It's Lights Out - Mick Schumacher X OC

Part 10

It's now Saturday, which means one thing - qualifying. I'm going to be back on the radio for this session, so hopefully everything shall go well and we can set up tomorrow's race properly. 

I slip on some jeans and my team shirt, grab my bag and head down to breakfast where everyone is. However, George is sat on one of the first tables, on a 2 seater table. He's watching the entrance, and his eyes widen once he finds me. He waves me over, where I go and sit down opposite him. 
"Thought I could get a chance to get some 1-1 time with you before you have a busy day, as I'm guessing you won't be able to have dinner with me tonight." He says, pouring me a glass of water from the large decanter.
"I wish, but unfortunately, our meetings tend to run long and this one is at like 9PM, so we probably won't be out until I'm fully ready for sleep. I wish we could though, as I'd love to get to know you better." I reply.

He nods at me, and then I see Mick walk behind him, and my eyes slowly follows him as he pretends not to see me sat with George. 
"What you looking at?" He asks, and turns around and realises what I'm looking at. 
My eyes go back to George, and he gets up and goes to get some food. I do the same.

I go and look around the buffet and see what's being offered. I steer away from the bacon but go to the pancake station and make one, and then add some chocolate syrup on it. I pour myself some apple juice and then head back to the table. 

George comes back with 2 large plates filled to the edges with all sorts of food - sausages, eggs, pancakes, waffles, beans, and more. My jaw drops at the sight of it as he places the food down onto the table.
"You got enough there?" I ask, giggling.
"Gotta meet my protein goals somehow."
"You're gonna make the team go bankrupt with how much you eat." I reply, as he gets a big forkful of everything and eats it, with a massive smile on his face.

We talk about our plans for the day, properly set up each other's contact in our phones and decide that we'll try to talk as much throughout the season and he'll come and meet me when we can. I know we've not even known eachother for a day, but he's a super sweet guy and I'd love to know where this could go. Starting everything off long distance isn't going to be great but as long as we both try, nothing can go wrong.

We finish our breakfasts, get up, where George kisses me on the cheek to say goodbye and then leaves for a start of season meeting with our sponsors. My cheeks flush a bright red and out the corner of my eye, I can see Mick looking at me with a pained expression.

However, I try not to focus on that too much and head to the paddock for my second fun filled day in a race environment.

---

We're back on the pit wall this afternoon for qualifying, where we're aiming to reach Q2, with Q3 as a stretch. We don't know how fast we can go by pushing as someone didn't want to push the config I asked for so right now we're fully in the dark on how well Mick's gonna do.

We see the likes of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc absolutely fly past us, giving 3 purple sectors at once, and immediately heading into provisional pole and P2. It's finally our turn.

Kevin goes around and around, pushing into P10. Mick makes his qualifying Debut.
"Let's do this." I say, excited for what could be accomplished. 
"You sound excited." Mick says over the radio, slowly going down the pit lane.
"I want some good results for the team. All eyes on the prize, please." I say. Mick sighs from the other end.

Mick starts to go around, but he's barely pushing green sectors. I wince at the seconds going up.
"Mick, all pushing please. Don't worry about tires right now." I say.
"Okay." He replies.

He pushes and manages to just hold onto a purple sector 2, and a green sector 3. It pushes him into P9, and into Q2. Lovely.

Me and Tom give eachother a nervous look, hopeful he can make it into Q3.

The break ends and Mick goes around again, grasping P8 this time and pushing a little bit more. Me and Tom jump up and high five eachother, super excited that we're in Q3 in the first race of the season.

I'm so happy that the first qualifying is going well that by the time Q3 comes around and the tires need to be preserved, I don't mind him not pushing and by the end, he comes out P10 for the race tomorrow. 

The garage erupts into cheers as Mick comes in, and pulls him out of the car. I take off my headphones and run over, waiting for him to come out.

However, he barely even looks at me, and decides to go and hug the rest of the team, only giving me a fist bump, and putting down his visor so he doesn't have to look at me. I look at him, a little dumb founded and sad that even though he's upset with me that I'm spending time with George, he couldn't put that aside to celebrate when I'm the person who helped him get there. 

I walk away from the garage and go to my office, to get a call from George.

"P10. Wow, amazing start to the season. Well done!" George says.
"Thanks" I reply, sighing.
"You don't sound thrilled." He replies. 
"Yeah. Went over to Mick to go celebrate and he just basically completely ignored me. Hugged and shouted with everyone else, only gave me a fist bump. Didn't even make eye contact with me." 
"That's a little childish. Hey, why don't we do something to cheer you up? You should be proud of yourself." He says.
"I have that meeting in a couple of hours. Sorry. Gonna grab something to eat quick and then do some paperwork before heading into it."
"Oh yeah, forgot about that. Hold tight." He says, ending the phone call. 

I raise my eyebrows at the abrupt end, and walk outside and look at the orange and pink sunset basking the sky. I snap a quick photo of it and send it to my family group chat, where I then suddenly get picked up and spun around by someone. 

I look up and it's George, grinning at me.

I put my phone in my pocket as he puts me back down. 
"Thought I could come with to dinner while I have a 10 minute break to celebrate. Where is everyone else?" He asks, holding my hands.
"Not too sure, probably in there celebrating with Mick." I reply.

George pulls me to the side of the building, where I have a clear view of the entrance to the garage. 
He pushes me up against the wall and smiles at me. 

He comes closer and closer, and our lips meet for our first kiss, with the very light breeze holding us together as it gets deeper.
He pulls away after 10 seconds.
"Thought that might make you feel better."
"It certainly did." I say, chuckling. 

He pulls back. 

"Let me go grab my water bottle real quick. Meet in catering?" He asks me, giving me a high five. 
I hit his hand with mine where they connect and he brings it down. 
"Sounds good. See you then." I reply. 

We kiss again, and he walks away. 

And as he walks away, my eyes connect with Mick, still in his race suit, like he's been stood there for way too long and seen the whole thing.

And for some reason, my heart drops at the sight of his face, like he was coming to come and find me.