It's Lights Out - Mick Schumacher X OC

Part 3

We all get an email to head to the cafeteria for our staff lunch, and after a little while of trying to figure out where to go, and asking several people, I finally make it. 

I shove my hair up into a ponytail and put my temporary badge into my pocket. 

Tom sees me, stops what he's doing with his conversation and comes over to me.
"I'm glad you found us! Come over here, we got some other members of the team you'll need to meet." He says, basically dragging me over to a small group of men, and one woman. 

"Guys, this is Mila, the new race engineer. Mila, this is the rest of us. There's Mark, James, Wes and then this is Ella." Tom says, while pointing to each member of the team. 
"I'm glad we have a new woman on the team. I'm getting bored of men." Ella says, laughing. I giggle along too, but looking at the rest of the boys I don't think they're impressed. 

We start chatting for a bit, so I can start to get to know the team, when we can hear a knife tapping a glass. Looking up, Guenther, our Team Principal, is tapping it. The whole room goes quiet. 

"Thanks for joining us, everyone. I know that the start of the season comes with some pretty big challenges and everyone is busy, so I appreciate everyone coming together to really assess the calm before the storm. As you may have heard, we do have a big announcement. I'll announce it after we've all ate, because free food on the team is what you're probably all here for, right? So I'll join back in an hour or so with our new, good news." He says, before walking away down to the table with the food on it. 

We all line up and start putting stuff on our plates, where I'm in the queue with Ella. 
"So what made you want to join F1?" She asks. 
"Me and my childhood best friend always wanted to do it. His dad was in F1 so we were used to the scenery anyways, and I've always loved science stuff and problem solving and everything like that, so it just seemed like the perfect job for me." I reply, as we head through the queue to the table with all the food.
"That is ridiculously cool. Growing up in F1? Wow."
"It calls for some very fun stories." I reply. 
"Well I'm gonna need to hear these as we spend more time with eachother." Ella responds.

We finally make it to the food, start loading up and head to the table where everyone else is sat.

I continue to talk to the team about upcoming things, them updating me on what's to come and adding me to the group chat with my new work phone number. 

After about an hour or so, the same glass gets tapped and everyone stops eating to turn and look at Guenther again. 

"I hope you guys are enjoying your lunches. However, we do need to get this announcement done so we can get everything sorted with the press releases and logistics, all that stuff that you're all painfully aware about. You've probably guessed what it is, and we're announcing our brand new driver for this season." He starts. 

"He's young, talented and something that this team needs to be able to progress in the constructors. His dad is one of the best F1 drivers in the entire world, so hopefully he has championship genes too."

Fuck. No. 

Please, for the love of god. Don't let it be who I think it is.

"Please welcome, Mick Schumacher as our new driver for this season on top of Kevin Magnussen!" 

And as he said that, Mick comes out with his smile. His smile that I fell for all those years ago. His blonde, fluffy hair that I would play with while watching movies. Those piercing eyes that I've looked into so many times and thought in my head, 'I love you.'

Mick scans the room, and while I can hear all the clapping coming from the applause, it's like the room is almost silent and I cannot focus on anything but him and how he's here. Being the driver for the same team I work for. 

Our eyes meet, and I drop my fork on my plate, as well as dropping my jaw. His smile immediately falls as he tries to figure out what's going on. Same as me. But he tries to play it off and carry on smiling, but keeps looking at me once in a while as the applause carries on. It feels like it's going on for hours, but it must have been 30 seconds at most.

I place my napkin on my half eaten lunch, as I no longer have the appetite for this anymore, and decide to excuse myself back to my office. I make one last contact with him, as I'm leaving, and he looks sad. I'm heartbroken.

As soon as I'm out of eye shot from everyone, I basically sprint from where I am to my office, slam the door, lock it and start sobbing. 

The same sad eyes he gave me when I was leaving his house for the last time. The tear I could see forming as he didn't know what to do. When he didn't know how to fix the mess he made. 

I carry on crying, not really knowing what to do. My dream job has been crushed.