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Elle felt that Joe and her bond only grew stronger since he knew about her past. It felt good to be fully open and honest with him now, and she realized that Joe could also better understand one or two of her quirks.

That's why she decided it was finally time to take the next step. A week later, as they stood in Joe's kitchen on Monday night, fixing dinner that Jose had put in Joe's refrigerator as he did every morning, it burst out of her.

"I want to make it official" Joe looked at her in surprise. "What?" he asked, not quite understanding what Elle meant.

"Us. Our relationship. I want us to be a real couple, with funny pet names, holding hands and showing the others that we're happy. I want us to tell the team and the board members. I want you to meet my family and friends. I want your mum to finally meet me. I want...I want everything a normal couple gets to do" she sighed dreamily.

Joe stared at her in surprise for a moment before he started to beam and pulled her into his arms, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around in circles laughing. "Yeah, I mean, of course. I want...I want all of that too" beaming he placed her back on the floor and immediately pulled her back to him kissing her overjoyed.

Elle just giggled as they pulled away from each other and looked at Joe with a smirk. "About time, isn't it?" she asked with a grin. Joe nodded. "It was about time. I also don't think many will be surprised when we make it official" he replied laughing.

The meeting with the board members was scheduled for the next noon. It was rehabilitation day, which meant that no one was really stopped from important tasks. The meeting was organized by Nick, after Elle had called him the night before and asked him to invite all the important people.

Elle was quite excited when Joe and she were the last to enter the meeting room and immediately all eyes were on them. Besides President Mike Brown, his two kids who were Vice President Paul Brown and Katie Blackburn, Katie's husband Troy, also Vice President and Nick, Paul and Zac, there were all kinds of people who had something to say. PR Manager, Player Personals....

"Well, you two, what's so urgent that you call us all here?" Mike Brown smiled at the two as they sat down between Zac and Nick. "Are you guys planning on playing a game against each other again?" he added with a laugh.

Elle smiled politely, but then shook her head. "No, sir, that's not the purpose" she let her gaze wander around the group until it finally lingered on Nick, who just smiled at her encouragingly and nodded slightly. She cast one last glance at Joe before taking a deep breath.

"we wanted this meeting to share that...." she took another deep breath as Joe took her hand from under the table and gave it a light squeeze. She smiled at him before looking around again. "That Joe and I are a couple" she finished the sentence.

"Knew it" grinning Zac clenched his fist and laughed. The others in the round seemed a bit surprised, but no one said a word.

"We...we wanted to let you all know so that you can come to a conclusion as to what the consequences will be now. Whether we can continue to work together, whether it's allowed. Neither of us have any intention of our relationship affecting our work or performance" Joe stated before rising and Elle, whose hand he was still holding, followed suit.

"Elle and I are going to step out of the room now so you can talk openly and honestly about how we're going to handle this going forward. We figured that half an hour would be enough for you to come to a decision and then tell us. Otherwise Nick would get back to us and we would come back as soon as you were done" With Elle holding his hand Joe walked to the door.

"we'll see you later" He smiled at the round again and nodded confidently to Nick before opening the door and leaving the room with Elle.

"That..that went easier than I thought" Elle breathed a sigh of relief as they walked through the hallways towards her office. They had decided to pass the time there. "The hard part is yet to come" Joe sighed "The waiting".

He was right. Even though half an hour didn't sound long, it felt like an eternity. It was driving Elle crazy to have to wait. Depending on what came out right away, she might be out of a job or not allowed to see Joe again.

Nick had been pretty positive on the phone call yesterday, though, and was sure that none of the people present would really be against it, especially since they definitely already had people on their side with him, Zac, and Paul, and Mike Brown didn't exactly seem like a person who would oppose their relationship either, but of course there was a chance that they would still decide against it.

The excitement from before had turned to nervousness for Elle as she made her way back to the meeting room with Joe, the walk seeming longer than usual. They knocked on the door to be sure they could re-enter, and entered the room after a muffled noise was heard.

"Welcome back. Please sit down" Mike Brown pointed to the empty chairs between Zac and Nick, each of which they had sat on before.

Elle tried to make eye contact with Nick so she could maybe already read in his expression what they were about to be told, but Nick seemed to ignore her gaze, which Elle didn't consider a good sign.

"So, you two, we...we've been consulting on the situation at your request. To get some insight, Zac, Paul and Nick described how they perceived the two of you in training or in joint sessions, with Nick also openly telling us that he was wrapped up in it from the beginning" Mike Brown continued his speech.

"Please, don't put this on Nick. I asked him to do it. It's not his fault he had to hide it" It burst out of Elle in a panic. That Nick might also be harmed, since he was her ally, she hadn't thought of that at all.

"Calm down, my dear, there's no one to blame here. Knowing that Nick, a very experienced and valued employee, was so sure that the relationship between the two of you would be good in the workplace says quite a bit about the whole thing" Mike Brown reassured Elle with a laugh.

"Also, while Zac and Paul reported that it had been noticed that you were closer, that in no way affected your work and performance negatively, in fact several times positively, and that you were a great support for each other mentally and emotionally, which is very important in this industry" Mike Brown took a breath before looking at the two of them with a smile.

Hope rose in Elle, it all sounded positive, didn't it? So far Mike hadn't mentioned anything negative or a reason not to, right?

It wasn't until Joe nudged her lightly that she realized she was almost crushing his hand from the tension. She quickly eased up a bit, looking at him apologetically, but also discovering the confidence in his eyes, before turning back to Mike.

"We therefore unanimously and without a doubt came to the conclusion that there was no reason why the two of you couldn't have a relationship, as long...." he raised his finger warningly, but smiled. "...As long as it stays that way, that it doesn't affect your work and performance, and you manage to separate personal and professional, understand?"

Elle would have loved to jump around everyone's neck here squealing, but that might be a bit of an exaggeration, which is why she just nodded vigorously and thanked them countless times.

"two more things though" Mike called attention back to himself. "if you don't mind, we'd appreciate it if you let the other players know, as well as the staff, so that there just aren't any problems here" Elle and Joe nodded, they were going to do that either way.

"Secondly, the question is how much do you want the club to make your relationship official? Are we allowed to show it on the social media channels? Put pictures on Instagram of each of you and let the fans know that we have an couple?" Mike asked.

Joe looked at Elle. For him, the most important thing was still that she felt comfortable about the whole thing, and he knew it was already a big and perhaps intimidating step for her to tell the board and the whole organization here and now.

Getting their relationship out in the open entirely, however, was an even bigger number. Joe had been making more and more of a name for himself by now, and if the press got wind that he was dating the team's AT, they certainly wouldn't stop to get news out of Elle either. He wasn't going to do that to her.

Elle returned his gaze and in her eyes he saw exactly what he had suspected. Fear, shyness, uncertainty. She shook her head slightly, barely discernible, to which Joe immediately turned back around.

"No, we don't want to make it official. We want to keep it internal to the team" he announced.

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Today I just have a question for future chapters. Is it ok if the story would have a sex scene? Do you want one?

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