The next day Emilia actually got to go up the Eiffel Tower. The view was absolutely incredible from the top. She and Lando stood, in disguise, admiring the view for a quite a while. Emilia had checked social media to see whether anyone had spotted or recognised them and no one had. It added to the many great things about this trip to Paris. The pair of them had really enjoyed it but were leaving late in the next morning as Lando had to be in the factory that afternoon.
The mini vacation was only two full days long. It was relaxing and allowed the two drivers disconnect from the world for a few days. Being a Formula 1 driver was incredibly stressful and yes, Emilia did sign up for it, literally signed up for it, so she couldn't really complain. It was just nice to be able to take a few days to unwind and then she could refocus on the job once she got back. Aurelia had told her she needed to be in the garage for Thursday so she didn't need to worry about getting home early.
Tuesday night was spent in the hotel watching the city go by after an amazing day again. Emilia had no stopped smiling all day. It made her face hurt but she was so cheerful that she couldn't help it. It might have been due to the company. No, it was definitely due to the company.
Lando and Emilia had had dinner in the hotel again because they didn't want to be noticed outside the hotel together. Emilia needed to discuss that with Lando and see what he wanted to do about keeping their relationship secret.
"Lando?" Emilia started. She was sitting on one chair on the balcony with her knees up to her chest for warmth. Lando was sitting next to her with a table separating the two of them.
"Yeah Emi, what you thinking?" Lando softly responded. Emilia got confused for a second but remembered that he told her she had a thinking face. She decided it wouldn't be a bad thing to discuss her feelings and open up to him.
"About us." She replied.
"You regret it already?" Lando sat up and looked very worried. Emilia just smirked and ran her fingers through his hair. It was funny that he was so delusional – it was completely the opposite.
"No of course not." Emilia smiled.
"Then what is it?" Lando seemed on edge still and Emilia couldn't help but laugh. "Emilia I am genuinely worried here and you're laughing. This is not funny."
"I'm sorry. I was just going to say I've really enjoyed this mini holiday and I mean the company had been alright I guess." Emilia smiled. "What happens when we go back? Do we still keep this between us?" Lando contemplated before answering.
"I mean I'd love to hold your hand and show you off in public but you've raced six races. If you go public with me, it's not going to look the greatest." Lando voiced his opinion. In a way, Emilia did agree with him and that was the reasonable thing to do. Aurelia would agree with Lando on that one.
"That's a good point." Emilia nodded. "I mean I'm happy to go public whenever. I have had the hate bad enough for ages. A little more won't hurt." Oh how Emilia was wrong.
"Just keep it between us for now. I don't want either of us to get any more hate for the minute." Lando sighed. He had been getting a lot of unnecessary hate which was hurting him more than he was giving away but Emilia knew that.
"Lando, don't worry about them, ignore them. I want you, and George does and Alex and Carlos so please don't waste your time on some useless humans who spread hate on social media and try to put you down. Because if you let them get to you, they win and you can't let that happen." Emilia advised. She knew it was easier said than done but it was exactly what he would have to do.
"As long as I have you, I'm sure I'll be fine." Lando smiled and intertwined his fingers with hers.
"Same here." Emilia replied.
"I say that and you say same here?" Lando laughed slightly disappointed.
"Jesus alright, I'll do better." Emilia exhaled. "You've made a big impact on the little time I've known you. You're all I think about, when I'm around you, when I'm not around you, when I'm driving. Everything is just you. I've tried ignoring these feelings but I couldn't, so thank you for not giving up on me. I really like you." Emilia beamed and leaned it to kiss Lando.
"I didn't mean you had to say that much, you could have just said it back. But I really like you too." Lando grinned after they'd finished kissing. Emilia responded with no words but instead a kiss. She wanted to get closer so she stood up from her chair and sat on Lando's on top of him. The kiss deepened and Lando's hands moved to her hips pulling her closer. One of his hands then slipped up her skirt onto her inner thigh. His lips moved to her neck sucking it softly but not soft enough that it wouldn't leave bruises the next day.
"Lando." Emilia breathed.
"Yeah?" Lando turned his head to look at Emilia's eyes.
"Not yet. I'm sorry." Emilia shook her head. Lando understand what she met right away and nodded.
"That's okay Emi, we can wait." Lando softly smiled and brushed his hand against her cheek then gave her a quick kiss.
