"Hey guys I'm back." Lando greeted enthusiastically. Emilia turned the volume down as his voice was pounding through her ears. "So today chat I will just be talking. Not really in the mood to play games today." Lando grinned putting his hands behind his chair which flexed his biceps.
Had Emilia not been on a plane, she would have texted him letting him know her thoughts. The plane had Wi-Fi which was how she was able to watch his stream as she flew to France. She really needed the distraction as flying was not her favourite thing to do. Lando's flight, rather than being on the Tuesday, must have been on the Wednesday unlike Emilia's. It was unusual for the team to fly out on the Tuesday but they wanted extra preparation for France. The track suited their car quite well but they needed extra time to make sure they got the points.
Emilia was still concerned about her dream that she'd had round George's. She knew it wouldn't become a reality because there was no way that crash would have killed him but Emilia still worried. Lando knew it had been bothering her and tried to assure her in the time they'd spent together prior to Emilia flying out.
"Right chat fire some questions at me." Lando requested and waited as the chat filled with comments. "I'm going to get a headache reading all of these." Lando left and came back with his glasses on. Emilia almost stopped breathing seeing how hot he looked in them. Aurelia next to her was asleep and Christine was reading a book so neither of them noticed Emilia's lack of breathing ability.
"Am I staying at McLaren? Um no." Lando blankly answered. Emilia panicked for a second. "No of course I am. You all saw that I signed a new contract." Emilia was relieved because there wasn't really another place for him to go. Plus, McLaren really suited him and he was having a great time there. Loads of questions were popping up in the chat about her and Emilia wondered whether he would answer any.
"Am I dating Emilia? No, we're just friends." Lando laughed but made it sound believable. Emilia decided she didn't want to watch anymore and closed her laptop but made more noise that she had intended. It woke Aurelia up next to her. She didn't understand why Lando didn't tell people about them.
"What the fuck Em." Aurelia shouted annoyed.
"Sorry, Grey's Anatomy killing off characters again." Emilia lied shoving the laptop in her bag. "I need to go speak with George." Emilia left and got up to find George before Aurelia asked anymore questions. George was sitting near the back of the plane with his trainer who was asleep.
"Hey Em." George noticed Emilia and took his headphones off as she sat next to him. On the other side was his trainer. She glanced at Aleix. "He's asleep." George confirmed.
"I know we haven't really got to chat since the sleepover." Emilia started at George leant his head back. It wasn't going to be a very pretty conversation but George needed to know that Emilia can deal with her own problems.
"You can't expect me to be friends with Lando following that." George sighed. Emilia was hoping he would forgive his friend but it didn't look likely unfortunately.
"George, he's your friend. What he did to me shouldn't affect whether you're friends with him or not. You knew him before you knew me and I am definitely not making you pick between us because you can be friends with us both. I've forgiven him and you should too." Emilia tried to convince George but he wasn't having any of it.
"But Em, he hurt you. I don't think I want to forgive him." George responded.
"George I've managed to after he cheated on me. We're back together and it's all fine so just drop it please."
"You're back together?" George whispered but a very loud and pissed off whisper.
"Yeah." Emilia nodded. George clearly didn't like that. "It's my decision, you don't get a say in this."
"But he cheated on you." George complained. He did but Emilia had forgiven him. Yes it was stupid, but it was always something her Grandad had said. That it was good to forgive people and holding a grudge wouldn't do you any good. He probably didn't mean forgiving someone for cheating because she had a dream about him dying but oh well.
"George, I stayed out of your relationship. The reasons for you and Carmen breaking up are still unknown to me so stay out of my relationship." Emilia advised. She thought it was only fair if they both didn't get involved in each other's relationships; she didn't really fancy getting that entangled in what was going on in George's love life anyway.
"Fine." George grumpily responded. He folded his arms unhappily. Emilia sighed at him sulking; honestly him, Lando and Alex were such children.
"And can I ask you to forgive Lando?" Emilia was possibly being pushy but she hated being the reason they weren't friends. "I'll let you by at the start."
"I'm going to qualify ahead of you so that won't matter." George laughed and booped Emilia's nose. "But yeah fine, just for you. But, if he fucks up again, I won't be letting him go so easily."
Wednesday was a productive day for the Williams team and Emilia finally ended up having a proper discussion with Jost having avoided it. She dragged Aurelia in with her for support and Jost had called in George as well because he was included in the crash in Canada.
