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Baku race weekend was one for McLaren to remember, with both cars scoring points despite the fact Carlos missed out on Q3 and was slightly unimpressed that his younger teammate was doing better than him in his first season. Nevertheless, the two of them were still good friends and neither wanted 'bad blood' so they usually put the race results aside when it came to just chilling out around the motorhome or the garage.
Lando was desperate to see Valentina, who had been in the process of moving to London the last two weeks so she'd been fairly busy. She'd been feeling a little worried that people were going to find out about her and Lando, but that didn't stop her from talking to him through messages or through facetime.
Silver noticed how happy the brunette was whenever she was speaking to Lando, the smile on her face or the twinkle in her eye was enough to tell anyone that she was slowly developing feelings for him, but with her job completely banning the idea of it, she had to refrain from telling him until she was absolutely sure she liked him.
"Val stop fussing, it's just a boy." Silver laughs teasingly.
"Yeah but I seriously don't want to get caught." Teena replies.
"Well you kinda fucked that up when you said Lewis found you and Lando in that Cafe in Shanghai." Silver rolls her eyes, watching Teena look at her feet.
"What's he said to you?" Silver asks.
"Nothing, I'm just worried he's gonna be the one to tell." Teena sighs, running a hand through her hair softly before she spots Lando and Carlos making their way over to them.
"Carlitos!" Teena beams as she hugs him, the girl hugging Lando shortly afterwards.
"Mi amor and friend." Carlos smiles.
"I'm Silver." The blonde brit introduces herself softly, shaking hands with the Spanish Driver.
"Cool name." Carlos admits.
"Thanks, I got it for my birthday." Silver giggles sarcastically.
"That was the worst joke I've ever heard." Teena snorts with laughter, the two girls finding the sentence rather funny considering it was a dad joke.
Lando watched Teena cautiously, noticing that she was trying not to look in his direction or make too much contact with him, which slightly upset him but he understood why she had to do it. His eyes wandered for a second before they landed upon Lewis Hamilton who was standing only a few feet away from them, giving both Lando and Teena a dirty look before he turned to talk to Toto.
"Teena! Can I have a word?" The four hear someone call, watching as Teena turns around to see Toto looking at her rather angrily.
"Sure." She shrugs, the girl leaving her roommate alone with the McLaren driver.
"I need to go get ready for the race." Carlos explains.
"See you after the race, Carlitos." Silver smiles, noticing him smile before he disappears.
"Between you and I, Tee does like you, but she'll suppress her feelings for as long as possible so she doesn't get caught at work. She loves her job." Silver admits.
"Really?" Lando asks with wide-eyes.
"Honestly, trust me when I say that, 'cause I can guarantee when she knows exactly how she feels about you she'll leave her job for you. If she does that, please do not hurt her, I watched what happened with Hamilton, I don't need a repeat." Silver warns the brunette driver.
"I don't plan on it." Lando smiles softly, feeling his heart warm at the fact the girl he likes, liked him back.
Meanwhile, Teena was following the one and only Toto Wolff into the Mercedes garage to speak to him, her mind racing with all sorts of thoughts, wondering if Hamilton had told him about what happened between them or not.
"What's up?" Teena asks as she sits down.
"I'm aware of the situation between yourself and Lewis." Toto begins, noticing her go wide-eyed.
"Look, I'm not going to tell anyone. I know you love being around her and I know you love your job, but a word of advice, let Lewis apologise to you. He told me about it months ago because I asked why you were completely avoiding our team and I've kept quiet. Please just let him apologise to you, you don't have to accept it 'cause what he did wasn't right, but letting him apologise means we here at Mercedes don't have to hear him whine about it." Toto explains whilst Teena plays with the ends of her hair.
"You all know?" She asks.
"Pretty much." Toto shrugs.
"I'm screwed, if one person out of this teams even whispers about it, I'll get reported to the FIA for violation of conduct." Teena exclaims as she leans back in her seat.
"Valentina, it's fine. Your secret is safe with the team, Lewis gave them strict instructions not to say anything at all." Toto informs her. Teena rolls her eyes at the words being spoken to her, the girl shaking her head before she gets out of her seat and leaves the Mercedes boss sitting there completely dumbfounded.
