Connected (F1 Story)

Chapter Forty Three: Recovery

Lizzie? Why was Lizzie yelling at me down the phone, I would have appreciated it more in person. Not that I was a fan of yelling at all. Although, with all of the shit that was going on, if anyone so much touched me I was on the edge of my bottom lip quivering.

Everything was rather pathetic. Including the state of my thumbnail that I have been nibbling away at all day. Terrible, terrible habit.

"You fucking ruined everything," Lizzie continued to scream, breathless by the end of her sentence.

I was stunned and officially speechless.

"You idiot, why didn't you tell me you were pissing off back to England without telling your best friend. How comes you told Paul, huh?"

"He can drive," I said instantly and apparently it was the wrong thing to say. Insert another line of abuse and Daniel beginning to do some Italian gesture. I wasn't too sure of it's exact meaning, but I knew he was swearing.

"Why didn't you talk to me, though?" she whispered in a very serious and steady voice. "We could have reasoned and gone back together if we had discussed it."

"Please don't be mad at me...everything happened so fast and I later found out that Bridget the fucking cow has only told me what was going on!"

"Wait, what?"

"Bridget phoned me in the middle of the night to say she'd sent an email to the wrong person and that Infiniti were pulling out of the partnership." Now it was my turn to do some gestures. Daniel gave me a funny look and made a very wise decision by filling the kettle up with water and sticking that on.

Lizzie was rather silent and that was alarming. "Why would she tell you that if you were the one who had sent the email?"

"Lizzie, I really, really hope that you don't believe that I would do something like that..."

More silence.

"The fucking bitch, how could she blame you and make me mad at you? What a tosspot!" Lizzie barely got a breath in. "I am so sorry, Saskia. I am so sorry for being horrible...although still a bit mad that you left without telling me. Nothing shall change that."

"That was wrong of me," I admitted, watching Daniel watch the kettle boil. His face was amusing. "Where are you now?"

"Still in Iceland, where else would we be?"

"I don't know, it has been one of those horrible days that I would rather forget. I have been unformally suspended and they took my phone and logged me out of my email account so only they can access it!"

"Aw hun, you should have told me!" Lizzie's tone had changed considerably since this phone call had first began. Now, she was calm and sympathetic and not angry at me. "And I think you meant informal, not unformal."

"Now is not the time."

"Yes, you are absolutely right there," Lizzie agreed. "I hope Daniel is being extra extra nice to you, not that he is ever horrible."

Daniel poured the water from the kettle into two mugs, gave them both a stir and brought them over to the kitchen table. He nodded towards it and then signaled to the bedroom before shrugging.

I shook my head - there was nothing to hide from him.

"He is," I replied to Lizzie and sat down at the table. Daniel went and got his magazine before joining me. His chair scraped along the tiles and the Australian began to apologise profusely. He was so adorable. "So I don't know what to do. At all."

"I'm going to call up HQ and sort it out, and if that doesn't work then Paul and I will be on the next flight black to Blighty. You are not going to lose your job, and Bridget is not going to get away with what she has done to you and the company."