Hardest Love

18.

I quickly put my hands through my hair as I looked in the mirror. It was raceday and I really wanted to impress Sofia, if that was even possible with a car like that.
I felt nervous when I was around her, a good kind of nerves.

I walked out of my room and knocked on her door. She quickly opened the door, she was looking absolutely beautiful. "Good morning beautiful" I said and pressed my lips against her.
"Good morning" she quickly mumbled against my lips. "Are you ready to go?" I asked but she definitely looked ready.
She nodded as she closed the door behind her.

We walked in the paddock, my hand brushed against her. Fuck it, I shouldn't be this awkward with her.
I grabbed her hand and intertwined our fingers as I pulled her with me. There were so many people today. It must be quite overwhelming for her.
"Are you okay?" I looked at her as we were walking to my hospitality. "I didn't expect there to be so many people but I'm fine" she smiled and pushed her body a little closer to mine.

I was happy Max Fewtrell joined me here because he could keep Sofia busy while I had to do a lot of things before the race.
I even had to do interviews for Netflix on race day.
I don't know why Zak agreed with this. I wasn't too mad about it because I already missed Avery. It gave me a chance to see her before the race.
I sat down in the chair and looked around. "Isn't Avery doing these interviews?" I looked at Scott, it was her colleague but I guess they were also good friends. "It will be me today, we haven't seen her around" he shrugged his shoulders.
That was pretty weird. Why would she skip a race day? It was the most important thing to film for them.
I did my interviews with Scott, he was actually pretty funny and nice.

As I walked out of the room, I quickly grabbed my phone.

Avery:

Hi are you okay?

Yeah, why?

Scott said no one saw you today?
Where are u?

I overslept
I will be there soon
You missed me?

You know I do

I was relieved to hear she was fine. She really wasn't a morning person at all, she always overslept.

————————

"Where is Charles?" I looked at Carlos as we were standing on the truck to do the drivers parade.
We were all waiting for him. "He was late. He should be here any moment though" Carlos explained, only a few moments later Charles ran to the truck and walked up to us.
"The princess has arrived" Max laughed as he patted his back. Charles didn't reply, he looked tired. I guess the pressure got to him a little.

"So who's the girl you walked in with?" Carlos asked. Now the attention was back on me because everyone wanted to know. "Sofia, she's amazing. Literally the sweetest person I've ever met" she was so much more than that but I didn't want to explain it all. "I thought you had a thing for the Netflix girl?" Max suddenly said. It caught me a little off guard. How did he know that?
"Well yeah maybe. We are good friends" it made Max chuckle a little. Okay he definitely knew more, did Avery talk to him?
I wasn't gonna mention it for now. Not when everyone was standing with us, but I was definitely gonna ask him about that.

I walked of the truck after the drivers parade. It was the perfect time to ask Max about it because it was only him and I.
"What do you know about Avery and I?" I looked at him. He smiled a little. "She told me that you were friends with benefits" he said a little bit more quietly. Why did she tell him that?
I didn't know they were actually that close.
"But I definitely think she likes you and not only in a friendly way" he patted my back as he quickly walked to his garage.
Why did she never say that? I wanted to take her on a date, I wanted to kiss her and she knew that.
It was too late now, I liked Sofia and I couldn't fuck her over like that.

I think I was standing there for a minute because my engineer looked at me confused. He gestured me to come to the garage. Fuck, the race was about to start and I was daydreaming in the middle of the pitlane.

I jumped in my car and drove to the grid. "Radio check" I said through the radio. "Loud and clear. Good luck today Lando" my engineer said. All the mechanics left the grid and it were only the twenty cars left.

I should focus on the race, I shouldn't think about Sofia or Avery. The only thing I should focus on is not crashing and preferably a podium.