"You sure?" Emilia asked and Lando tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear.
"Yeah of course." Lando honestly answered. Emilia actually believed him which surprised her because she had always had issues with trusting people. She must be falling for him really hard. The Williams driver turned around so she was facing the city like Lando. Lando wrapped his arms around her stomach and she put hers on top of his. "Are you okay, like seriously?" Emilia thought for a moment before she responded.
"I mean, this job is really stressful, family is stressful, social media is stressful but I know a lot of people have it worse so there's nothing to worry about." Emilia shrugged. Because she was on Lando's lap, she was facing the same way as him therefore she couldn't see his face.
"You have every right to be not okay. This job is hard enough by itself let alone being a woman because you get double the amount of shit everyone else does. I'm not sure what's going on with your family but just because people have it worse doesn't mean you can't complain. There's always going to be people who have it worse and people who have it better and that doesn't mean that you can't say you're not okay." Lando explained. Emilia knew she was so lucky to have him. Just the way he asked if she was okay when he didn't have to and how he tried and succeeded in making her feel better.
"Thank you Lando but I mean there's nothing to worry about. I'm okay and as for my family. My family is just very difficult. My parents and brother aren't the most supportive. They never agreed with me karting or me having a career. After I decided to travel more for international tournaments, they pretty much discarded me, I moved in with my Grandad. I still go back for holidays but it's always 'why can't you be like your brother' when he has a basic nine to five job. Like go him, but why am I looked down on when I'm a Formula 1 driver. Not that I'm saying I'm better with him I just don't see why I'm less significant." Emilia complained. She probably sounded like a whiny bitch but there were deeper problems with her family she didn't fancy going into.
"You're not less significant to me." Lando rubbed Emilia's shoulder as she spoke. She felt tears arise but tried to blink them away. Crying wasn't a usual thing for her and it took a lot for her to cry as she was fairly good at hiding her emotions apart from when she was drunk – she was an emotional drunk. So where this was all coming from, she had no idea.
"Thanks Lando. I'm lucky to have you and to have my Grandad as well because I wouldn't have my seat or have you without him. I try so hard to make him proud and I think I do at least but I still want to make my parents proud I know it's bad and I know I shouldn't but I still want their validation." Emilia said letting tears fall.
"You don't need to impress them. Do it for your Grandad and do it for yourself."
"But what if I don't? What if I turn out to be the disappointment by parents by losing my seat? I don't have a proper contract like you. I'm just here to fill Nicky." Emilia pointed out.
"But you won't. I've seen you drive. I hate to admit it, but you're possibly better than me. You unexpectedly got thrown into this season and you're up in the midfield. You're coping brilliantly. Toto is seeing that as well; there's no way one of his driver's is going to end up without a seat." Lando reasoned. "Is that why you were crying Sunday night?" Emilia turned and nodded. Lando saw that she was crying and frantically wiped the tears from her face and kissed her forehead.
"I feel left out that everyone has some sort of support in their garage and I have no one. My Grandad can't fly and my parents won't acknowledge me so there's no one there. At least I have you and George to talk to after races and then Aurelia and Christine too. I don't want to sound whiny or needy or like I have a hard life because I really don't but I just wish I'm good enough to be loved by my parents."
"That shouldn't happen." Lando shook his head. Emilia gazed up because she knew it would help her stop crying. "Do you want to talk about anything else?"
"I mean there are a lot of stories to tell but I don't really fancy talking about it right now. I'll tell you another time. Is there anything you want to talk about?" Emilia questioned.
"At some point but I'm too tired to do it now, can we go to bed?" Lando queried. Emilia was going to question what he wanted to talk about but didn't want to push for an answer as he'd said he wanted to another time.
Both of them traipsed inside after their deep conversation and got ready for bed. Emilia managed to stop crying before she got into bed. She was still confused why she had cried without being intoxicated. Maybe she just felt comfortable enough around Lando to let her emotions out.
"I've really loved this trip." Emilia said once they'd gotten into bed.
"I've loved it too." Lando responded. Emilia was extremely glad she'd taken the chance to go to Paris with Lando. It was a relaxing break that allowed her to disconnect from the rest of the world and one she thoroughly needed.
