when worlds collide [george russell]

Chapter 23

George and Willow made it to the track at 11 am, where already their ways parted. George still had a lot of stuff to do before he would get out on track at 5 in the afternoon.

Although very busy, they managed to get lunch in the hospitality together. After, Willow watched while George got ready to race and did some more reaction training to get into the zone.

Willow watched the race from the garage with her eyes focused on the tv the whole time except when George came it to the pits.

It looked like he was going to have another finish in the points until he DNFd 10 laps before finish due to a brake failure.

George returned to the pit box and left his helmet on until he was in his driver room with Willow.

„Fucking hell! It was going so good for us."

„I'm sorry, George! I really am. You drove a brilliant race" Willow said as she sat down next to him an pressed a kiss on his cheek and put her hand on his back in a comforting manner.
„You can leave this behind now tho. It's all about next season from now on and I'm certain you will get a lot better results soon."

George nodded and stood up to get out of his racing suit.

„I think from now on I'll have to give you a coin for every win instead of every point" Willow joked and made George laugh, getting him out of his disappointment quite quickly.

When he was changed, he pressed a kiss on Willows lips before they headed out.

„Thank you for being here!" George said and she gave him a smile.

Two weeks later it was time for George to meet Willows family. They drove to Brackley in his car and arrived on Friday right in time for lunch.

„It's so nice to meet you!" George greeted Willows parents and shook their hands in the entrance hall when suddenly his phone rang.

He took it out of his pocket to look at the caller ID.

„I have to take this, it's someone from Mercedes. I'll be right with you. Sorry" he said before picking up and taking a few steps away.

„Lets get the table set." Willow suggested to her parents.

„He seems nice." her mother said to her while the place the plates and forks and knifes on the table.

„He is indeed, mom." Willow assured her just as he came into the dining room.

George went over to Willow and place a hand on her back like he wanted to tell her something.

„This is very unfortunate, but they know I'm in Brackley right now and something came up and they asked me if I could come in right now" George explained.

Willow looked at him with disappointment at first but the gave him a forced smile when she told him he could go of course.
She was sad because she had been so excited for her parents to get to know him but she understood that this was important.

„I'm sorry." he said and gave her an apologetic look and a peck on the lips.

He shook the hands of Willows parents once more and apologized three times.

After lunch a message from George reached Willows phone: They said it will take until 6 in the afternoon. I'm so sorry, Willow. This is really not how I wanted this to go. I'll pick you up after to drive home, alright?"

Back in the car on the way to London they didn't talk much after George apologized a few more times and Willow told him it was alright, which wasn't quite true because she had thought about it and with George being extremely busy from next week on, they wouldn't get the chance to reschedule anytime soon.

Pre-season testing started soon and when George wasn't in a meeting he was in the simulator. Willow was also busy with Uni, which resulted in them both seeing each other only as many times as one can count on two hands over the span of two months.

When they managed to spend time with each other it was usually just Willow coming over to George's place, them ordering take away, getting drunk off of a bottle of wine and having drunk messy sex until George had to leave early in the morning again, leaving Willow alone at his place.

She hadn't expected his transition to Mercedes to be as stressful and time-consuming as it turned out to be.