~Pole position push a little harder
Hey now, life is every minute
All or nothing
Living on the limits
Hey now, I'll race you to the finish~
There were only a few hours left until the first free practice in Australia and of course this season and I was running Ava like crazy from one place to another to make sure the reporters were all happy and to check everything as it should be. I just looked around for Nicholas because I had to give him the next appointment of his interview as it was brought forward by half an hour. But my motivation today was only halfway there anyway because the interview with Uncle Adam has been on my mind for days. George somehow always tried to cheer me up, which I appreciated, but he had to deal with the race and stick to his plan. I wasn't angry with him, I thought it was really sweet of him, the way he always was when I was feeling bad, but I didn't want him to drag me before his career either. Besides, maybe it was about time Uncle Adam told me about everything. He and I knew something had happened, he just didn't trust me and since we've been back he's been acting strange, that's no coincidence...
"Hey Nicholas," I called when I spotted him. I slowly realised how warm I wanted to be in my loose white trousers and black Williams T-shirt, even though it wasn't that warm today.
"What's up Lilibeth?" he asked.
"Your interview has been postponed," I replied. "You'll have it in just under 30 minutes," I explained, showing him my notes to demonstrate.
"Thank you," he thanked me. "George really wanted to see you," he then added as I started to leave again. "Why?", I asked confused.
"Do I look like I know?" he laughed. I shook my head.
"I know you're thinking of something dirty."
"Not true at all," he interjected.
I raised my eyebrows and walked past him to go into George's room. As I made my way, I took out my notebook and put a tick after the point that I had to tell Nicholas about the interview. When I got to George's, I knocked on the door and waited for an answer from inside.
"Come in."
Slowly I opened the door, entered and closed it right behind me after seeing George standing there. He only had his overalls up to his waist and his upper body was naked. Typical George. I walked up to him and gave him a kiss and looked at him. Even though I knew what George looked like, I blushed every time, and that's what made him grin.
"What?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"You pervert idiot. I know what you look like naked," I teased him and grinned too. "What do you want?", I asked laughing after he pulled his one sad face.
"Do you have five minutes to play photographer for me?" my boyfriend asked.
"Sure," I replied and took my phone out of my pocket. "But no more Magic Mike pictures on Instagram," I asked him laughing.
"And why not?" he asked, confused. I lowered my phone and raised my eyebrows. "Oh, someone's jealous," he grinned.
"I'm not," I interjected, holding my phone up again. While George was still laughing, I took him a few pictures, which I liked. "Now pull that thing up," I demanded too.
"Jealous"
"Shut up," I bitched at him. He put on his overalls and then posed so I could take a few pictures. "These will have to do," I then said and sent him the pictures right away.
"Do you have a lot of plans for today?", George asked and stood next to me.
"Pretty much," I answered and put my arms around his neck. "But you don't care because your sweet ass will be in the car in less than two hours," I instructed him.
"Yes ma'am," he laughed and gave me such a gentle kiss on the lips that I barely felt it and put his hands around my waist. Automatically I moved closer to him, deepened the kiss and closed my eyes. These were again the moments I would like to interrupt, but of course, it happened again. My mobile phone started ringing, but I ignored it and pressed George even closer to me, but he gently pulled away.
"Maybe you'll answer it," he said, to which I rolled my eyes. But I didn't want to answer it.
Why couldn't George keep his fucking mouth shut? My phone stopped ringing anyway, but I was about to get a text from Jaz.
Be at the hospitality in five minutes, we and Ava need to talk!
I exhaled deeply and knew I had extra work waiting for me. Slowly I lowered my head onto George's chest as I realised this. "That bad?" he asked with a laugh.
"Hmm," I murmured.
"All right, shall we go out tonight?" he asked. "Chinese?"
Immediately I lifted my head and a smile formed on my lips. "That's the Lilibeth I like to see," he returned my smile, put his left hand around my cheek and pulled me in for another kiss, but this time it was short.
"Have fun today," I wished him and pressed another short kiss to his lips.
"I will and you get back to work before you get fired."
I pressed one last kiss to his cheek before breaking away from his embrace and walking to the door.
"And don't forget your promise" I winked at him and closed the door behind me.
Smiling, I walked towards the hospitality and greeted Ava and Jaz.
"Where have you been?" Ava asked curiously.
