preseason 2021:
Elle Simmons, fresh out of college, is the Cincinnati Bengals' new athletic trainer. Along with work, stress and the aftermath from her latest relationship, she's trying not to neglect her personal life too much.
Joe Burrow, the Ben...
Joe just nodded. "That's where friends from college lived. That's how we discovered the bar at some point and kind of fell in love with it" Elle shrugged before pulling Joe along with her. "Come on, I'm sure you'll love it. Appearances are pretty deceiving" she proclaimed.
Joe had to agree with Elle. The outside appearance of the bar was really deceiving. It turned out that the Secret Saloon was, as the name suggested, a rustic, Wild West style bar, but totally modern, comfortable and homey looking.
The yellowish, dimmed low-hanging lamps bathed the long wooden bar, lots of bar tables with bar stools in a dim light and reflected in the large wooden showcases, which contained countless bottles of various types of alcohol.
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But Joe couldn't really look around, because someone was already shouting Elle's name loudly through the bar. He spotted Celine immediately, knew her from pictures of Elle. Like a crazy person, she waved at the two of them and only stopped when Elle, a little embarrassed by her best friend's appearance, briefly raised her hand.
"Great first impression" Elle mumbled as she walked over to the table. "She seems to be in a good mood" Joe murmured to her with a grin, placing his hand on her back as he followed.
"Hey, Elly" Celine immediately pulled her best friend into a tight hug and squealed in delight before turning to Joe, beaming.
"Joe, hey, I'm Celine, Elly's best friend. Nice to finally meet you" before Joe could say anything back, Celine pulled him into a hug.
"And I've been given behavioral instructions" Javier quipped as Elle hugged him in greeting. Laughing, she shrugged. "We should have guessed she'd freak out like that" she murmured to him before turning back to Joe.
"Joe, this is Javier. Javier, this is Joe" she introduced the two boys to each other. "Javier, nice to meet you" Joe held out his hand. A bit overwhelmed, Javier shook Joe's hand as he stared at him as if Joe were an alien. "Joe, wow...I mean, hey, nice to meet you too. I...I'm a big fan" Javier stammered. "Got that already" Joe replied grinning.
They all sat back down and ordered their first round of drinks, no alcohol for Joe of course, when Celine started her cross-examination already. For ten minutes, questions about Joe's entire life shot out of her like the bullet from a machine gun.
Elle wanted to intervene after the fifth question, but Joe put his hand on her thigh and indicated with his gaze that it was okay. She had a lot of respect for him, because he answered every question with a lot of patience, never once coming across as annoyed.
Fortunately, Celine finally gave up at some point and seemed quite satisfied with Joe's answers and behavior.
Joe, who apparently still hadn't talked enough, turned to Javier. "So, what do you do for a living?" Elle drew in her breath. In a moment, Javier would surely begin his two-hour introductory talk about the world of credit and finance.
"I...I'm a financial advisor" Javier, apparently still overwhelmed after all this time that THE Joe Burrow was talking to him, stuttered nervously "Oh, cool. I also have a bachelor's degree in consumer and family finance" Joe grinned at Javier.
"You do?" Celine, Elle and Javier asked simultaneously, surprised. Joe shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, why? Am I not allowed to have a degree as an NFL player?" he asked with a grin. "Yes...but, I mean, I knew you got your master's in liberal arts, but you never told me about your bachelor's" Elle was really surprised.
Grinning, Joe shrugged again. "Was just afraid that you would then push your finazen on me" Celine and Javier laughed while Elle gave Joe a smirking look. "Don't worry, financially I'm very well advised otherwise" she nodded towards Javier.
"Javier, why don't you tell Joe about that investment thing you tried to explain to me last time" Elle gave Javier help to finally start a conversation with Joe. He didn't need to be told twice and immediately started to text Joe with a lot of technical terms with bright eyes and wild hand gestures.
To their complete surprise, Joe nodded in agreement and replied in words about as incomprehensible as Javier's.
"We would have kept them busy for a while" Celine murmured to Elle with a grin, toasting Elle's glass and taking a big gulp of her cocktail. "I think he's great, by the way" still holding her glass she gestured towards Joe. Elle grinned. Yes, Joe was really on his best behavior today.
I finally finished the sex scene that will take place in the next chapter🤫 it is always the hardest part to find good words for the pussy that doesn't sound to cringe so i hated the first outcome of the chapter and completely changed it again. But now it's down and you will get it tomorrow!!
Question for today: do you like these kind of rustic old bars like the one in this chapter or do you like like a modern/ fancy version of a bar like the pic here more? For everyone not old enough to legally be in a bar just answer theoretically lol
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My answer: i totally love old rustic bars (probably the reason I choose to create the Secret Saloon in the story 😂) because it's already looking so cozy and homey and i don't know just a fun place to spend a night with some friends. The fancy/ modern one is a bit too fancy for my taste. And probably expensive....
