38

"Zac, hey" Joe joined the head coach on the practice field after training. "Have you heard anything from Elle? I was going to check on her this morning to see how she was doing, but when I went to bring her the coffee, she wasn't there right then, so I just left it in her office. Is it something serious?" he asked, concerned.

Zac shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't heard from her either. Yesterday it looked like it wasn't anything bad. Nick and Elle assumed it would just be a shoulder contusion, but they wanted to do another x-ray and sonogram today to make sure nothing was broken and no ligament was seriously injured. I think it's a good sign if we haven't heard anything yet."

Joe nodded in relief. He had been really worried after he hadn't managed to check on her yesterday. He had changed and had another conversation with the other quarterbacks and Dan Pitcher, the quarterbacks coach, about the next game on Friday in Washington.

When he knocked at the athletic trainers room afterward, he was only told that neither Elle nor Nick were still there and no one knew what the checkup had turned up.

This morning he had only found Michael, of all people, in the small office, who couldn't tell him anything more than that Elle was definitely here and just had some lengthy appointment. She would have seemed pretty healthy to him, though.

Joe planned to check on her again later, but for now he would have to concentrate on training, because as Dan had told him yesterday, they planned to let him play the upcoming game for a few drives and he wanted to show excellent performance when he was finally allowed back on the field.

"Oh, by the way, you still have to sign" Zac brought him out of his thoughts and held out an orange cloth, as well as a marker. "Is this...?" "...Elle's jersey from yesterday, yeah. She wants everyone who played in the game to sign it so she can then frame it and hang it up" Zac grinned as Joe grabbed the pen and scribbled his signature on the back of the jersey.

She really needed to rub his nose in this victory, didn't she?

"Bro, tell me, you have to bring Elle coffee because you lost, right?" Ja'Marr sat down with Joe, who was changing after training. "Yeah, why?" Joe asked, taking off his Tshirt. "What would you have gotten if you had won?" Ja'Marr asked curiously.

"Elle would have gone on a date with me" Joe said casually as he cleaned out his closet. "Wait, really now?" Ja'Marr asked, surprised. Joe just nodded.

"Dude, why didn't you tell me before the game? Then I would have helped you win. For example, then I wouldn't have scored the winning touchdown" Ja'Marr groaned.

"Because that's exactly what we wanted to avoid. I wanted to win fairly, not because you wanted Elle to go on a date with me. Besides, you didn't even have to pretend, with all the balls you didn't catch again yesterday, it was really a miracle you even got that last one to a touchdown"

"Thanks for the pep talk bro" Ja'Marrr gave Joe a mad look, which only made Joe grin even more.

"so where do you guys go from here? I mean, you guys have made it this far already, you almost went on a date" Ja'Marr stated. Joe shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, I don't know. We'll see, I guess"

"Maybe sooner than you think. Look who just walked in" Ja'Marr nodded toward the door Elle had just stepped through waving at Joe before making her way over to him. In her hand she held the coffee mug Joe had brought her this morning.

"Hey Elle, looking good today, winning seems to really suit you" Ja'Marr greeted her, giving Joe a provocative look and leaving the two alone.

Joe just looked after him shaking his head before turning to Elle and bristling. "Did they change the dress code for ATs or do you not have a clean Bengals shirt anymore?" he asked with a grin as he checked out her outfit.

She was wearing short black sports shorts with a Bengals logo on them, pulled up to above her belly button and knotted tight. Along with that, a black sports bra over which she wore a gray track jacket with Bengals logo. For her usual long sweatpants and simple black shirt outfit, that was pretty revealing today.

(We all just imagine the sports jacket with it. Have not found a picture with jacket lol)

Elle sighed. "It's not exactly easy to put on a top with a bruised shoulder. I'm glad I even got the sport bra on" she shrugged.

"Bruised, then?" Joe asked. Elle nodded. "Luckily, it didn't bruise any ligaments. I just took some external damage" she set her coffee cup down in Joe's place and carefully bared her upper left arm. a huge bruise stretching almost from her shoulder to her elbow became visible.

"Fuck, that looks painful" Joe stared at the injury in surprise. "Luckily as I said, just bruised. I should be back to full duty in a few days" "full duty? Isn't Nick letting you work?" Joe asked in surprise.

"Yes he is, or I wouldn't be here. Well, he'd probably rather I wasn't either, but they need me. So he's got me on desk duty again" Elle sighed. "He comes by every half hour or writes a text to check if I'm okay. I wasn't even allowed to drive myself here this morning. There's a schedule now for who's going to drive me home in the evening, because I'm not allowed to do night shifts this week either"

"well, if you can't take the weight off your shoulder it is certainly good to take it as easy as possible. If you put too much stress on it, you'll only hurt yourself more" Elle gave Joe a smirking look.

"Are you playing athletic trainer now just because I was a better quarterback than you yesterday? Don't worry, I can't take your job away at all. So let me keep mine, okay?" she grinned at him. Joe laughed.

"I'm sorry to say that you really didn't play bad yesterday. Too bad actually that Logan had to hurt you at the end, I would have loved a rematch" he smirked at her.

"don't tell Logan that. He blames himself enough and has apologized to me countless times. Morgan even called me last night because Logan was apparently so messed up and she wanted to know if I was okay."

"Injuries in football are just part of the game. I can tell you a thing or two about it. But it's just stupid that a fun game like that couldn't happen without injuries" Joe shrugged his shoulders. "Well, at least it hit me and not any of you players, that would have sucked" Elle replied before looking at her watch.

"I should get back to the office. Nick's probably coming by for another check in a bit and if I'm not there he might go nuts. I'll see you tomorrow? After all, you have to bring me a coffee" Elle winked at Joe, who grinned. "I don't have any other choice. See you tomorrow then" he bid her farewell.

As soon as Elle disappeared, Ja'Marr reappeared next to Joe. "So, what did you guys talk about?" he asked curiously. "Nothing important, Ja'Marr. Just about her injury and the game yesterday" Joe turned to his seat to put away the rest of his stuff before he would straighten up for this evening's offense meeting when he discovered Elle's coffee cup was still standing there.

"She just left her trash with me" Joe lifted the cup with a grin. Ja'Marr eyed him as his eyes suddenly grew wide. "she didn't leave you her trash, bro..." he took the cup from Joe's hand and turned it. "...she gave you her number"

Thank you so much for 26k reads!!Comment your opinion on the chapter!!

Question: What movie can you watch over and over without ever getting tired?

My answer: All the marvel movies! They are so good and I'm so excited for the ones coming out in the next few years. And probably Disney movies especially Aladdin and the lion king, love the music! I almost forgot Dirty Dancing, I love that movie!

Comment your answer and leave a like!

WHO-DEY 🧡