"I have had a good start to the day so please don't ruin my mood." Jost requested. "The accident, who do we think was to blame?"
"I was." Emilia sighed. She and Jost had already discussed this because he allocated her triple sim hours which she definitely remembered. "I did all the sim hours."
"All of them? Very impressive." Jost nodded. Why did he sound surprised? What was Emilia supposed to do? Ignore his wishes and risk him finding a loophole in her contract where he can drop her. She didn't voice her thoughts just in case of that.
"Yeah I did." Emilia nodded.
"Do we need some team bonding exercises because of what happened?" Jost queried his two drivers who shook their heads.
"I took Emilia out for dinner afterwards and we're all good." George replied. He gave a smile to his teammate next to him who returned one.
"He made me split the pay though. I should have paid for it all." Emilia added the extra information on to remind George of her annoyance at that.
"I'm not concerned with who paid who as long as it was a friendly date. I don't need you two dating and not racing each other because of that." Jost voiced his concerns which frustrated Emilia. Why did they think she was trying to date everyone?
"We're not. It was as friends." Emilia confirmed with a hint of irritation in her voice.
"Anyway, we have a team bonding exercise for you to do. Not just because Emilia ruined George's race and we need to show everyone that you're friends again. George, you did some with Nicky last year. Should be a bit of fun. We will either do it tomorrow depending on your schedules or Friday after free practices." Jost said with a smile.
"Okay cool." Emilia forced a smile. It would be good because it was with George but she couldn't shake the fact that there would be loads of comments underneath the video saying nasty things about her.
Jost stated the plan for the rest of the week which Emilia and George were satisfied with. Well as satisfied as you could be with media duties. Emilia was paired with Daniel so hopefully she would have some fun with that. George got paired with Alex which was lucky for him.
Media duties were ahead of the track walk which Emilia had convinced George to do this time because he usually didn't. It didn't take much of an effort to persuade him to join her and he was going to bring his race engineer as well. But first, she had to deal with the press conference.
"This one will hopefully be more chill because you have Daniel with you. Though now they know they can get a reaction from you, they will try to." Aurelia explained as they ambled down the paddock. Emilia felt pretty good about this one and assured herself that it would all go well.
"Hey Daniel." Emilia greeted with a grin and he got up to give her a hug before taking a seat again.
"How are you?" Daniel enquired ignoring that the people in the room wanted to ask questions.
"Alright, you?"
"Yeah, good." Daniel nodded. When there was silence, someone spoke up asking a question.
"How are you both feeling going into this weekend?"
"You go first." Daniel offered. Emilia didn't really desire going first but saw no other option.
"Yeah, I've been on the sim a lot since Canada. Hoping for a calm race which is never going to happen anyway but I need to finish this one without any incidents." Emilia awkwardly laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear. She immediately untucked it because she thought it was a lot more flattering that way.
"I think you should get like a rubber ring round your car so no one can come anywhere near you and then they don't crash into you." Daniel suggested. It was interesting that he said crash into Emilia rather than the other way round.
"Yeah I'll ask the FIA about that this evening then we can test it in free practice." Emilia laughed. She actually felt mostly comfortable. Of course, with this many people in the room trying to make her slip up and reveal secrets which she certainly had a lot of, she could never feel perfectly comfortable so this was as good as it was going to get.
Daniel answered the same question and a few others went to him as well mostly about him switching teams and getting used to the car and surrounding people. Emilia tried hard not to smile when Lando's name was mentioned and Daniel telling a funny story about him made it difficult not to laugh.
"Are you two friends yet?" Daniel noticed the Williams driver was enjoying his story and queried Emilia. He raised his eyebrows at the word friends but the people in the room couldn't really see that.
"Yeah we made up." Emilia nodded rubbing her nose to hide her grin.
"Did something happen between the two of you?" The question went to Emilia. They were getting quite off track but it wasted time so she didn't have to answer any horrible questions. Though, the answer to this query was something she hadn't figured out yet.
"You should have heard them in the car having a massive argument." Emilia shot a look at Daniel and he ended his sentence quickly.
"We had a disagreement on the whole incident in Baku." Emilia casually explained like it was nothing. It wasn't nothing but she was trying not to give that away.
"Okay, question for Emilia. Your penalty points are beginning to rack up quite a bit seeing that you've only raced in eight races. Is this a concern for you?"
"Well obviously it's not ideal." Emilia started.
"How many have you got?" Daniel interrupted.