The pair didn't get much time to do anything the next day as they had a flight. Of course, Emilia freaked out prior to getting on the plane again but Lando consoled her. The flight was delayed anyway which had frustrated Lando because he was needed at MTC and that didn't help either of them. To brighten the mood, they decided to look at the video they'd taken by the Eiffel Tower and set live lockscreens of it rather than just photos to make it more interesting. They were both more than happy with it especially as it enabled them to keep the relationship a secret.
Once the plane had landed, Lando had to shoot off as he was very late to work so he couldn't give Emilia a lift home which she assured was fine. She thought she'd driven to the airport so her car would be there but remembered that George had driven her after Lando had left. Luckily, George was available to pick her up.
"Hi, I'm sorry for this." Emilia apologised as she got in George's car.
"Don't worry about it. Did you have a nice time?" George smiled pushing his sunglasses up his nose. Emilia put her cap on her lap but left her sunglasses on as they'd had to go through the airport undetected by the public.
"Yeah, we had such a good time." Emilia nodded and realised she said we. She also subtly pulled her jumper up more to hide her hickey that Lando had left.
"We?" George queried the thing Emilia didn't hope he'd pick up on. She decided to play it off like she hadn't said that.
"We?" Emilia tried to appear confused.
"Yeah, you said we." George replied.
"No I didn't." Emilia shook her head. She was lucky George was concentrating on the road because she wasn't hiding her smirk very well.
"Oh, I thought you did." George said. Emilia thought it would be better to try and move the conversation on.
"Have you recovered from the win yet?" Emilia laughed. George's grin said it all. It was so wide and big so much that it probably hurt doing that.
"No, I don't think I ever will. It was when I came out ahead of Bottas I just thought I'm in the lead. Well, I was in the lead in Sakhir but this felt different. It felt incredible crossing the line; I can't describe the feeling." George explained not losing the smile on his face.
"I'm glad you're happy, you deserved it." Emilia smiled. She was genuinely happy for him.
"Thanks. It's your go now though." George reached over and messed up his teammate's hair which annoyed her.
"Thanks for that." Emilia said and added a sarcastic smile on top of it.
"Anytime Em." George responded. They chatted a bit more before they pulled up on Emilia's drive. Thanking George, she grabbed her hat and got her bag out the boot of the car. As she was unlocking her front door George got out his car. "Em, you left your phone."
"Oh thank you." Emilia walked towards him and as he did so it turned on the screen. She halted as George surveyed her screen that was pretty evident that she was not alone in Paris. Fortunately, he hadn't held the screen so the live wallpaper didn't turn on it was only the photo.
"So you weren't alone in Paris?" George noted and handed her phone to her. There was a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Yeah, I kinda met someone." Emilia replied slowly. She perhaps shouldn't have said that because she was digging herself in a hole.
"Do they work in F1?" George quizzed. Emilia was not about to correct him and say it was a driver so she had to go along with it.
"Er no, I met him in Paris." Why did she say that? Well at least that made sense and would be easier to conceal the lie.
"Oh right, seems like you two had a good time though." George gestured to the hickey on her neck. He didn't seem too happy about it but who was he to judge? "Is he coming to Baku?" George continued with his questions and Emilia knew the more that he asked the more likely she was to slip up.
"No, it's too early for all of that." Emilia shook her head.
"Oh right. Well I was going to ask you to dinner but I guess I can't if you have a boyfriend." George answered. Emilia would have said she could but she was pretty tired. Plus she didn't see why she couldn't go out with George because she had a boyfriend; she knew George was asking her as a friend so it would have been fine.
Though she probably should have, Emilia didn't tell Lando that George thought she had a boyfriend that she met in Paris. It hadn't crossed her mind to tell him because she trusted George to keep that information quiet. Yeah well, she was wrong.
Update schedule is out the window because I finished school and exams so I'll just update when I can though it probably won't be every day (Euros are stopping that, I'm a bit too obsessed per usual) . I've already finished writing the next chapter so it may be up tomorrow or Friday.
Shorter chapters are so much easier to edit and I love that. Next one is a very long one 6000+ which is what the race chapters usually are but next chapter isn't a race ooo. Just as a hint, if this chapter had a name it would be the calm before the storm but I'm too lazy to name my chapters oops.
Also I hate how awkward my dialogue is like I just hate how I can't write people speaking. I was hoping I'd get better but no, not yet. Maybe it's because I can't speak to people😂😂
Hope everyone is doing amazing, I love you all and thank you for taking time out of your day to read this <3