"Where?" Ja asked wryly and then they both looked at me. "She visited Prince George of King's Lynn".
I rolled my eyes. The two of them again. "So what do we need to-"
I was interrupted by the ringing of my phone. I screwed up my face and looked at the screen. Unknown number. Strange. "I'll just get that," I announced, answering the call. "Elizabeth Ward here, Event Manager for Williams Racing, how can I help?", I introduced myself.
"Good to reach you so quickly, Miss Ward," a lady greeted me on the other line.
"I'm Gina Kleymens," she introduced herself.
"Ah Mrs Kleymens," I said loudly so that Ava and Jaz would hear. Mrs Kleymens was one of the organisers of the Melbourne course, which is why I was so confused to get a call from her, but everything was organised and we didn't make any mistakes. "How can I help you, Mrs Kleymens?", I asked.
"I'm afraid not at all Miss Ward," she replied sounding rather disappointed to which I screwed up my face.
Did this mean something?
"I am sorry to inform you that the race for Australia has to be cancelled for this weekend".
My eyes widened as the words rang in my ears.
Cancelled?!
"Ehm, well... Completely cancelled?", I stammered and Ava and Jaz gave each other confused looks before looking back at me. "Yes Miss Ward, completely for this weekend. The situation around Covid-19 has deteriorated significantly, so we have agreed with the FIA to cancel it for now. It will be postponed indefinitely for the time being. We are thinking about a few months." Mrs Kleymens explained.
I nodded and tried to process this. This isn't really happening, is it?
"Yes, well...thank you for the information Mrs Kleymens, I'll pass you right on," I said, trying to sound as professional as possible. "Thank you, Miss Ward, as soon as I have any more information on the race I will get back to you. I will be the advisor for Team Williams."
"Good, I will also contact you if there is anything unclear."
We said goodbye before I hung up and took another deep breath. Ava and Jaz were still looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell them everything, because I could read in my face that something was wrong. I tried to search for the right words, but I couldn't find any.
How could I? How could I say it?
"Please don't tell me that's what I think," Jaz said worriedly.
"I probably can't," I said, taking a deep breath. "The race has been postponed for an undetermined amount of time because of Corona."
"Shit", they said at the same time. "Really?"
"Ok, we are not allowed to lose our cool," Ava reminded us. "It's going to be a lot of work, but now we have to plan everything for the departure, we probably won't stay here."
I shook my head. "They are guessing a few months. We'll probably have to leave."
"And who's going to tell Claire?" Jaz asked uncertainly.
"Tell Claire what?" a sudden familiar asked behind us.
Slowly we turned to look at Claire, who was looking confused in her Williams T-shirt and loose hair. "Is something wrong?"
All three of us shook our heads.
"We have... bad news," Ava began.
"It's being cancelled," Jaz added.
"Today?" Claire asked with raised eyebrows.
I shook my head again. "The whole weekend," I replied, to which she exhaled deeply.
"Not because of...?"
"Yes," the three of us answered at the same time. "Corona."
"Shit," she said this time. "Who was notified?"
"Me," I answered again and Claire turned my attention to me.
"Mrs Kleymens?"
I nodded. "We can't stay because it's been postponed for several months."
"Well, I guess I'll have to announce it then," she said bitterly and snorted.
"You three are organising the departure and everything around it?" she asked.
"We're getting everything ready to go, boss," Ava confirmed.
"Very good, if anything new comes in, let me know immediately," she ordered us.
"I'll pass on the information now".She disappeared again immediately and the three of us looked after her.
"We have a lot of work to do," Jaz said.
"Yes, and we have to finish within a few hours," I added.
I wrote one email from the other and spontaneously tried to find a flight for the equipment so that we could leave as soon as possible, but it was impossible to find anything. Ava was getting a flight for our staff and Jaz was dealing with hotels and transport from the track to the airport. The three of us were literally on the verge of a crisis, as rescheduling everything on the spur of the moment is not easy, plus we had been sitting for months organising each race. Only we had to go to Bahrain, where the spectators were missing and for that my motivation was no longer there.I woke up when my mobile phone started ringing next to my laptop. Shaking my head, I looked at the screen and wondered why I was getting another call from an unknown number, but took it anyway, hoping to get better news. "Elizabeth Ward, Event Manager at Williams Racing, how can I help you?", I introduced myself.
