"Camden, will you tell Joe he has to eat something?" Allie calls from the living room.
I take a break from the keyboard and walk into the living room.
"Snitch," Joe mumbles.
"You haven't eaten all day," Allie starts to argue with him, but I cut them both off.
"Joe, you have 20 different meals you could be eating right now in the fridge," I put my hand on my hip.
He continues to stare at the game on the tv, "I'm not hungry."
"Quit pouting," I take the remote away from him and pause the game. The team had flown to Arizona to play the Cardinals and Zac and the medical team made Joe stay here.
"I'm not," he reaches up for the remote and I pull it away from him, "Cami, can I watch my team?"
"After you agree to eat," I give him a stern look and he sighs.
"I'm not hungry," he whispers.
"Allie," I turn to her, "Will you go heat up the chicken and rice? We need a minute."
She nods and goes into the kitchen.
"Joey," I sit on the couch next to him, "cut the bullshit. I know you're salty that you couldn't go, but you don't need to take it out on your sister. Or me."
"It just pisses me off," he looks up at the tv, "what if I see something? They won't know because I'm not there."
"Okay," I sigh, "you're my favorite person in the world. You're strong and you're resilient, but right now you're acting like a baby."
He sits in silence for a minute until something clicks in his head, "You're right."
"Apologize to your sister," I whisper and he nods.
"I will, I'm sorry," he leans forward and kisses me on the cheek, subtly grabbing the remote from me as he does so.
"It's okay," I nod and walk into the hallway, "if you need me, I'll be writing."
"Okay, gorgeous, talented, amazing, wonderful, brilliant, girlfriend," he calls out and I chuckle.
Continuing with the song I was working on before, I worked on the bridge.
And I can still see it all in my mind
All of you all of me intertwined
I once believed love would be black and white
But it's golden
And I can still see it all in my head
Back and forth from New York sneaking in your bed
I once believed love would be burning red
But it's golden
When I write songs that have a meaning behind them, they come to me easier. Like the lyric back and forth from New York sneaking in your bed was totally about Joe. Anyone with ears could figure that out.
I wrapped it up quickly though because I had an interview on my laptop with people who wanted to hear on the progress with the album.
"Camden Connors! How are you today?" The lady on the other side of the camera, Jenna, asked me.
I smiled, "I'm doing great, yeah."
"Wonderful," she smiles, "so I should just start with the big question, when is your next studio album coming out?"
"Honestly, I haven't completely finished the lyrics to most of the songs, so add time in production and recording, I'd say probably late 2024 to early 2025."
"Do you have a tour planned with it yet?"
"Um...we're still talking about it. I have a lot of personal stuff going on that will definitely influence some of those decisions."
"Personal stuff as in Elizabeth Porters baby, if you don't mind me saying."
"Yeah," I smile, "that's definitely a factor."
"We're so happy for her by the way."
"Me too."
"So when you're writing, do you think about anything, or does it just happen."
"For most songs, I just dump whatever I'm feeling and then sort it out later, but with some, I'm a lot more strategic. I think it really reflects in the end product which songs are what I was feeling when I wrote them and what songs I had to think about and take my time to perfect them."
"Is there anyone in particular?"
"Subconsciously, yes-"
"YEAH TB! WOO!" I hear Joe yell from the other room and I cut myself off.
"I'm sorry," I chuckle, "one second."
I leave the laptop behind and jog into the living room, "Joey, I'm in an interview."
"Shit, I'm sorry. I got carried away," he backs away from the tv and covers his mouth.
"It's alright," I chuckle and walk back to the office.
"So sorry about that," I say, and we both laugh.
"I'm going to take a wild guess as to who that is," Jenna jokes.
"Yeah, he's excited, anyways." I gather myself, "Subconsciously, yes there's always a person or a situation that I'm writing about. But usually I can't tell that it's about someone until a little while later after I've finished the song and I'm like 'Oh yeah, that's so obvious.'"
"You are such an amazing songwriter."
"Thank you."
"And I hate to ask you, but everyone wants to know, what's the situation you have going on with Joe Burrow?"
"We are in a relationship," I nod, "but we like to keep it private because we know how many people out there don't want to see it. And in the nicest way possible, it truly is nobodies business but our own."
"Thanks for sharing that," Jenna smiles.
"Off the record because I like you Jenna," I grin, "we've only been dating for two weeks."
"Really? It looked like you guys had been together for at least three months."
"We were just hanging out, and I think that's a big part as to why we're so comfortable with each other now."
"That's great, on the record, are you happy?"
"Dude, I'm freaking stoked. He's amazing, his family is amazing, his friends are amazing. I'm totally happy."
"Well that's wonderful," she smiles, "hopefully this album will be a little more romantic."
"Maybe," I grin and look over to my song book, its pages full of ballads.
Jenna asks a few more questions, but we're done with the interview in about thirty minutes.
By that time, the game was over and Joe was energetic and bored.
"You're playing Super Smash Brothers with me," Joe bursts through the door and I quickly shut the notebook.
"What if I don't want to?"
"Then I'll go up to the gym and work out," he throws the sass right back at me.
We both knew he wasn't allowed to work out yet, and we both knew he would defy orders if I didn't play a child's game with him.
