Fifth Light (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 31: Girlfriend

"Seriously, you're not helping right now," she said nervously, releasing her hold on him, "Where's Jake?"

"He was called back to the factory. He'll fly back on Sunday night."

She nodded and pulled him over to the couch, "Well then, tell me what they're all saying."

"Brand had kittens. He's touting that he knew all along now."

"Of course..." she laughed, "What else?"

"Most of them can't believe it, they had no idea at all. The photos of you guys in the airport were their first introduction."

Casey's stomach filled up with butterflies upon hearing about how the team were reacting. It was a stark reminder that this was big news to pretty much everyone except the small handful that already knew. She suddenly heard her phone ringing and jumped up to get it, feeling surprised as she realised it was her dad's name on the caller ID.

"Casey!" he breathed down the line when she picked up, "What on earth is going on?"

"Dad, uhhh..." she stammered. She probably should have told her parents about it a little earlier than this.

"There's reporters camping at the gates of the factory!" he cried.

"Really?" she asked, biting her lip. It was only about 12 hours since the airport photos had hit the internet.

"Is it really true? You and Sebastian?" he asked incredulously.

"Uh, yeah Dad, it's true," she replied, turning to look at Evan and stifling a laugh.

Evan could hear her father's voice babbling at a million miles an hour down the phone from across the room.

"How! When? Why didn't you tell us!" he exclaimed with a mixture of shock and indignity.

"Sorry Dad, I'm sorry, things have just been crazy."

"I can bloody well see that!"

She could hear her mother fussing in the background.

"Your mother wants to speak to you, hold on."

She waited, listening to the scuffling as the phone was passed across.

"Casey!" her mother squealed finally.

"Hi mum."

"Oh my goodness, what's he like in person? Where are you right now?"

"I'm in Austria," she answered selectively, pulling the phone away from her ear slightly as her mother burst into a tirade of frantic questioning.

"Hi Julie!" Evan called from across the room.

"Is that Evan? That sounded like Evan. I thought you two were going to get together, how wrong was I!"

"She says hi back," Casey lied, looking at Evan quickly before turning away and rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"When can we meet this Sebastian Vettel then?"

"Whenever you want mum, do you want to come to a race or something? I'll get you passes," she offered, assuming she could probably have Britta arrange that for her now.

"Greg, Casey is asking if we want to come to the next race, she'll get us passes," her mother said faintly, as though she had turned the phone away slightly. She sighed, not missing as her mother conveniently moulded the offer to the next race.

"I'll see if work will let me have the time off," she heard her father reply.

"He says yes!" her mother said, her voice loud again.