Where life leads us

Chapter 74

Tired, I turned to the other side and snuggled up to the chest of my friend, who put his arms firmly around me. From below you could hear loud screaming, which annoyed both of us, because we still wanted to sleep.

"They should shut up," Lando murmured. I only made a approving sound, because I was not able to do more. It was Sunday and also the 23rd of December, so you can probably still sleep in. But it took me a few minutes to be able to speak, that I clearly had from Uncle Antonio, who couldn't do that either. My parents, on the other hand, were both morning people, I and Lando could not understand such people.

I was almost asleep when Lando decided to keep sleeping: "No, don't go." Without opening my eyes, I wanted to grab it, but I only heard the laughter of my better half.

"Sleep on quietly, I'll go down to my family", he gave me a kiss on the head. When he walked out of the room, I had enjoyed my view of his buttocks and now closed my eyes again. If the men were allowed to stare at one's back, I was allowed to do it with my friend, and his back was really good.

Peacefully, I fell asleep again until the ringing of my mobile phone took me out of the beautiful dream: "Laura Russo Lopez, how can I help?" I hadn't looked at who had called me because I wasn't awake enough yet.

«Did I wake you up?», immediately I was wide awake. I would have recognized Claire's voice even in deep sleep and I was a bit embarrassed that I was still in bed. But she didn't have to know that.

«No», I tried to lie, «How do you come up with it?» From the other side, I could hear my boss's laughter, aware that she called for an important and serious reason. Because otherwise she probably wouldn't call me the day before Christmas, even if it was a Monday.

"First of all, you don't sound quite awake yet and you can hear the duvet. In addition, you always look who calls you», that was really embarrassing. I immediately knocked the blanket away and got up, even if this conversation was a torment for me, because I was not awake enough.

I stroked back the loose strands of hair: "I assume you didn't call to see if I was still asleep. What happened? Should I come to the factory?" The sighing on the other side did not bode well, which is why I looked around for my suitcase with my clothes.

"ROKit has terminated the contract, we no longer have a main sponsor," I hadn't expected that. Shocked, I settled back on the bed and just looked at the closet opposite me. I knew how important the money from our main sponsor was.

Overwhelmed, I tried to organize my thoughts: "I thought that was settled, they wanted to continue sponsoring us?" My head was almost bursting with questions that shot through my head so quickly that I couldn't remember them all.

"We thought so too," it came from Claire, "But I spoke on the phone with their board for a long time on Friday and today the mail came from their lawyer. The contract is terminated with immediate effect. The risk was too high for them that we will have another bad year and they don't want to invest further in the losers."

My stomach contracted, but I had to ask the question: "What does this mean for Williams, will we not be able to start?" Without ROKit we couldn't afford a race, not if it went on as it had stopped.

«We still have your list of sponsors, could you email me half of those names? I'll write to one half and you the other, we'll find a new sponsor. Williams has always been a survivalist and we will do it again this time," my boss assured me. But there was something else in her voice that I couldn't define, but it scared me.

But it was clear to me that she would never tell me what was going on with her: "Sure, I'll do it right away. May I talk to Lando about it, or when will you make it public?" I just had to be allowed to talk about it, because the fear for the team was already eating me up inside. Talking to Lando about it might help.