back on track

63. the one with qualifying

"Yeah, of course, she would love that, we all would"

.

"Omg this is so cool" Emma was dripping excitement as we sat in the McLaren garage. I had told Lando about the whole incident and to my surprise he wasn't surprised at all. He even told me that Carlos had talked to him about it and they were cool. I was guessing Carlos had left out the whole fight thing but I had filled the guy in on that too. He wasn't happy to hear that I had been mad over Carlos being with someone, but once I had told him that it had been Emma and a huge misunderstanding he had calmed down. So anyways, he had offered us to stay here with them and I had gladly agreed leaving Carlos the space he needed.

The qualifying session was on and we watched as the cars shoot to the track for the first phase of the session. No big surprises in the Q1. It had been really nice to see these little things the teams and drivers had done for the last race of the year. There was special lids on their helmets, special suits made for the drivers and a my favorite: the stickers Alfa Romeo had put on their driver's cars. Kimi's one that said "Dear Kimi. We'll leave you alone now" made my skin go goosebumps. It was also nice to see Mercedes honor Valtteri on his last race as well as the helmets on everyone's head.

Both Carlos and Lando were showing some real pace on the track. Both Ferrari drivers were absolutely flying on the track, and it was nice to see the battle between us and McLaren seeming to lean to us. McLaren would need another Monza weekend to beat us and I had a feeling that that wouldn't be the deal here, of course never say never. Red Bull seemed to have the upper hand in the championship fight so far in the qualifying, but they were also both on soft which was definitely something to keep an eye on. Both McLarens made it through and there was sighs heard around us. It had been close, too close.

"This is getting interesting" the girl next to me said and I nodded. It sure was. Around us were a lot of people and I could see Lando's family little behind me which made me little tense. I didn't know if they knew anything about me or if I should go and say hi but so far I had thought that it would be Lando's decision to make.

Little surprisingly Pierre was out from Q3, and I felt little bad for him but there was no time for that now as the two championship contestants were back on track. Q3 was more interesting. We could see the team player Checo was as he did everything he could for his teammate. It was getting hard to remember to breath as everyone was following their on team but also watching closely what was going on in front.

Max was on pole. Hamilton second for now and now we were waiting who was the one after them or even in front. Perez was still there, so was Lando and both Ferraris. Lando on third. I think everyone was expecting Perez to outqualify him but there was screams and claps around as he didn't. Lando was on P3. We got out of the garage heading towards the point where the drivers would be getting out and we could see the interview as our Lando was on P3. I couldn't believe it, it was a great result. Ferrari was up there too as Carlos was starting from P5 in front of Valtteri and Charles. We walked down the pitlane and the atmosphere was somewhat odd as the mood was waiting and there was congratulations going around for the pole but nothing was still settled just yet.

I could see a red suit walking towards me and my heart skipped a beat as I could see those brown eyes. They looked straight at me for a second before turning away walking past me without looking at me. My gaze followed the guy all the way to their garage before he disappeared behind the wall. I was still trying to get used to the fact that he wasn't there anymore. I had been so used to the way things were, no matter where I went he was there with me.

I needed to forget that for a while though as we lined up next to Lando's family on the fence keeping us from the interviewing stage. I smiled to his family and said quick hi, before turning my attention to the guy talking to the mic. I was so proud of him. I could see the big smile on his face and it made me smile as well. Soon enough he was excused from the interview and he walked to his family hugging his parents getting an applause from the crowd. He gave fist bumps to his sisters and got to me.

"Not bad" I grinned to the guy, and he pulled me into a tight hug.

"I would kiss you but I'm not sure how'd you feel about that" he smiled down to me.

"I think it's more up to you" I told him giving him a permission to do whatever he wanted. I knew that the cameras didn't show us on the screen anymore but for sure there was a camera pointing on us somewhere.

"Well, if that's the case" he smiled kissing me softly. It was a quick kiss but still long enough for people to spot. I could hear whistles coming from up. "Well that might have confirmed that to everyone" he smiled and I could tell he was happy that he didn't have to hide anything anymore. I turned to look to my side and found group of pretty surprised people looking at us: Lando's family, and I turned red.

"Uhm Lando" I told the guy nodding towards his shocked family wanting to disappear.

"Oh right, mum, dad, this is Sofia, my girlfriend" he turned to his parents. It was weird to hear him say that. His girlfriend. I offered my hand to her dad but was quickly pulled into a hug by both of his parents. I was a little surprised but tried to act cool anyways.

"Welcome to the family dear" his father told me and his mum looked like she was about to cry. I didn't know if it was because of me or the P3, so I just smiled and thanked them. Lando had to leave to change so I stayed behind with his family talking mostly about me, and who I was, how we had met and so on. His parents asked me to call them by their first names, which was more than good for me as I tended to forget to call everyone by their surnames as that was not the habit in Finland. The whole family turned out to be pretty amazing. I didn't feel any kind of pressure talking to them and was able to just be myself.

Soon enough I had to excuse myself though. I needed to find Carlos and tell him about the job. Yeah, fun right?

I walked towards the Ferrari hospitality finding a lot of familiar faces but I had no time to stick around and catch up as I needed to get this done. I was basically shaking as I walked down the stairs to the garage. I had no idea how Carlos would act and to be honest I didn't really know how to act either. I bumped into Cami quickly and she knew exactly what I was doing here, we had had a long chat yesterday evening about everything going on. 

"Hey, where have you been?" Charles made his way to me and I gave him a small smile.

"Hi, uhm we stayed at the McLaren for today" I told the confused guy.

"Okay, why?" he looked doubtful and I guessed that Carlos hadn't yet talked to him about anything that had went down between us.

"Lando's family was there and I watched with them" I lied to the guy who seemed to be happy with the excuse. "You know where Carlos is? I need to talk to him about something."

"Yeah, I think he's in his driver's room" he nodded towards the red door little further away.

"Thanks" I said slowly. "I'll be right back" I made my way to the door with my hands sweating and my heart had never beaten this fast. The way this made me feel was absolutely horrifying and I never wanted to feel like this ever again.

Knock, knock, knock. I knocked on the door waiting it to be opened. The seconds felt like minutes as I waited something to happen and finally the door was yanked open in front of me and I met those dark brown eyes. They seemed pretty surprised to see me. I couldn't see any hate there, just dislike and maybe a hint of sadness.

"Carlos" I didn't get a chance to continue any longer as the door was closed from in front of me. I could feel the eyes of the whole team on my back and I was too scared to turn around so I just stood there trying to breath steady staring at the door. I couldn't leave here without knowing I had at least let him know that I was planning on taking the job.

"Carlos please, I need to tell you something" I pleaded through the door but there was no answer and I knew that he wasn't the only one listening. "Look I'm sorry for being complete ass, but you need to listen to me" I told the guy. Still nothing.

"Fine. They offered me a job as Charles' comms manager and I can't take the job before I know that you can tolerate me enough to work in the same building with me, I can't and I don't want to mess up your career or make you feel uncomfortable, so if that is the case I won't take it." Silence. I knew what that meant, and I knew what I had to do. "Okay" I said quietly backing away from the door. I walked past everyone and when I said they were all looking at me I wasn't lying. There was weird questioning looks, sad looks and then there was Charles who looked at me like he had seen a ghost.

"What was that all about?"