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"You told people?" Teena huffs as she stands in Lewis' drivers cabin, watching him as he goes wide-eyed.
"Lewis are you an idiot? If anyone dares say anything I'm getting into a lot of trouble." Teena sighs, running a hand through her rather sweaty hair as she'd been standing in the sun for a while.
"Look, they asked me why I wasn't feeling great and I just told them. I was hurt that you wouldn't let me explain myself, so I vented my feelings to the team." Lewis explains rather softly, completely throwing her off guard.
"I don't want your excuses, Lewis. It happened, we broke up, deal with it already." Teena bleats, growing more and more frustrated with his constant annoying behaviour.
"Yeah, seems you have with Norris." Lewis spits.
"Hah, funny, we're friends, just like I am with Ricciardo and Carlitos. Get over yourself, you're nothing special." She rolls her eyes.
"Nothing special? I don't see you leaving your job for Norris." Lewis smirks.
"I didn't leave my job for you either, scumbag. Stay away from me, I'm warning you." She points at him before she throws the door of his driver's cabin open and leaves, slamming the door behind her.
She was slightly shocked at how she'd acted towards the driver, but it was getting to the point where he was messaging her on everything just so they could talk and she was getting sick of it. Lando spotted her as she walked through the paddock, the girl muttering words to herself in French when he approached her.
"Jesus Christ." Teena gasps, not expecting him to be there.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Lando frowns a little, moving her hair out of her face softly.
"Lando you can't do this." Teena sighs.
"Do what?" Lando furrows his eyebrows in confusion.
"This, any of this, I'm not losing job over it, I'm simply not letting my mistakes repeat, I did it with Hamilton and it ended awfully, I'm not doing it with you." She exclaims.
"But I'm not like him." Lando responds, the girl shaking her head at him.
"It's simply not worth it, it's really really not worth it." She admits. She felt her heart practically fall to the floor when she saw how hurt he was by the comment, the girl feeling guilt rise inside of her when he simply just nods and walks away from her.
"Fuck." She runs a hand over her face before she goes back to the Media staffroom.
Lewis had watched the ordeal from afar and noticed just how truly guilty she felt for saying that to the young driver, also noticing how hurt Lando looked by the comment. He knew she didn't mean it, but it hurt him to realise she was truly moving on and she was happy with her evergrowing relationship with Lando, so he just needed to suck it up and be happy for the two of them.
"Tee, what's wrong?" Silver asks when she see's her usually bouncy best friend walking around like someone had murdered her cat.
"I've completely done myself in. I just wanna leave." Teena sighs.
"C'mon then, you can tell me what happened in the car." Silver smiles softly, giving the girl a simple squeeze before they leave the paddock together.
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"Well don't you worry, you have 10 days away from the circuit and the F1 life so you don't need to think on it too much." Silver sighs, moving Teena's hair out of her face.
"Can I ask you a genuine question?" Teena says, moving to sit cross-legged in front of her best friend.
"Go ahead." Silver smiles.
"How long did it take you to fall for Chilly?" She inquires. Silver wandered around in her mind for a moment whilst she studied Teena's face, the girl running a hand through her blonde hair before she sighs deeply.
"Didn't take me long at all. We met and within 6 weeks we were dating, hell, I still learn stuff about him to this day, but that's not the point Tee. It doesn't matter if you like him so early on, if you guys start dating you'll learn as your relationship progresses, that's how love works." Silver reassures the brunette who was nervously sitting in front of her.
"I know how long it took you and Hamilton to get going, but you were young and vulnerable and he took advantage of that in so many different ways. Tee, you have a mind of your own, and if you like Lando then go for it, but don't do it in secret 'cause it'll break you both." Silver continues her little speech, Teena shifting in her seat uncomfortably at the thought of it.
"I just don't want it to end how it did with Lewis, 'cause he's so sweet and so lovely and I genuinely cannot believe I turned around and said that he wasn't worth it, because he is. I'm scared at how fast this has happened, Sil, it's not like me to meet someone and fall head over heels for them in like how many weeks?" Teena sighs, leaning back into the sofa as Silver turns the TV on so the two could continue watching Jane The Virgin.
"Don't be scared of it, embrace it."
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