beautiful mistake - joe burrow

11

The evening with Celine had ended much too quickly and that although they had come home only at 2 and both had drunk enough drinks. The consequences forced Elle to stay in bed after waking up the next morning.

Her head had the weight of a concrete block and she swore she could feel her heart pounding in her head, while her stomach felt like the worst kind of indigestion one could have. So eating would be out of the question for now.

As she pushed the covers away, feeling far too warm, she wondered how she had even managed to change last night. She scanned the nightstand with her hand for her cell phone, throwing down the alarm clock as she did so, and groaned as the loud thud made her head hurt even worse.

She found her phone and looked at the screen, groaning again at the brightness and turned it darker. Only one message had come through to her. Celine.

"No more alcohol! I swear to you! Javier made me go hiking this morning, every step feels like I'm dying, ugh"

Elle had to grin. Javier had two big obsessions, finance, honestly, Elle didn't know herself how he could talk about it so delightedly for hour, and nature. He loved spending time outside and so was always hiking on Sundays, forcing Celine to come along most of the time.

Elle had been along a time or two as well, and she had actually quite enjoyed it. Unlike Celine, she had the physical condition and strength to keep up with Javier's pace, and while Elle and Javier chatted comfortably the whole way, after half an hour Celine sounded like she was about to be given a respirator.

However, since Elle was working and Sundays were her only day off, she tended to use it to spruce up her apartment, see her family or friends, and for other things she just didn't have time for during the week.

Still, she missed spending time in nature. It had always been a change of pace, especially when it came to the exam periods and she spent most of her free time in front of her laptop or on the couch with study notes. Spending Sundays away from the screen and stress marveling at the beauties of nature had done her extreme good.

Just as she was about to reply to Celine, another message popped up on her screen. Javier had sent her a picture of Celine sitting on a bench in the middle of a forest, sleeping.

Grinning, she replied that he should please make sure Celine was drinking enough fluids, since last night had gone pretty well, before she finally got out of bed herself.

In her bathroom she looked for the aspirin pills, swallowed one of them and then got into the shower.

She felt much better when she got out of the bathroom. The pill was having an effect. Her head felt somewhat normal again, and her stomach was no longer causing her any problems. She still didn't want to eat for safety's sake.

She sat down on the couch and picked up her cell phone. After scrolling through Instagram for a few minutes, she decided to call her mother, as she did almost every Sunday.

In the past, she had tried to drive home to Mansfield for the weekend as often as possible. The car ride took about 3 hours, but since she had to work Saturday, it just wasn't possible to make the trip home.

"Hello my darling" her mom picked up after the second ring. "Hey mom, how are you?" Elle asked smiling. "Oh, you know how we are. We miss you at our house. your brothers are coming over for dinner tonight. Eric is bringing Leila again, really nice girl, too bad you haven't met her yet."

Her eldest brother Eric was now 28 and her mother was desperate because, unlike her other brother Easton, he was not yet married.

But for a two months now Eric had a new girlfriend. Leila worked in the same company as he did, they both were in marketing and Elle's mother was really raving about her new future daughter-in-law.

Elle unfortunately hadn't had the chance to meet Leila yet, as Eric had only brought her to the family dinner when Elle had already been working for the Bengals and hadn't been home since.

She got along perfectly with Tammy, Easton's wife and mother of his son Ian, Elle's 2-year-old nephew and the sweetest creature she had ever seen. Easton and Tammy knew each other from high school, had gotten together at 17 and were now married with child 9 years later.

Tammy was also the one who told Elle about how Leila really seemed quite nice, yet shy, but she assumed the three of them would get along great and was looking forward to going on a girls' trip with Elle and her sometime when Elle had another weekend off.

"When are you ever coming home, sweetie? It's been over a month now since we've seen you. Ian still asks where Aunt Lele is every Sunday" her mother sighed sadly.

Elle's heart grew heavy. She knew how much her mother enjoyed Sunday dinners with the whole family, how much she loved that Easton and Eric lived less than 20 minutes away so she could visit her sons and her grandson, who was her pride and joy, as often as she wanted.

Just as much, though, she hated that Elle lived nearly three hours away, worked most of the time, and didn't come home as often. She had always been the kind of person who was happiest when she had the whole family around her. Being the reason why that wasn't possible anymore plagued Elle every time she called.

"You know I would get in my car and come right now if I had the time, but that's just not possible in the next week, mom. Preseason is the hardest time for us, we're already working more than we should be and as of this week we're missing Nick too because he has Corona. I can't just take the weekend off."

"Nick? Oh God, is he okay?" her mother asked worriedly. "Yes, don't worry, he's hardly showing any symptoms, I've been in regular contact with him, well via cell phone of course" "that's good" her mother exhaled in relief.

"How long is this preseason going to go on? When can I finally see my daughter again?" she then asked. "At least four more weeks. Training camp starts Wednesday in a week, so it's going to be extra long hours again, maybe I can make it over after that, but I can't promise you anything, mom" the guilty conscience spread through Elle.

"You know, I feel like I'm going back to when your dad was coach. He could never tell me the next time he had a day off for the family" "I'm sorry mom, but you know you can come see me in Cincinnati anytime. My doors are always open to any of you"

"So if you're not going to come home all next month, then I guess I'll just have to come. Who knows maybe I'll even bring Tammy and Ian, and Leila, you'll get to meet her too!" Elle laughed. "I'd love to, mom, and you'd better bring Dad too, Nick sends his regards and says Dad should come see him again sometime. Just let me know before you go, and you can come visit"

They talked for another hour. Her mother told Elle the latest gossip she had overheard while shopping, while Elle told of her evening with Celine. Finally, Elle asked to give greetings to everyone when her mother had dinner together tonight and to give Ian one big hug from Elle before promising her mother that she would take care not to overwork herself and that she would let herself rest once in a while.

"Love you mom" Elle said before hanging up.

Thank you so much for 3k reads 🙊

Question: Besides football, are there any other sports you follow or maybe play yourself?

My answer: Yes, I played soccer for a long time and I like to watch handball (I don't know if that's a big thing in the US).

Comment your answer and maybe a question for the next chapter!!

WHO-DEY 🧡