason, why she wanted you to leave her alone. She thought you were being a cocky idiot again and she should be grateful that you kissed her."

Joe nodded and continued the story. How Elle had thanked him for his help that day after the panic attack. Of the clarifying conversation in which Elle had explained to him that she had only dumped him like that because she herself didn't know what the kiss meant and how they had made up.

When no comment came from Ja'Marr, just a grinning nod, Joe just kept talking. How he had surprised Elle that night before the game. How they'd gone out on the field to throw and how they'd ended up making out on the grass before Elle and he had that little altercation.

"Bro, you're unbelievable. First you do everything right and wrap her around your finger and not even two minutes later you almost break it again, that takes some doing" Ja'Marr grinned shaking his head.

"well, it seems to have worked somehow in the end, because like I said, the meeting last night came from Elle and so did the kiss" Joe shrugged with a grin.

"Wait, kiss number three was already last night?" Joe nodded. "Dude, how many kisses would it have taken for you to voluntarily tell me about it? Be honest, if I hadn't threatened you with my shoe, you wouldn't have told me, would you?" Ja'Marr gave Joe a condemning look.

Joe just shrugged his shoulders. "I get it, Joe. So that's how much I'm worth to you. Would you have told me before you got married? Before your first son would have been born, whose godfather I will definitely become, even though I may be the last to be told he exists?" Ja'Marr crossed his arms in front of his chest in a huff.

"Dude, aren't you exaggerating a little?" Joe asked with a grin. "First of all, you're still the first person I've told. Second, chill with the planning. Elle and I aren't even really together and you're already talking about marriage and kids? And third, why are you going to be the godfather to my first son?"

"First, ok, maybe I exaggerated a little. I'm honored to be the first one you've told. Second, Elle and you were made for each other, I told you that from the beginning. Well, I thought that anyway, that's why I'm planning so far ahead. And third, who else is going to teach your son how to play football? His parents, as far as I know, are both running around injured with braces and no one knows how much longer they'll need them" Ja'Marr replied, winking at Joe.

"Says the widereciver who can't get any balls caught" Joe countered and just barely dodged Ja'Marr slipper he threw at him.

Thanks for almost 30k reads and I just saw that the first chapter reached more than 2k reads, unbelievable!!!!

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