I can do it with a broken heart (Lando Norris)

Chapter Nine

She chewed on her bottom lip nervously. "It's the premier of the tour movie in LA. I wondered if you might come with me?" She asked, almost pleading. Her heart was hammering in her chest waiting for an answer.

"Of course." He nodded. "What's wrong though?" He could hear in her voice she was worrying about something.

She looked down at her hands, picking at her nails. "I um... there's a chance he might be there." She mumbled.

He turned around to face her as the statement sunk in, eggs temporarily forgotten. "I'm sorry what, as in your ex?" He asked in disbelief. "What the fuck?"

She cringed and he immediately felt bad. He turned back to the stove, lifting the pan of scrambled eggs off the heat and turning to the two plates that he'd laid out to dish them up.

"We were still together when it was filmed at some of the US shows." She explained quietly. "The movie was his idea and he was heavily involved in the editing and production of it. I don't know if I should call him and ask if he's still planning to go or if that just turns it into more of a thing." She mumbled. "I don't know what to do."

He was quiet for a moment, processing. "Well, either way I'll come with you." He reassured, deciding to try and lighten the mood. "And I've been told I look pretty damn good in a tux." He winked.

She laughed quietly. "You're welcome to invite some of your friends if any of them want to come. I'm sure they've all got better things to do with their weekend off but there's a party afterwards."

"I'll ask them." He smiled. "Daniel's girlfriend is one of your biggest fans so I'm pretty sure she'll be all over it and he won't have a choice."

She nodded, taking a mouthful of her eggs. Her stomach was churning at the idea of walking that red carpet but there was no way out of it. She could hardly miss her own premier.

"Have you seen him, since?" Lando asked eventually. He didn't want to push her but he had so many questions and so few answers.

"Not really no." She shook her head. "We didn't even really get to finish arguing, I had to go and get on a flight. I carried on with the tour and he went back to London." It was the edited highlights but she wasn't quite ready to get into all the messy details of it.

"But you've spoken on the phone?" Lando asked.

She looked at him, wide eyed. "How did you-"

"You told me that night in Miami that you'd spoken to him." He explained. "You were drunk and upset and I didn't want to bring it up. I wasn't sure if you really meant to tell me."

She was quiet for a moment, chewing on her breakfast and taking a sip of her coffee. "He phoned me when I was in the garage watching the race. He was out in some bar, said they'd played this song we used to listen to and it made him think of us." She explained slowly. "He'd seen the articles speculating about whether the two of us were together. He was drunk and yelling all kinds of stuff at me and for some stupid reason I thought I could reason with him, try and explain my point which was stupid. He's sent a few texts since. I think he's worried I might write songs about what an asshole he is for the world to hear." She sighed.

"And have you?" Lando raised an eyebrow.

She laughed quietly. "I have. But I'm not going to release them. I just needed to get it off my chest."

"You can play them to me sometime. I think he's a dickhead."

"You're going to have to play nice if you're going to come to the premier." She warned. "I'm stressed enough, I don't need to worry about you starting a brawl with him either."