"Miss Ward, this is Patrick Conners," he returned my greeting. "I'm afraid I have to cut this short, I have some bad news," he continued. The names and what he said made me lean back in my chair. Please, not that too..."What happened, Mr Conners?", I asked slowly, already trying to prepare myself mentally for the answer.
"We have to postpone the race indefinitely because of the current Covid-19 situation," he replied.
I exhaled deeply and leaned forward again to pick up my notebook. "Okay, and can you tell me approximately when it might take place?", I asked.
"I'm sorry, we can't say anything about that, only that it will be later in the year," he replied. I exhaled deeply again and wrote it down. "Well, if you have any further information, please let me know. And I will now pass on the information."
"I will, Miss Ward. I'll be in touch."
"We'll be in touch," I said goodbye and ran a hand through my hair.
Now we really had a lot of work. The next race has to be completely reorganised and we didn't even have Australia ready. I typed in Ava's number so I could inform her, but I didn't need to as she rushed into my office. "Bad news," she announced and I raised my eyebrows. "What a surprise, because so am I," I said bitterly. "Bahrain has been postponed indefinitely".
"Are you kidding me?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips. "I just got a call from Vietnam too. Also postponed. Fucking coronavirus, it's ruining everything right now," she said angrily. In the next second, Jaz also entered the office, not looking cheerful either. "I got a call from Spain. Postponed to an undetermined time," she announced. I slumped my head in my hands. "Seriously?", I asked sourly. "How are we supposed to rearrange all this within hours? We're not even done with Australia"
"Not only that, we have to leave the track because of the Corona rules" Jaz added. "Excuse me?" inquired Ava. "We haven't even moved the equipment out of here".
"So far only Ferrari and Alpha Romeo have moved it too, I'm done planning too" Jaz commented.
"Alright, when are you moving them?", I asked Jaz.
"Two hours"
I tapped into my laptop on the transport plane I wanted to order, however, I had to clear this with Jaz first, so I couldn't book it yet.
"Good, the plane leaves in just under four hours today. The next one wouldn't leave until next week, so we'll have to take that one."
"Book it already and I'll take care of the rest with the transport from here," Jaz said. "And now we have to pack, we have to be out of the track in an hour, unless they take over the equipment transport," she added.
"Then you stay here Jaz and make sure everything gets out of here and you Lilibeth make sure the staff and everyone else from Australia get here and of course you have to take care of the hotel. When you have that, start organising Bahrain and I'll take over Vietnam and Spain," Ava ordered us.
After about half an hour, I was already on my way back to the hotel, where I continued my work and first reorganised everything around the hotel after I had already booked the flight for the equipment. The flights were more difficult to get, as everything was currently about Corona and many people also wanted to leave. I was on the phone with the airline for at least 20 minutes to explain the situation, but they didn't understand why I was rescheduling. I booked the seats for half of the staff and for the other half I looked for another airline, which fortunately took me immediately.
"Yes, and it has to be prompt. If it can, one of the next flights tomorrow," I explained, squeezing my phone between my shoulders and my ear as I typed out the number of the Bahrain hotel from the internet.
"What does prompt mean, Miss?" the man on the other end of the line asked. "It means in the next few days, maybe less than three," I said more bitchily this time. "All right, I'll still get the seats the day after tomorrow. All right?"
"Yes," I answered and saw that I had a new call on my private mobile. "Please book them for me, it's important".
"Okay, have a good evening," he said goodbye.
As if I had this??!
"You too, goodbye."
I quickly hung up and took the call from Jaz. "Yes?"
"Equipment is safe at the airport, they're taking off now," she said.
"At least that worked out," I muttered, making a checkmark after the flight from Australia in my notes.
"What about Australia otherwise?"
"Flight booked for us, we're coming out of the country. I'm taking over Bahrain now."
We said our goodbyes right away too and this time my mobile rang again from work. Again an unknown number, this time with the one from the Netherlands. "Please don't, please don't," I begged and took the call.
"Good afternoon, or good evening to you. Are you Miss Ward?" the man asked.
"Yes, I am," I replied, already knowing what would come next. "I'm sorry to inform you that-"
"The Netherlands is postponing the race indefinitely?", I finished his sentence sarcastically.
