Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

XXI

"Delilah, I swear to god, calm the fuck down. It's just a hoodie," Juliette sighed.

"From Pierre Gasly, yes. Your-"

"Shush."

"Just let me enjoy your romance, Juliette. Don't be a romance pooper, please."

Peter looked at Juliette with an impressed look on his face. "Is there something happening I need to know of? Red Bull? Pierre Gasly? Spill the tea, love." He took a sip from his pint. "I totally get the my-dad-works-at-Red-Bull, but I completely missed the Pierre Gasly part."

"You know how often you offer me your coat because I am cold. Why is this such a big deal?" Juliette groaned, annoyed. "Isn't it funny how every driver is having dinner with their team, but Lewis and Valtteri are nowhere to be found?"

Delilah and Peter began to laugh. "Change of subject, this says enough," Delilah teased.

"That's because we technically cannot live without each other," Peter smirked. "But yeah, it's funny. Lewis had to leave for America, and Valtteri had to go back to Finland for an interview tomorrow morning."

"Sad," Juliette mumbled and looked down. She still felt her cheeks heating up even more. She was plucking the skin on her hand and bit on the inside of her cheek. Her emotions were confused and lost, she had no idea how to feel. When Juliette looked up, she looked straight in the eyes of Pierre; oh, no...

☐

As agreed between Pierre and Edward Reynolds, Pierre showed up at Edward's office after the lunch break. Edward wanted to discuss some topics with Pierre alone, without the pressure of other colleagues. It was a few days after Silverstone; it was a beautiful day, almost too beautiful to be at the office.

Pierre sat down at the table in the office, Edward hadn't arrived yet. It was a question to Pierre why Edward wanted to talk to him in private. His eyes widened, he knows it... Pierre impatiently looked around and got up. He walked to the window and had a look outside. What if it is about that thing? A nervous feeling flowed through his body.

There were standing quite some photos on the dresser behind Edward's desk. Pierre's eyes fell on one photo in particular: a photo of little Juliette and young Edward when he worked at Ferrari, Juliette was sleeping in Edward's arms, probably while on track. She looks adorable. The other photos were family photos throughout the years. Dammit, Juliette. The last photo must be a recent photo of Juliette; she was wearing a bright smile on her face and wearing the Mercedes team clothes.

"My apologies for being late."

Pierre quickly looked behind him and faced Edward. "It's fine, no worries," he smiled politely.

Edward walked over to him and also looked at the photos. "I can't believe she's all grown now," he mentioned and picked up the child photo of Juliette. "I still remember the day Juliette got born like it was yesterday." Edward smiled. "Now she works at Mercedes."

"Yeah, time goes fast..." was the most reasonable answer Pierre could give.

"Almost too fast," Edward breathed. "Theo is becoming a father for the second time... I'm about to use the brake for the time to slow down a bit."

Pierre had a vague memory from Juliette, telling Theo was her stepbrother, but her dad adopted him when he was young. It all happened before Pierre got to know Juliette.

"When you get older, you will realise it, Pierre," Edward said and put the photo down. He sat down behind his desk.

"Isn't it odd for you to have your daughter in F1 as well? Julie...tte works at Mercedes," Pierre curiously asked. "It is not like you can share things with each other." He sat down on a chair on the other side of the desk.

Edward weakly smiled. "It can be difficult, because we both really like to chat and show things. I have to be honest with you, but don't tell anyone, sometimes it happens we share information on accident," he said and looked guilty at Pierre. "But we trust each other on not sharing nor using that information. I'm glad we work in the same world, we learn from each other, and I get to spend more time with Julie. I didn't get to see her a lot in her childhood. She used to live with her mother in France, I was everywhere, but nowhere."

It became clear to Pierre this wasn't about the thing he thought it was gonna be about.

"Let's say Juliette didn't have a pleasant childhood, and I still hate myself for not being there for her when she needed me the most," Edward continued. "She doesn't have a good relationship with her mother, and things escalated at one point. So because we work in the same world, get to travel a lot to the same places, I can catch up the time I didn't get to spend with Julie."

Pierre tightened his jaw, he knew exactly what Edward was talking about. He was there, he was there when it escalated, he was part of it. It still was a question to Pierre why Edward didn't remember him? "She's a good engineer," Pierre replied and forced a smile on his face. "Otherwise, she wouldn't win this much."

Laughter filled the office. "You're right," Edward laughed.

"I'm glad she managed to get back on track and started to fight for everything she wants," Pierre politely said; he really was, though...

"Anyway, this stays between us. If Julie finds out about this, I will not be your team manager anymore because it is most likely I won't be there anymore," Edward said and grabbed a folder.

A short laugh rolled over Pierre's lips. "I won't say anything."

"Good," Edward said. "Let's start on the serious business. I know it's a difficult time now, Pierre, but I will help you get through it, alright? This is happening behind everybody's back, no one knows about this meeting or will know about it. Don't listen to the others who are trying to make you look like less in this team, but they aren't any better. I believe in you, and we will do this together, yeh?"