The Bull Prince | Max Verstappen

SEQUEL - Chapter 10

"Yeah. In a few days. Alain needs my help. I can't leave him with all these vultures alone." The Austrian said a sad exhale audibly. Sometimes Joanna would love to put her head into the sand and just ignore the world, but the work only piled up in her office in Paris.

"Do you want a charming Aussie for company?" Daniel asked which caused Joanna to give him a look but, in the end, she shook her head. Daniel needed to go home. He needed a good hug from his mum and he won't get that if he came along with her because Joanna knew that Daniel was too loyal to leave her once he had seen the mess of paperwork she was in. So, she declined his offer right away after thanking him. Some time on her own with just her work would do her good, she knew it. Just some peace and no drama for once. Joanna would actually enjoy that, but before that, she had another race to win.

6th June 2019 – CANADA

Standing by the counter in the Mercedes facility, Joanna waited for her back tea. Her elbows were resting on it while she had buried her face in her hands for a moment. It was way too early for them to be here, actually, but Toto wanted the whole team up and about by 6 o'clock in the morning for some top-secret last-minute meetings. That none of them was in the mood for a shenanigan like that because they had just flown in and arrived a few hours ago as Joanna and Lewis did, or because they had to work the whole night just to make sure the facility was up and running just like the garage.

"I always thought I had the best job in the world," James said as he stepped next to his driver which caused Joanna to pull her head out of her hands before giving her race engineer a tired look. The Brit had leaned against the counter right next to her, his eyes longingly on the cup of coffee that one of the barista girls just prepared.

"Now I think Toto is a sadist who hates us all," James added causing Joanna to snort.

"Oh please, He was voluntarily friends with my father. That alone should have scared us off, so the signs were there. You've been warned. It's on you." The Austrian muttered before her tired expression suddenly morphed into one of joy as the girl put the black tea in front of Joanna, a can of milk and some sugar with it. Watching Joanna as she poured some milk into her tea, James thanked the girl as she handed him his coffee as well.

"Anyways, wanna go over some data?" James asked as Joanna opened the third package of sugar only to pour it all into her tea, which caused her race engineer to give her a look, one eyebrow raised.

"What? I had a long flight. And my life is a mess, let me have my sugar." The Austrian told him earning herself an eye roll from the Brit, who just lifted his tablet to unlock it, which caused Joanna to moan. She really hated getting up early just to do work.

"Andrew won't like it." The Brit warned her which caused Joanna to give him an unimpressed look before taking the tablet from him as they went to look for a place to sit together which wasn't very hard to find because the whole facility was empty apart from the girl making coffee for the team and the two of them.

"Oh please, he won't even notice with how much he's all over Kiwi at the moment," Joanna muttered into her cup as she sat down, earning herself a look from James. One sip of coffee and this man was sunshine, how unpleasant.

"So, you did notice." He said while moving the tablet in the middle of them and opening the setup he had already been working on. Considering last year's setup and the changes which were done to the track. He couldn't really sleep on the flight.

"What do you mean ... so, I did notice? I always know what going on around me. I'm a very attentive person." The Austrian said which caused James to give her a challenging look.