What The Heart Wants (Sebastian Vettel)

16. New Opportunities

Seb sat on the edge of his bed staring at his phone screen, totally focussed on the email in front of him.   He wasn't sure how he felt about the offer that had been put to him. 

Sure, he longed to go back to Formula 1 but this offer, and the one he'd received a fortnight before, weren't what he'd envisioned.  Maybe he was just setting the bar too high.  He was nearly thirty five now, he hadn't won a championship for nearly nine years, maybe this was the best he could hope for.  Inside though he felt he had more to give. He could win again, he knew it!

Standing up, he padded carefully across the bare wooden floorboards to the window and looked outside at Jessie's back garden, well, garden hardly seemed the appropriate word.  It was more like a field.  He could see the overgrown pond at the bottom, and the small copse that marked the boundary of her property.

Three months had passed since he'd arrived on Jessie's doorstep on that snowy February night. Three months, and he hadn't so much as texted Ava.

If he was honest with himself he had barely given her a thought.  Jessie was the only woman on his mind.  Jessie, the woman he was falling more and more in love with by the day. 

He had never spent so much time with her, not even back in in the days when she'd been his press officer.

Together they'd worked on the house and the garden, spending every waking minute together.  Even when Jessie had been sat working on her clients' websites he'd been constantly taking her hot chocolates and sandwiches.  They made an amazing team. It was like they were a married couple, only they weren't. 

He turned and looked back around his bedroom, thinking about the work that needed doing to it.  The walls were bare from where they'd stripped off the wallpaper the previous week, the only furniture a chest of drawers and the bed. 

It would be nice to finally get it done. He'd moved into it a few days after the heating had been installed after sleeping on the sofa for a few nights once he and Jessie had built her bed and she had moved into her own room. 

The four nights he'd shared Jessie's mattress with her had been torture.  He'd woken up every morning with Jessie pressed up against him, and every morning he'd got hard and had to relieve himself in the shower.  Luckily he'd woken before her every day so she hadn't noticed his arousal. 

Work on the house couldn't be going any better.  They'd finished the lounge, and only the previous day they'd had the wooden laminate flooring fitted throughout the downstairs. 

The downstairs toilet had been fitted and he'd painted the small room himself while Jessie had been working.  It was a marine blue with fish themed  tiles. He'd never decorated anything by himself before and was extremely proud of his accomplishment. 

They'd decorated the hallway and the stairwell together, as well as the landing and Jessie's room. All that was left to do in the way of decorating themselves were his room, the third bedroom and the large reception room downstairs.

The main bathroom was going to be fitted and decorated in just two days time. He was looking forward to that. He hated having to go downstairs in the middle of the night if he needed the toilet, and he didn't like disturbing Jessie when she was asleep to use her en-suite.

His stomach made a loud rumbling sound and he realised how hungry he was. It was nearly lunchtime now. He left his bedroom and made his way downstairs to make a sandwich.

He walked into the lounge and saw Jessie sat on the sofa, her laptop balanced on her lap.  She was typing away rapidly.

"I'm going to make some lunch, do you want anything?" he asked her. She glanced up at him.