Out Of The Blue (Sebastian Vettel)

24. The Lake

Seb poured Melissa another glass of sweet, white wine. He was drinking sparkling water as he was driving. He handed it to her. She thanked him with a big smile. The food had been delicious. Britta had arranged it all for him. He was the first to admit he'd be lost without his right-hand woman. He made a mental note to give her a small pay rise.

Laying down on his side, he propped his head up on his hand and looked at Melissa. So far this had been an amazing night. Everything was heading in the right direction.

"So tell me about yourself. Things I don't know but should know. How old were you when you met Joel?" he asked.

"Um, we met first day of secondary school, so we were 11. He had just moved to Brackley from Birmingham, whereas I was born and bred there. I lived there all my life until I moved to Banbury when I worked at Arden, then I moved to Manchester. Now I'm back where it all began."

"You and Joel are very close aren't you?"

"Yeah, he, and his family, were there for me during the worst time of my life. My parents were killed in a car crash when I was just seventeen. My brother had moved to Canada by then and I didn't want to move out there. My life was in the U.K. Christian and I had never been close anyway. It meant I was left alone as both my parents were only children,  so I have no aunts or uncles. Both sets of my grandparents had passed away as well. Joel's family took me in, gave me a home. His parents Clive and Sue, are amazing. His twin is great too."

"Joel's a twin? Wow, I didn't know that. Identical?"

"No, Jodie is missing something between the legs," Melissa laughed. Seb laughed too. He took Melissa's hand in his and stroked the palm gently with his thumb.

"So, summer break, do you have any plans?"

"Yes, funny you should ask that. I was talking about that to the others on the flight over here. We are feeling rather nostalgic so we are thinking about recreating one of our old holidays from when we just started working at Arden. We're going camping!"

"Camping? Gosh, it's been many a year since I did that. I spend my holidays trying to avoid the media. Maybe I should try camping in the middle of nowhere," he joked.

"We went to the Isle of Wight. You know if you look at the map of the UK, the island just off the south coast?" Seb nodded. "We caught the ferry over and pitched our tents at a campsite down the west coast. It was brilliant. It's so laid back over there. We had some brilliant laughs around the campfire. There was lots of alcohol consumed too. It was the best holiday ever! So yeah, anyway, we want to do it again. Get away from things for a week. The rest of the summer involves moving house."

"You're moving house? Where to?"

"Still in Brackley. We're getting a bigger place. Sophie's moving in with me and Joel. Joel's place is a little on the small side, and Sophie was having to move as her landlord is selling up so it made perfect sense for us to find somewhere together." Seb nodded. "What about you? Going anywhere?"

"Well, I'm heading back to Germany to spend some time with my family, not sure when though. I hadn't really given it much thought to be honest. I'll probably just decide on the spur of the moment." He sat up and shuffled closer to her. She leant over and kissed the tip of his nose, affectionately. He put his hand on her cheek and ran his thumb over her lips. She inhaled sharply, her skin erupting in goosebumps.

"All I want to do right this moment is kiss you," he murmured. "But we really must make a move. It's getting dark." Melissa hadn't noticed. She'd been too caught up in Seb. They quickly packed everything back into the picnic basket and headed off back through the trees to the car.