Waves

Part 11

Guys, things are about to get r e a l interesting soon. Are you ready? I am!

Eve sat at her desk as she fiddled with the gold lined invitation that had just arrived. The Ohio Bar Association sent out invites to their annual Barrister's Ball, or as Joe referred to it—lawyer prom. Typically she would just go by herself, but since things had been slowly ramping up with Joe, she was toying with the idea of inviting him as her date. Flashbacks to their prior relationship played in her head as she contemplated calling him.

"Joe, I literally skipped Christmas with my own family to be with yours. I just baked cookies for Jamie Jr.'s bake sale. Why can't you carve out 2 hours to have dinner with me and my coworkers? It's important that I make a good impression." Eve followed Joe throughout the house as he rolled his eyes and played on his phone.

"Evie, tomorrow is only day off this week. I just want to chill. I'm not in the mood to go out and have to be 'on'. I'm sorry." Joe plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV as Eve stood over him fuming.

"Why is it that when you ask me to do something, it's expected that I come no matter how inconvenient, but when I ask you for two goddamn hours, you act like I'm asking for a kidney!" Joe stared at the TV stone-faced, cracking his knuckles. "You are impossible Burrow!"

Eve shuddered as she tried to push the old memory out of her head. One of the unbalances of before was Joe's reluctance to do anything related to her social life; only coming if it involved friends of his. She didn't want to put him on the spot, but the ball was the most important legal event of the year and she wanted Joe by her side.

Almost as if on cue, her phone rang. "Hey baby. How's it going over there?" Joe was in the middle of two back-to back-road games, both of which were airing on primetime. Thanks to last year's Super Bowl appearance, the Bengals had a record number of inter-conference games due to everyone wanting a piece of the ratings Joe brought.

"It's great. Arizona is beautiful and sunny. How are you? Jury selection going okay?" Eve was nearing the beginning of the Rooks trial and had been wrapped up in juror files for what felt like weeks. "We just finished selection this morning," Eve smiled, "listen, while I have you on the phone...I know you hate stuff like this, but next week is the Barrister's Ball and I was thinking—" Joe interrupted her mid-sentence as she was working on her pitch. "Tell me the time and I'll be there. I'll even wear a tux."

Eve sat quiet for so long Joe thought maybe the call had dropped. "Evie? Babe, you there?" Shaking her head, Eve sat up in her chair. "Yes, I'm here. You just caught me off guard; I was prepared to beg."

"No begging necessary. There's nothing I'd love more than to be there on your arm," Joe laughed, gearing up to ask for his own favor from Eve. "There is one small thing I'd like from you. Well, it's not that small, but I promise I can make it painless."

"Okay, shoot," Eve replied, typing in her RSVP on the ball website. "I know you're swamped right now, and I know you said you didn't want to return to football weekends, but since this week's game is technically a Thursday Night Football game...I was wondering if you could come out to Arizona for the game," Joe scrunched his face up with nerves as he waited for Eve's response.

"Thursday? As in the day after tomorrow?" Eve glanced at her calendar and evaluated what she had scheduled. With jury selection done, both sides would be finalizing prep; there was no need for her to do that in person. "I know it's super short notice, but this is going to be a big game, and I just thought it would be nice if you could be there. It's totally understandable if you can't make it work though," Joe said.