Battle of The Gods

Trentatre

"You really live it up, I like that," Lewis said, his head shooting up when his timer went off, "oh, that's dinner done! Let me get it."

After the two enjoyed the fabulous dinner Lewis cooked for him and his guest, they took the wine to the living room, sat on each end of the sofa, bodies turned towards each other.

"So," Alessandra started, her fingers gently tapping on the glass, "Toto called me last week when I was at the Dolomites. He was pretty pissed finding out that you signed with us." Alessandra had to tell her driver that his former boss had called her because he was mad about his move to her team, obviously without disclosing why he was pissed. And as she brought up the subject, the memories of that heated conversation sent a cold chill down Alessandra's spine, trying to mask any feeling she could give off by drinking her wine.

"Ah shit," Lewis muttered, lowering his eyes slightly, "he called you after I did, didn't he? He didn't sound pleased on the phone." He rubbed his hand against the side of his face, looking back up at his boss with a guilty expression, "I felt like it was the right thing to do, telling him before the news came out, out of curtesy. I didn't want to tell you as I didn't want to disrupt you on your holiday."

"You did nothing wrong, Lewis, I understand perfectly where you're coming from," she said, giving him a soft smile in reassurance, "Toto did accuse me however of stealing you from him, which is what he was angry about. He has no idea of how the deal started and he's created some sort of narrative which pissed him off and came yelling to me about it."

"He yelled at you?!" The Brit asked, eyes widened in shock, "Alessandra, I will talk to him and explain everything to him. If he was pissed because he cannot accept the move he should not take it out on you!"

"No, you will not talk to him about it, you do not need to deal with him anymore," she quickly said, shaking her head, "this is between me and him. One thing that I really hate is being accused of things I did not do, and he was sucked way too deep in his ego and anger to give me the chance to explain. I don't want to deal with people like him, and it seems that he has no intention of wanting to listen to what I have to say. So unless he comes up to me and apologises and asks me how things went down, then I will happily explain it to him. But you don't get into it, this has become between me and him."

"I don't want to pry but I feel like it got personal between the two of you," Lewis slowly said, not knowing how to press on the situation, "did he tell you something? Like did he offend you in anyway?"

"Like I said Lewis, it is between him and me, you don't need to worry about it," she said, giving him a smile once more, not wanting to get into the matter further, "all you need to focus on is settling in the team and help the team become consecutive champions again." Alessandra saw the slight weary look on Lewis's face, moving closer to him and put her hand on his arm, "All I will say is that things have been said, and Toto and I might not be off to a good start when we're all back at the track. But that does not mean anything should change between you and Toto. You two have history, and you're very good friends, and it should stay that way. You won't be involved in any messes we have."

"Thanks Ale," he sighed, giving her a smile, raising his glass, "to our new partnership, and being part of the Ferrari glory that we'll bring back to Maranello at the end of the year!" Alessandra beamed as she raised her glass, clinging it with Lewis's, taking another sip as they moved onto another topic of conversation.

January was probably the busiest time of the year for every team, every day making sure that the car was perfect and ready to go for racing, but before that they to go over every detail to make sure that the launch would be the best one from every other teams. And that is what Toto was doing as he was sat in his office of the team's factory based in Brackley, going through endless emails and answering many calls as the launch of their 2024 contender is inching closer and closer. It was one of those days where he'd be stuck at the factory all night, only going home to get a couple hours' sleep and return back to the factory.