Right Where You Left Me- OP81

32. When To Let Go

Oscar's POV

The weeks that had passed between Silverstone and the summer break had dragged for Oscar. On paper the first half of the season looked good. He'd taken the win in Spa- a gritty drive in poor conditions. Then in Hungary what should've been the preferred strategy had seen him miss out by less than half a second to his teammate.

The championship lead was narrow, but still his. Everyone said he should be proud. He was leading going into the summer break, he was twenty four with the world at his feet. Living the dream of every young driver.

So why did it feel so heavy?

Oscar kept replaying the races in his mind, like he could scrub away the parts that didn't feel right. But he reached the same conclusion every time- the wins, the points, the podiums... none of it filled the gap that Daisy's absence had left.

At first, he told himself it was temporary. That when the break came, that when the travel and the stress stopped, he'd find her again. He'd pictured them together, a week or two on a boat off the coast of Sardinia. Her sun-kissed skin and relaxed laugh. Just the two of them, the break a chance for them to stitch things back together again.

Instead, the days stretched ahead of him, quiet and empty. He trained, he ran the familiar circuit around the harbour until his lungs burned and his legs ached. The drove endless laps on the sim until his arms ached. But there was still too many hours left in the day. Too much empty time and space to fill. Too much space for his thoughts to circle back to her.

Worse still, Mark's voice still lingered in his mind. Was Daisy a distraction? Was it possible for him to have her in his life and still win the championship?

At first Oscar had dismissed it, but now as the silence in his apartment stretched ahead of him, the more convincing Mark's words started to sound.

Because the truth was he was sharper on the track when he wasn't thinking about her. And as much as he hated to admit it, those last few laps in Hungary he had been wondering if Daisy had been right, that he'd never stop questioning if them being together was costing him something.

The doubt had rooted itself deep within his mind. Every time he closed his eyes it was there. And the longer he sat alone in his apartment the more he started to wonder if Daisy and Mark were right. Maybe he couldn't have it all.

The championship was within reach. A childhood dream. A lifetime of sacrifice. Maybe Daisy had been right to walk away, because maybe, just maybe this was the price of his success on the track.

He hated it. He hated himself for letting the thought linger. But he also knew one thing, if he lost out on the championship he'd never forgive himself.

So he doubled down. Trained harder. Forced his life to focus on that one thing.

And each night he'd lay in bed staring at the ceiling, wondering if this was what it meant to be a champion. That he needed to learn how to live with the emptiness.

Daisy's POV

Daisy had stayed with Maddie, partly because she didn't want to be on her own, but also because her sister wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she wasn't going to spiral like she did the last time things had gone wrong with Oscar. Maddie hadn't said that part out loud but it was implied in the way she fussed over her.

Daisy had slid easily into her sister rhythm. Coffee in the garden in the mornings, dinner with Maddie's friends who talked about anything and everything but formula one.

It was a relief being around people who didn't immediately connect her to Oscar. For the first time in months she wasn't just Oscar Piastri's ex girlfriend, or the girl who wrote that article and got sacked. She was just daisy.

She was writing again too, small pieces freelance assignments that barely paid enough to make it worth it, but it felt good to be doing something. They weren't glossy high profile features but they were enough to remind her of why she'd started writing in the first place. Her love of sport, her love of telling stories that mattered.

When Maddie asked, Daisy said that she was fine, she was healing and moving on. And in a way, it was true. The ache of walking away from him hadn't disappeared, but some mornings she woke up and he wasn't the first thing that she thought of. It hadn't disappeared, but it had dulled at the edges.

But at night when the world was quiet he still found her. The memory of his voice. The look on his face when he'd told her that he still loved her. The hollow look in his eyes as she had closed the hotel door behind her and walked away.

Sometimes she wondered if she had made a mistake. But then she would remember Silverstone, his anger and the way that he had lashed out at her after the race. The way he'd put racing first and her second. The doubt that lingered in her mind that it was always going to be that way. She'd remember how easily they kept slipping back in to bed together rather than fixing the real issues.

And slowly, painfully, she was beginning to see the truth. The boy she'd fallen in love with as a teenager, the one who'd promised that racing would never come between them, he didn't exist anymore. Oscar had grown into someone else. Someone she admired, but couldn't stand beside without breaking herself down piece by piece.

She loved him, she still did. God did she love him. But she was beginning to understand that loving someone didn't always mean that you'd get to be together, that you were supposed to be together.

And with each passing week, the growing distance between them and the time and space to think, Daisy felt that love shifting. Not fading, she wasn't sure it would ever fade, but it was becoming something bittersweet. A love that knew when to let go.