Just Him ❤

45. Stephen's return visit.

"I'm sorry, I'm not usually like this." She sat back in her seat, grabbing her water bottle to rinse her mouth out before closing the door.

"You had several shots last night." He replied, moving the car away from roadside again.

"I don't normally have shots." She was starting to feel embarrassed as well as sick now.

"Well that explains that then." Seb shot back. "Maybe next time lay off the shots, or better still lay off the alcohol."

"Your friends were buying them, and you bought some. I wasn't going to turn them down." She kept her hand on her stomach. "Don't blame me for the fact you were all buying me drinks all night."

"What did you to think to Eva and Steef? You seemed to get on very well with them." He wanted to change the subject a bit and also kind of test the waters to see if she'd possibly consider trying his secret hobby.

"I really liked them. They're great." She smiled. "A bit tactile though."

"Yes, it's just how they are though. You didn't seem to mind it when you were dancing with Eva." He glanced in his mirror, he knew he couldn't say too much in front of Antti.

"Must have been the alcohol." She blushed as she looked out of the window.

"Would you be up for spending time with them again? I could invite them over one evening." He internally crossed his fingers.

"They're your friends, of course I would. I'd love to." She smiled.

"We'll sort something out soon then." He left the motorway and headed for the terminal car park, thinking that maybe it'd be best to just have them over for drinks first. With Chloe's past it might not be good to rush things, but he was already imagining the fun they could have.

~*~

The short flight was relatively trouble free, Chloe was only sick once more, she had spent most of it sleeping on Seb's shoulder. Now she found herself at her office door, it the first time she'd been back here since Stephen and Michael had turned up unexpectedly. As she unlocked the door and stepped inside she took a deep breath and looked around. After seeing Michael she somehow felt different being here, a small part of her wished he would turn up again, she hadn't spent nearly enough time with him as she had wanted to. She wondered if he'd still be involved with Ferrari and frequently visiting Maranello if he hadn't had his accident. She put her lap top on the desk and turned it on and sat down. She was glad her nausea seemed to be going now, as was her headache. Not keeping painkillers down meant she had been suffering this morning, it was certainly the worst hangover she'd had for a long time. She wondered if she could try a coffee now she was feeling more human but quickly got distracted by the volume of emails there was on her lap top, not working yesterday hadn't been a good idea. It was going to be a long afternoon dealing with various requests from news papers, magazines and tv stations. She also had to send some updates to the team that ran Seb's website. About an hour in and she was already losing the plot, two tv stations wanted to change time slots for Bahrain and a German magazine was now pressuring her for some of Seb's time in China as well as the BBC radio five live station. Her attention was suddenly taken by a very familiar voice outside, Stephen. She wondered what the fuck he was doing here again, she felt her stomach churn and her palms getting sweaty at the fact he was again at such close proximity to her. She tried to keep her nerves in control. As she looked towards the window next to her door he came in to view, she could feel panic creeping in as he stopped and looked in, a smug smile on his face. Her eyes flicked to the door handle to see if he was going to come in or if Michael's warning for him to stay away from her had done the trick. He opened the door and stepped in. "Good afternoon Chloe."