"Come on," I groan as I stand up. I secretly loved the game, but I couldn't tell him that or we'd be playing it every second of every day.
We play for a while until it becomes time for his parents to be over. Robin promised to make dinner for the three of us.
✧
"So Camden," Jim starts from across the table, "how's he been treating you? Like a kid, no doubt."
"He's had his moments," I say, and Allie chuckles, "but other than locking the door so that he wouldn't go on a run, he's been fine."
"Yes, please, dog on me more while I'm sitting right here," Joe sighs sarcastically and we all laugh.
"Dad, did you see Ty's TD earlier? He barely had his toes in," Joe exaggerates, and the two begin talking about the game.
I silently ate my food, laughing or smiling when I needed to.
"Did you see Taylor Swift is at the Chiefs game?" Allie asks me and I smile.
"Yeah, I'm calling it now, her and Travis Kelce are dating."
Allie nods, "Oh for sure."
"Kelce? He doesn't seem the type of guy to date Taylor Swift." Joe shakes his head.
"Why not?"
He shrugs, "He's...kind of a jackass."
"Joseph!" Robin scolds, but the rest of us chuckle.
"Maybe that's her type, jackasses," Allie says, and Robin scolds her too.
"If they are or aren't, it's none of our business," Robin says, calming the table down.
'I'll ask her' I mouth to Allie and her jaw drops.
"Cam," Robin says, and I move my attention to her, "where do your parents live?"
"Pittsburg," I nod, "but they've been traveling, so they aren't home very much."
"Oh, that sounds amazing," she looks at me, genuinely intrigued, "are they somewhere, now?"
"I think they're in Iceland," I try to remember where Cowen told me they were, "my brothers work in Pittsburg, so they're home more than me."
"Brothers? I didn't know you had brothers?" Robin continues.
"Yeah, Cade is 34 and Cowen is 26. Cade is a neurosurgeon like my dad was, and Cowen does accounting," I describe them to her much like I did to Joe, "they are such good brothers. I quite literally wouldn't be here without them."
"Aw that's sweet," Robin smiles.
The rest of dinner was a breeze. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes to Allie and Jim and Joe found themselves watching whatever game was on.
"This might be naïve of me to say," Robin hands me a wet plate that I start drying with a towel, "but I haven't seen Joe this bright in a long time. I know right now he's going through a rough patch, but it barely affects him."
"Yeah, the team has been doing really well," I nod in agreement.
She chuckles and stops scrubbing for a second, "I'm not talking about the team."
I pause my motions and hesitantly look up, "Really?"
"Yes," she smiles, "he's been so open. He used to hate it when we came over, but now, he's been the one asking if his father and I wanted to have dinner."
I'm confident my face says enough because I stay silent, but she keeps going.
"I will forever be in your debt for making my son so happy," her voice cracks a little, breaking my heart.
Surely I wasn't the one causing such drastic changes. We've been dating for two weeks and yet it feels like more.
"And I know this is probably scaring you," she laughs and I join her, "but no matter where this goes, you will always be special to me."
"Thank you," I manage to get out without losing grip on my emotions.
✧
Later while I was laying in bed and Joe was in the shower, I decided to scroll on Tik Tok for a while. A video of Noah Kahan shows up and it reminds me that I need to text him back about that feature.
But I get to a video. Well it isn't a video, it's an edit. And in the background was Joes voice. After a scroll through the comments, I figure out that it was his Heisman speech.
So naturally, I went and watched the entire video on YouTube.
And boy did it make me emotional. I hated watching him break down like that. Part of me wished I was there with him, being proud of him. It had been four years ago, so things seemed different, except for some.
On his wrists were the same wristbands he still wore, constantly. Like, I've never seen him without them on.
I'm on my second time through as he walks out of the bathroom, and is immediately worried with the tears streaming down my face.
"Cami," he walks up to me and sits down next to me on the bed, "what's wrong?"
"It's your speech," I mumble, not even caring about how insane I looked or sounded.
"My what?"
"Your Heisman speech," I show him my phone and he grins.
"Why are you crying?" He turns off my phone and puts a hand on my face.
"It's so sad," another round of tears stream down my face, "you looked so, I don't know. But you're a really sad crier."
"Honey," he chuckles and scoots closer, "you're an even sadder crier. I don't know if that's grammatically correct."
"Me either," I wipe my tears, "I don't know why I'm so emotional. I think I just wish I was there when it happened."
"Well, you're here now, and that's all that matters to me," he kisses me on the cheek and walks over to his side of the bed.
I'm content for a second until a thought crosses my mind, "How are you so good with crying girls?"
"I have a little sister," he props his head on his palm, subtly flexing his bicep. He looked so good.
"You..." I squint at him and turn over. 6 more days, 6 more days, 6 more days, 6 more-
"What?" He says, scooting closer to me.
"Six more days," I glance over my shoulder.
He nods in understanding, "Six more days."
I turn off the lamp and roll back over to him, "Goodnight, lover."
"Goodnight, Cam."
⇜⇝
A bit emotional and angsty, but what are you gonna do?!
Tehe thanks for reading as always!!!!!!
I love youuuuuuuu!