Re-evaluating Strategies

🇦🇺MELBOURNE

Abella
Melbourne, Australia

'Daniii!' I squeal in pure happiness, going in for yet another bear hug.

'Gosh Bella if I knew you missed me this much I'd come to visit more' he rejoices.

'I would visit you more myself if you wasn't always so busy' I tease, pushing into him as we walked towards the paddocks together. 'How did you know I was coming?' I question receiving a gentle nudge back.

'Charles told me' he shrugs as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

'Oh, right, yea, of course' I stumble over my words, the embarrassment from back at the apartment resurfacing.

Inevitably Daniel immediately picks up on this exclaiming a 'Holy mac and cheese balls! You totally like him!' performing a little dance proceeded by a boop on my nose.

'No! No I do not' I retaliate turning the colour of my Ferrari shirt and giving Daniel a pleading look to stop his performance, that was swiftly gaining more and more attention. He gives me a knowing look and a cheeky wink before whispering,
'Your secrets safe with me' into my ear, not so quietly.

Changing the topic of conversation I state 'Regardless, I need to go to the Ferrari garage'

'Nonsense' he links his arm though mine, pulling me towards the Renault garage instead. We are making our way towards the yellow until Daniel stops at the Red Bull garage.

'Uh, Dani this isn't your garage' I laugh awkwardly, but he doesn't answer, calling into the garage for someone. Moments later a young, fair haired man emerges from within the sea of navy blue and approaches us, fist bumping Daniel in the process.

'Hey guys' he exclaims with a thick accent, looking down at me with a warm smile. 'You must be Abella Bianchi' he reaches out to shake my hand, 'Max Verstappen'.

'that's me' I take his hand in mine 'Seems like everyone knew I was coming' I joke.

'Well to me it just seems like you have caught everyone's attention' he compliments, making my cheeks turn slightly pink but I don't get a chance to reply as his name is called from within the garage. 'I'll see you around' he claims rushing back into the garage with a wave goodbye.

After our encounter with Max, me and Daniel eventually arrive at the Renault garage and we sit in his drivers room to catch up. We talk about how our lives have been for the past four years, him explaining his reasoning for moving from Red Bull to Renault. We converse about my internship and how it came about, discussing family and home life, avoiding the topic of Jules. After two hours I look at the time and realise that I need to be at the Ferrari garage. I give Daniel one last hug and say farewell, we also plan to meet for lunch in the next few days.

Having navigated my way back to the shiny red building I enter the team hospitality and find Lorenzo sat at a table in the dining area and sit down to join him.

'I'm glad you made it here safely' he says briefly looking up from a document he appeared to be reading.

'Thank you sir, likewise' I try to sound as professional as I can, also trying not to be offended by his apparent lack of interest in my presence.

'You are free to do as you wish during your time in Australia, however I do believe that Charles has requested that you accompany him on his track walk' he informs me not glancing up this time.

I take this as my cue to leave. Finding another table, empty and secluded for myself, I sit and procrastinate whether I should attend the track walk. I feel awkward with Charles now and don't want to further embarrass myself. I don't want him to view me differently. Throughout my childhood I had always tried to impress him, I looked up to him for directions and together we made the decisions that we thought were right. The only thing that had mattered to me is that we were together. But after the crash we both grew distant, I never knew why. I had considered reaching out to him many times, but my nerves had always got the better of me and I had always found some minor reason to decide against it. I settled with the decision not to attend the track walk, as I couldn't bring myself to face him just yet. Instead I decided to explore the paddocks by myself.

I wonder around, inspecting every teams buildings, taking special interest in learning every drivers name. Some of which I already knew, but I was aware there were a few rookies this year and wanted to be able to identify them,in case I ran into one.

I am just turning the corner to make my way back when a familiar Dutch voice calls my name from behind me.

'Hey Abella! Wait up' Max calls racing up to me, looking out of breath.

'Hi Max' I wave slightly, flashing my teeth.

'Hi' he pants 'Sorry. I've just been cycling around the track' he explains, short of breath. 'I forgot to ask earlier, but I was wondering if I could give you my phone number'

'Of course' I laugh at the now shy Max. After we exchange numbers we walk back to our assigned hospitalities.

'I was going to ask you if you wanted me to show you around but it seems like you have already done that yourself' he awkwardly jokes.

'Sorry im just just pretty impatient' I chuckle 'it's a shame you didn't get the chance to ask though because I might have considered taking up your offer'

'Well I'll make sure to ask further in advance at the next race' he grins at me.

'This is me' I say as we reach the red building, and wave Max goodbye as he walks away.

Later in the hotel I'm sat on my plush bed on my phone, checking my messages. I see one straight away from Max:

Max: hey Abella I hope you enjoyed your first day!

Me: hi Max. I really enjoyed my day thank you. It was lovely meeting you too :)

I see Max start typing back immediately, and I sit waiting for his reply. I'm caught off guard when I hear a knock at my door. 'Who could that be?' I wonder, getting up with a grunt to see who was disturbing me this late at night. I don't know exactly who I was expecting, but I was certainly surprised to see Charles stood there when I opened the door.

Hey again guys. I guess I was bored so here's two uploads for today. Also this is by far my longest chapter but I really loved writing it so I hope you enjoy reading it just as much :))