With the motorsport world finally putting light on the women of racing, one racer was ready to work her way up to the Formula 1 grid. As a Formula 2 rookie, she struggled, but with Red Bull Racing behind her, she was sure to cause one of hell of a c...
"I have one rule," said Anneli as they walked towards the docks. "No race talk outside track, please. My dad has always been right about that. It is annoying."
"Okay," Arthur shrugged happily. "So what do you do for fun?"
"Don't let her answer that or you'll be talking about snowboarding for nine hours," came a cheerful voice from just ahead of them.
Max Verstappen stood reasonably relaxed as he waited for them both to get to the yacht that was waiting for them. His hair was windswept and he had a large grin on his face from previous comments.
Anneli thought it was rather odd to be going on a yacht in the winter months but Arthur had explained that Mira and her daughter, Lily, found it incredibly calming, something the two of them needed when around a group of people. Anneli respected that.
"Snowboarding deserves to be taken about for nine hours," Anneli concluded as she stepped up onto the yacht. "But I will restrain from doing so."
"How nice of you," Max replied sarcastically with a laugh.
From afar, you'd have assumed the two had been friends for years but they just had a similar sense of humour that was understood...both sides never really got too offended and Anneli was easygoing.
"Who is here?" Anneli asked politely.
"Daniel, Marissa, Mira, Lando and Lily," Max replied. "Robyn is always late if she's with Jamie. Charles is with them so he'll be late too."
Stepping into the main area of the boat, Anneli began to realise who the group she was about to make friends with were.
There was Daniel Ricciardo, one arm over the shoulders of a pink-haired woman, with a bright smile on his face and a cheerful voice. He was speaking to Mira Atkinson, a kind-looking blonde woman with black-rimmed glasses, and a shining silver engagement ring on her finger. Anneli knew who she was from her Instagram picture.
So naturally, Anneli assumed the pink-haired beauty was Marissa Romono, an Italian who was Daniel's girlfriend and PR manager. She was tall, tanned and seemed incredibly cheerful. They went well together.
Finally, the messy brown hair of Lando Norris could be seen at the bottom of the boat, arms wrapped around a small blonde girl — Anneli guessed she was no older than three — as she tried to put her hand in the water. Again, Anneli assumed this must be their daughter Lily.
"Hello!" Mira jumped up to greet Anneli. "I'm Mira."
"Hi, I'm Anneli," The finnish woman nodded.
"I'm afraid I'm not very good at small talk," said Mira lightly. "So my plan of doing that failed rather quickly."
"I hate small talk."
"Perfect," Mira grinned. "Lando, come here."
Lando quickly jumped up, picking up Lily effortlessly, and made his way to his fiance and the newcomers. He gave Arthur a polite nod, having met him before.
"Yo," Lando greeted. "Lily, do you want to say hi?"
From the tone in his voice, Anneli knew Lily wasn't a person for greeting new people. The little girl stared at her with determination to work out whether she was worthy of a hello.
"Down," Lily tugged on Lando shirt.
Nodding, Lando placed his adopted daughter onto the floor of the boat. Max stood watching curiously, leaning against the side, and making bets as to what she was going to do because he knew Lily rather well.
"Hi," Lily whispered
"Hello," Anneli got onto one knee,"I am Anneli but you can call me Neli if you want."
"Neli," Lily repeated happily. "You have pretty hair."
"Thank you," Anneli replied smoothly. "What are you holding?"
"Daddy's little car," Lily giggled, holding up the toy McLaren. "Vroom Vroom."
"I like you," Anneli concluded.
"I'm glad," Mira interrupted happily. "She's not normally so sociable with new people! It took weeks before she spoke back to Daniel."
"I think it's because Daniel smiled too much," Lando joked, bashing shoulder with Daniel lightly. "She didn't know what to do."
"No, I missed it!" A voice whined as footsteps echoed. "Let me guess, Mira and Anneli get along instantly and Lily said hi!"
"How did you even—"
"I'm a master predictor, Max," Robyn Saunders answers.
Robyn Saunders was everything but the news made her out to be...which was small, weak or unfriendly. However, the muscular and reasonably weighted dark-skinned woman was a beauty, strong looking with a sheepish smile on her face. She appeared to be good fun and Anneli knew she was from the night in Abu Dhabi.
"Hi again, Anneli!" Robyn sung. "This is Charles, my boyfriend, and Jamie, my bestie."
Jamie, being the most shy of the group, gave a small nod and hello while Charles gave a cute wave. By this point, Max had launched into a full conversation with Daniel and Marissa while Lily went back to trying to get to the water (Mira aiding Lando in stopping her).
"Sorry, we're late," Robyn apologised. "I couldn't find my phone."
"It's a regular problem," Charles joked. "This time, it was in the bathroom."
"Don't act as if you aren't losing things!" Robyn scolded. "It took us two hours to find your airpod the other day—"
Anneli could tell that the two of them had a relationship that she and Elijah never did. Robyn and Charles could tease each other without getting offended, grinning while they did so and through it all, Charles was still holding her hand. Elijah never did any of that.
"You're thinking too hard about something," Max observed as she sat next to him. "What is it?"
"Nothing that matters now," Anneli replied honestly, watching Lily spin in circles. "Do you do this a lot? Uh...going out in a group..."
"Yeah, it's good to get out of the house," Max nodded. "I have cats and sometimes they cause a lot of trouble so to escape it can be nice."
"What kind of trouble?"
"One of them got locked in a room and I had to smash through the door," Max laughed as Anneli's eyes widened. "It's not as dramatic as it sounds."
"Dad would not let me have pets because he thought I wouldn't look after them," said Anneli.
"Do you think you would have?"
"When I was home, yes!" Anneli nodded with a smile. "But I wasn't home much and I felt bad. Maybe they will now that Ria and Ro are old enough."
Silent for a moment, Anneli took in the ocean around her and breathed in and out carefully.
"The sea is calming," Anneli said quietly.
"It's nice," Max agreed. "It's better in the summer."
"Then maybe I'll just have to come back to Monaco later than," Anneli hummed.
"You should," Max replied smoothly. "You're always welcome here, Anneli."
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