"Yes, miss. They seem to be in the know."
"However, I'm already rescheduling some other races," I explained. "So nothing new. Can you give me an approximate time?"
"I'm afraid not Miss."
"Alright, you found out my number, if you have any information dial that number again," I said and wrote the Netherlands on my list as well.
"I will do that, thank you very much bye."
"Goodbye."
I quickly hung up and wrote down the rest before calling Ava, who immediately answered my call. "Netherlands rescheduled," I announced without greeting her first. "Great, I'm in the process of rescheduling Vietnam, but it's turning out to be harder than I thought. Do you need help?"
"No, I'm fine. Australia is done, by the way, but we leave in a fortnight."
"Never mind, the main thing is to get out of the country," she said. "Go ahead, if there's anything, call."
"Will do."
I hung up again and tried to start in Bahrain, but now George came into our hotel room and drew my attention to him. "Hi," he greeted me and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
"Hi," I murmured back. "I can't today, sorry. Our dinner fell through I know, but I have to reschedule everything right now," I apologised.
"Don't worry darling," he reassured me. "Judging by all the piles of papers, you look far too busy."
I nodded. "Yeah, it's really a lot. I'm glad I have Australia."
"When did you start working?" he asked anxiously.
Confused, I looked at my watch and saw that it was already past half-past eleven. "Maybe four or five hours?", I asked myself. "I don't know"
"Maybe you take a break-"
"No," I interrupted him, stunned, and looked at my notes.
"I still have two races to reschedule and I haven't even started on Bahrain!", I said upset and closed my eyes for a second as my business phone rang again. "Great, Monaco area code," I muttered and picked up as I said my greeting for the filled 100th time. "Miss Ward we would like to inform you-"
"That they're postponing the race?", I guessed.
"No Miss Ward, it's complete cancellations for this year."
Shocked, I opened my mouth.
"I beg your pardon?" I managed to get out. If anything surprised me, this would mean that for the first time since 1954, there would be no Formula One race there.
"I'm afraid so, Miss Ward," she said over the phone. "Okay, and you're sure about that?"
"Yes, Miss. We agreed not to risk anything with the coronavirus."
"I'll pass on the information, goodbye." "Goodbye."
I quickly hung up and wrote it down this time. "You won't be racing in Monaco this year," I said to George.
"It's been completely cancelled?" he asked in surprise and I nodded in reply. "I have to start with Bahrain now," I muttered and squinted my eyes.
The tiredness came slowly.
"How about I order you Chinese noodle and make you some tea?" Suggested George.
I pouted at him. "George you are a dream, thank you", I thanked him and kissed him on the cheek.
Then I went back to work and started with Bahrain.
After about two hours I noticed how fatigue overtook me while I was still at the Netherlands. It was now two in the morning, George thought I was actually asleep, but he came over to me in the living room and looked at me reproachfully. He slept shirtless, the reason why he was it now but I couldn't concentrate on this like I always use to do.
"Lilibeth, you have to go to bed," he said.
"No," I interjected.
"You've had three energy drinks now and you don't look good," he put in and took my notebook out of my hand.
"George," I said angrily, trying to reach for it. "Give it back to me, I have to finish it off."
Actually, I wanted to keep yelling at him, but my private cell phone rang, so I answered quickly and gave George an angry look."Yes?"
"Elizabeth, why are you picking up your cell phone?" I heard Claire say.
I looked at George in confusion.
Why was Clair still awake at this time?
"I was still working ..."
"Ava said that there was a lot. But you've done Australia and the rest can wait tomorrow. Now you need sleep.", She said.
"Why are you calling me at this time?" I asked sleepily.
"Elizabeth, maybe I'm the team boss, but I also take care of my co-workers and because I know that you would do anything to get it all right, I knew you were awake. So I have to get you to sleep."
At these words, I started to smile. Claire was definitely the best boss one could have.
"Thank you, Claire, good night."
"Good night, Elizabeth"
I hung up and tiredly closed my laptop.
"I want to go to bed and never wake up," I muttered to George.
"Come on," he said and carefully lifted me from the chair while I wrapped my arms around his neck.
Why did he have to be the perfect friend?
A/N: Might have some mistakes, but I am tried and I still wanted to finish and publish this chapter today. I hope you still like it 🥰
Sending Love x