No strings attached

67.

Lando's POV

I was so nervous. I couldn't sit still, I just wanted the race to start. My foot was tapping on the garage floor as I listened to my engineer explain the best strategy. The best strategy, in my opinion, was to just go full throttle. I tried to listen to him because I knew it was important, but my mind kept drifting back to last night.

'Do you trust me?'
'I am on birth control'
'I wanna feel you'

"Lando?" Will shook me out of my thoughts. "Yes yes I'm listening. I won't try to be a hero" I mumbled.
Except that was all I wanted. I wanted this podium so much. Will looked at me and chuckled.
I looked at the clock, only 20 minutes left.

"Mate, good luck. Get that win" Max Fewtrell walked into the garage and patted me on the back. "Stop being nervous, muppet" he saw right through me, but I wasn't just nervous about this race. Something else was on my mind.
"Where's Aimée? Wasn't she with you last night?" there it was. Exactly the person who was on my mind. "Yeah" I nodded."I think I did something stupid" I mumbled, which made Max frown. "What did you do?" he asked, but once again I was interrupted by Will."It's time" he patted my back.

My heart was beating so fast. I had to control my nerves, but the only one who could help me with that was Aimée.

"Go get them Lando" Zak came up to me before I put my helmet on. Before I jumped in the car I took one quick look around the garage.
I couldn't believe she wasn't here. She missed the most important race of the season.

"Radio check" I mumbled through the radio. "Not so loud and clear but we got you" Will replied.
I closed the visor of my helmet as I looked at the 5 lights.
It was time to forget everything. I would deal with that after the race.

After an amazing start, Max obviously overtook me only a couple of laps later. I was expecting that, no one could catch Max in that Red Bull.
"How are the tires?" Will asked. "Still ok" I quickly replied. I didn't want to pit just yet and fortunately they listened to me because not much later there was a safety car.
"We are gonna box this lap" Will said, so I quickly pressed the radio button. "Think about the softs, please soft tire" Everyone was gonna box for the soft tire, I was sure about that.
Will didn't reply, which said enough, he wasn't gonna listen to me.

"And we pitted for the hards" Will announced on the radio after they pitted me. "What tires does the Mercedes have on?" A question I didn't need to ask because I already knew the answer. "Used softs" Exactly what I thought, exactly what I asked my team to do.
"Lovely. Wonderful huh" I shook my head a little. This wasn't gonna be easy. "Trust me Lando" Will casually said through the radio.

'Do you trust me?'

Fuck, get out of my head. Get the fuck out of my head.

Fortunately I had no time to think about Aimée. Hamilton wasn't making this easy. So, soon enough she drifted to the back of my head, exactly where she belonged.
Far far away.

"That's P2 mate! Great job man" my engineer yelled through the radio. "Ey ey! Podium in my home race" I matched his energy. I couldn't believe we just did that.
We just fucking did that.
"Fuck, you made my life tough huh, the hard tire" I sighed laughing.

But to be fair, he wasn't the one who made my life hard.