Just Him ❤

86. Answering his critics.

"I hope you're right." She looked at him, worry was once again etched onto her features.

"Seb's ace in the rain, trust me, he'll do well today, I can feel it."

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"I daren't bloody look." Chloe turned around to face the back of the garage as the lights went out while Antti stood next to her watching as Seb got a good start. While he had a headset on to listen in to Seb's radio transmissions, she had elected not to, she didn't want hear his voice when it all started to go wrong. She pressed her hands to the counter top, feeling as though she needed to grip on to something. After a confusing two or three laps following the safety car, the race was finally underway, this was going to be a long afternoon.

"He's passed six already!" Antti tapped her arm and she turned back, forcing herself to look.

"I can't look!" She exclaimed, turning away again as an onboard shot showed Seb getting way too close to a Williams car.

"Chloe, come on!" He tapped her arm, urging her to turn around. "He's up to thirteenth." He could sense her turning around and he glanced at her, shooting her a quick smile. She looked back at him, he wasn't nervous at all, he never was, right now he looked excited, as if this was the first race he'd ever been to.

"Perez!!" She gasped pointing to the screen as it showed a shot of the pink Racing Point car that had left the track.

"Safety car, this is good." Antti folded his arms across his chest. "Seb's coming in for tyres." He relayed to her what he could hear from his headset.

"Already?" She looked worried again.

"Why not, it's essentially a free stop." They both looked to the front as the familiar sound of Lina filled the garage while she was surrounded very briefly by a sea of red, in the blink of an eye the car had gone and not long after that the safety car came back in. Looking back to the screens, it wasn't long before Seb was up to eighth after a flurry of pit stops and some a good passes. Soon he was reeling in Kevin Magnussen and Kimi as they battled for sixth place. Again, Chloe's nerves began to flutter wildly in her stomach only this time she couldn't look away. Antti glanced at her again and smiled to himself, this was more like it!

"Yes!!! He's got him!!" She pressed her hands together as Seb passed Magnussen to take seventh, she knew that Kimi wouldn't be an easy pass, even though he was a friend, on track he was just another rival. They continued to watch, neither of them uttered a word or barely blinked for the next few laps, they could hear gasps and then groans of relief in Charles' side as he nearly lost the car but then somehow saved himself from going off. Suddenly Antti's head went down and he rubbed his forehead. "What is it?" She put a hand on the top of his arm.

"He's dropping time behind Kimi, and they're talking in Italian over the radio, it's not usually good when they do that."

"Fuck. I knew it." She let out a big breath and let her head fall back as she leaned back against the counter.

"I'm not sure what they're telling him, I could ask?"

"I don't think I want to know." She muttered.

"Well he's still going, they could have just been telling him to make some adjustments on the steering wheel." He added after a few minutes of tense silence that included Daniel's engine letting go and a virtual safety car while it was removed. By lap twenty-four Seb was in again, this time switching to soft slicks but with rain coming down in places and the car looking very twitchy neither Chloe or Antti thought he'd stay on them for long.

"I don't think I can bare to keep looking if he stays on those." She turned to face Antti.

"Have a little faith." He smiled and lightly put his hands on her arms to turn her back around. What he really wanted to do was to put his arms around her and hold her close to him for the entire race, but with cameras possibly watching them, it wouldn't be possible. Media interest had been heightened since news of her engagement to Seb had surfaced after pictures of the ring on her left hand had quickly spread. He knew that now Seb had got a ring on her finger, she would never belong to him, he would never get another chance like the one he'd had that night when she was drunk and temporarily single. By lap twenty-seven there was another virtual safety car after Lando Norris' McLaren lost power and pulled off of the track, it was another chance to breathe and regroup. Just two laps later it all went wrong, for Charles.