Love Has No Limits

9.

"Well that was a little rude," Alex mentioned to George as they were sitting on the conference room. "What's with you?"

George just stared ahead with his lips pursed. "Sorry, I don't know how everyone is so charmed by her when all she does is work."

Max turned to him. "She does, she works very hard and that's why she is where she is today. Can't thank her enough for all the work she did with me and my image after my two first championships. Remember how people used to hate me back then? Well, look now."

Alex nodded. "Well I never worked with her but if she's so good like they say she is, and for someone so young, she must be one hell of a worker."

"So true, not to mention she is the nicest person around," Carlos chipped in. "When my father and I wanted to split our careers so I wouldn't be in the shadow of the legendary name forever, she stepped up and worked so hard for us to do it in a professional way, never bringing the family bond to a question. My whole family loves her!"

George sighed. "Well, i don't know if it's me or what,  but I don't have the same treatment, she's cold and distant, and whenever we have a small normal interaction, she dismisses it as if it never happened. You know me guys and you know it's not like me to be rude, but I can't help it, if she wants distance, she'll get it."

"Maybe you like her and it frustrates you that you can't get to her..." a voice spoke from the other end.

George turned. "That's crazy, I literally never said that, Dan."

"That's why I said 'maybe'," Ricciardo explained with a chuckle. "I have a plan to help you mate."

"Let's hear it then."

"I'll seduce her," he started and the others laughed. "No wait, I'll seduce her and make her kiss me at the party we'll have Sunday after the race..."

George frowned. "Are you crazy? Why would you kiss her? You don't even know if she likes you!"

Daniel laughed and patted George's arm. "Is this reaction good enough for the judges?"

"Absolutely," Charles chipped in. "That reaction was insane jealousy."

"He was joking, Daniel has a girlfriend, remember?" Max giggled.

George sighed, frustrated enough with you watching him from the back, and this new revelation he couldn't completely rule out, who knows why. And of course, he was mad at himself for not thinking before falling into his friends' schemes.

—

The conference ended and the drivers went all straight back to their respective hotels, where they would continue with their day.

George got into the car that would take him, with you already waiting inside. He was going to huff but he just said hello.

"Hey, great answers today, I need to work on that prick that's still coming after you with his questions..." you started, referring to the same journalist that asked him the personal question last race and now asked him how his wrist was with the most sarcastic tone.

"He's a Dutch presenter, he still thinks that if he asks that, Max will compete harder, I don't know." He replied.

"Yeah, I know him, he used to ask very provocative questions to Max back in the day, in the name of being a Dutch supporter," you explained. "Max learnt to avoid the tone of his questions and instead turn them into a nice and diplomatic answer, which made this bloke stop trying after a while."

George hummed. "Yeah, Max mentioned you worked together and saw he likes you quite a lot."

"Oh yes, it was one of the hardest jobs but it we perfect if I say so myself," you said. "Now, we can't keep banning this guy because he will find the way to rile you up without a personal note, so, we'll save that topic for our meetings next week, since he won't be here for the rest of the weekend..."

George sighed and looked at you. "Could we not talk about work for a second? I want to rest a bit if it's possible."

You widened your eyes. "Of course, go rest and will text you later for the video with Lewis, and that will be all."

You thought that was a good moment to ask him if something was wrong and by the time you decided to finally ask, you reached the hotel. He got off the car and just walked to his room.

—

George and Lewis played ping pong at the hotel table, in a closed room, with people filming them while they asked each other some "personal" questions. They were all pre approved by them and pretty standard knowledge that wasn't out there already but without giving anything too personal away.

The boys had their fun and it all went pretty well, especially because they both were really competitive and the game went on for a while after they finished their questions. The social media team had a lot of footage to work with for the next weeks.

The PR team wanted to go have dinner afterwards so you went happily, while the drivers went to bed early before practice and quali next day.

"George?" You called him before leaving for dinner. "What do you say about posting that photo I sent to you in your stories saying you had a nice time filming something fun?"

He turned to you and checked his phone. "Oh, yeah of course, anything else?"

"Nothing, just rest and good luck tomorrow, will be right there at the garage rooting for you." You smiled before calling the lift.

"Thanks, much appreciated, have fun tonight." He said and looked down, while walking towards his room.

You were just about to call for him and ask what was wrong, but the lift came and you just left.

—

Friday practice didn't go as planned, George's car was a bit uneasy on the brakes and the driver was getting angry at the amount of saves he had to do, which cost him a lot of tenths lost on all the sectors.

"Box this lap, George," his engineer called.

The car came in and the mechanics worked intensely on it, while George looked at the data, very focused. You worked on the press sector, checking on the different broadcasts and how they were describing the problem. All seemed to be good.

The car number 63 came out once again and the brakes seemed to get better, but George still struggled a bit on sector 2 and practice was ending. He even cursed the new format earlier, annoyed at the fact that he wouldn't have enough practice and would go straight to quali without the proper data.

When it finished, you called him over. "When speaking to the press, express your discomfort with the brakes and blame it on bad timing. Try not to be too angry at the sprint format, just say you wished you had more practice, but that you're excited for the next step and all that, yeah?" You instructed as you handed him his cap.

"Okay, thanks." He replied and just walked to the press pen.

This could be either sharp focusing on the race or he was still angry at something. The funny thing was that you saw him be cheerful and nice with everyone else, except you.

There was no way out, you'd have to talk to him.

—