A Second Chance

Part 2

"Watt? Like in Derek and J.J?"

"Yep, and T.J. too." 

"Woah that's actually so cool. You're the youngest?"

"Yep. Wouldn't trade it for the world too. You?"

"Third of four- all brothers. I would have loved a sister though," Jimmy said grabbing a foam roller before starting to roll out his arm. 

"What the hell are you doing? Do you not know how to roll out properly?" Jamie said, grabbing the roller from Jimmy but tripping in the process. Jimmy acted fast, catching her and saying, "careful Jamie, don't want you to get hurt here- I'd have to carry you to the doc's office and I'm not sure anyone wants that, especially you on your first day." 

Jamie instantly turned red, and those hazel eyes now glimmered, that smile turning into a little smirk. 

"Woah Garoppolo you couldn't even wait until her second day before flirting?" 

Jimmy and Jamie quickly turn, both red as strawberries, to see someone else walk in. 

"Oh my God, Gronk?" 

"Jamie!" Gronk yelled, the two quickly embracing in a spine-crushing hug. "When Brady told me you were the intern, I came over as soon as I could, but I see someone beat me to it." Gronk added, looking up at the newly drafted quarterback. 

"It's good to see you again Gronk! But you two better get going, doesn't practice start soon?" 

"Oh shit yeah- let's go Garoppolo. See you in a bit baby Watt." 

After Jimmy and Gronk left, Jamie sat in her office, working on a paper for her humanities class. About an hour or so later, she heard Jimmy limp into her office, "Hey Jamie? I think I twisted my ankle."

"That's not good- hop on the table and take your cleat and sock off." 

Jimmy happily obliged and let Jamie check out his ankle after she washed her hands. She felt around for a few minutes, asking him to push his ankle forward/backward after moving her hand from the top of his foot to the bottom. 

"Well I can assure you nothing happened. Are you sure you twisted it?"

"Yeah- I was running during a drill and next thing I knew my ankle gave out on me." 

"Jimmy- you didn't twist your ankle. Did you fake an injury to see me again?" 

"I needed to feel your touch again." Jimmy replied, making both blush. "But to be completely serious, I did tell Belichick that I twisted my ankle so if I come out and nothing he'll make me run 'till I puke. Can you help a guy out?"

"If I tape it when you didn't twist it, it will mess up your ankle." 

Without hesitation, Jimmy got up from the table and immediately twisted his ankle, making him groan in pain. "Now it's twisted." He said, flashing her a smile. 

"You are insane." Jamie said, before taping his ankle, smiling. "Jimmy you have to keep your ankle flexed in a 90 degree angle." 

"But it hurts," Jimmy replied, still smiling.

"Gee I wonder why- maybe it's because you twisted your ankle after faking an injury." Jamie said, scoffing "dumbass" under her breath. 

"I heard that, and that hurt my feelings." Jimmy said, frowning, but his eyes twinkling with laughter. 

"Alright there- all taped up." Jamie handed him his shoe and cleat before helping him off the table. 

"Hey uh- Jamie?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." 

"Of course Jimmy." 

"No I'm serious, thank you."

"I'm just doing my job." Jamie said, glancing up at Jimmy, his eyes still twinkling and his mouth now was in a smile. He bent down and kissed Jamie on the cheek, before saying, "ciao mi amor." before leaving back to practice. Jamie stood in the exact same spot, still trying to process what just happened. Looking at her clock, she saw practice still had an extra hour and a half, meaning she had to wait another hour and a half before seeing Jimmy again. 

---

Practice finally ended and Jamie finally finished cleaning her office and getting everything ready for the next day, remembering to turn on the ice machine before she left, finally figuring out how to turn it on. She said goodnight to Alyssa and walked to her car, still riding on the high from a few hours before. 

She left the building and walked to her parking spot, to see Jimmy was waiting outside the stadium, as if he was waiting for her. When he finally saw her, his face light up and the two had caught up on their conversation from earlier before reaching their cars. Jimmy and Jamie then exchanged numbers, and Jimmy pulled her into a hug and another kiss on the cheek before helping Jamie into her car and watching her drive off. 

He didn't wait to text her before driving off himself, knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep that night, counting down the seconds until he could see her again. Though she was 5'10'' (he did look her up and was shocked to find that she was one hell of a high school athlete- volleyball, basketball, ballet, and soccer. She held multiple state records and even a few national ones for volleyball and soccer. She had won multiple state competitions for ballet, and was a 4-time state champion in soccer. He was surprised to see that she wasn't a D-1 recruit for any sport, but it made sense when he read that in her last state championship game for soccer, after scoring the game winning goal, she was in a collision that had broken her knee, leading to a piece of bone tearing her ACL, LCL, and meniscus- practically rendering her unable to play at a high level again.) He was then shocked to see that in spite of all of what she went through in one game, that she still had a positive attitude and stayed around sports. Jimmy's drive home was shorter than it normally was, and the second he got out of the shower, he texted her- letting her know that he was icing his ankle like she told him to. Jamie let him know she was proud that he was doing the bare minimum, telling him to RICE it, and that she would tape it tomorrow. Before telling him goodnight, she told Jimmy that he better not hurt himself on purpose in order to see her, that if he wanted to spend time with her, all he had to do was ask her out on a date. 

Jimmy then spent the entire night coming up with a way to ask Jamie out on a date, before finally falling asleep around 3:00 a.m. after stalking her instagram and coming up with his plan.