"Four. Two for each collision." Emilia had to think but held up four fingers.
"That's not that bad." Daniel shrugged.
"How many have you got?"
"Well I've only got one." Daniel smugly replied. Emilia rolled her eyes and continued answering the question.
"I don't think it's a concern yet. Maybe if I get a few more I'll start to worry." Emilia nodded. She hadn't really considered it being much of a problem yet. George was on six which is a few more than her plus she wasn't planning on getting anymore. Although, Emilia hadn't planned on getting any in the first place so it was possible she'd get more.
"Emilia, how is your relationship with your teammate after Canada?"
"George pretty much forgave me straight away and then we went out for dinner together so we're all good." Emilia smiled.
"Was that where your Instagram post came from?" Daniel queried. He was really chatty in this interview and Emilia was loving that because it meant that the press had less time to ask questions. Emilia nodded in response to Daniel's query. "I mean you looked pretty good in the dress but I think I would look better." They both laughed.
"I haven't got it with me but I can bring it to Austria if you want." Emilia offered chuckling. "That's something I need to see."
"Bring it to Austria then I'll wear it." They shook hands making a deal. Emilia would say she's almost enjoying herself.
Daniel got a few more questions before they finished up and Emilia left the room with a grin. Never had a press conference been that calm and not stressful to be in. Daniel probably helped a lot but Emilia did a lot of it herself. She answered the stupid, sexist questions calmly and coolly so there were no issues and no getting angry or yelling. Aurelia couldn't have asked for more.
"Girl, you smashed that." Aurelia hugged her friend as she came out the room. Emilia was beaming with how proud she was of herself doing that.
"Who said you can't speak to people? You were great." Daniel agreed standing next to her.
"Thanks, you helped quite a lot." Emilia fist bumped him as she drank from her water bottle. They stood there chatting for a while before Emilia and Aurelia went for lunch. Emilia didn't see Christine there so she didn't have a salad and went for the pasta that the rest of the team had. Aleix was sitting with George so he wasn't going to get out of the salad that easily.
After lunch, Emilia dragged George on her track walk. She liked doing them especially for tracks she hasn't raced on; fortunately, she had raced at Paul Ricard in Formula 2. Emilia didn't particularly have a strong like or dislike for this track. There were some corners she likes and others she didn't.
"I cannot believe you're making me do this." George groaned as they headed out the pits. Emilia had brought the usual people with her and George had only brought his engineer.
"It'll be fun." Emilia grinned nudging her teammate.
George got more into than Emilia had predicted. He was discussing the best lines to take into corners and sometimes his teammate agreed and other times she disagreed. Obviously, he was more experienced than she was at this track and she would definitely try George's suggestions in practices but she didn't want to admit that George was right if he was.
"Here's a great place to crash into someone." George teased as they entered the turn six.
"Yeah so watch you're rear end." Emilia retorted at George.
"We're catching McLaren." George pointed out as they got closer to the papaya clad team ahead.
"Can we speed up the pace just so we can overtake them?" Emilia questioned her team. No one objected so they all started speed walking down the straight that McLaren were ambling along. The pace of the Williams team got faster and faster until they were almost jogging. They were giggling as they got closer to the team in front of them in the Championship.
"McLaren wankers." Emilia shouted as they sped past them putting a twist on the famous Inbetweeners quote. Daniel stuck his middle finger up at them and George returned the favour.
Emilia's eyes wandered to Lando who had his sleeves rolled up and hair curly as ever. Her breathing stopped as she looked at him. He was so tanned and God-like that it completely stopped her movement. George pulled her arm and she continued walking.
"You're getting overtaken by a Williams. Two Williams." George yelled at them.
"You can overtake us walking and we'll overtake you on track." Lando shouted laughing. He fist bumped Daniel next to him.
Emilia was still stunned by his appearance. His veins were almost bursting through his skin on his lower arms. Lando's biceps were bulging in his upper arms which was especially noticeable as he'd rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. The sun's rays were tanning his skin a bronze colour. Sunglasses covered his gorgeous eyes and his floppy hair must have been partly obtruding his vision as it was masking his forehead. Single curls were drooping over his sunglasses which so he repeatedly pushed his hair back.
The Williams team continued the pace but stopped where they needed to. Emilia found the whole thing entertaining and had actually convinced George to do it more often which was brilliant. Track walks could sometimes be laborious but with her teammate she would hopefully enjoy it more. The team around her were loving laughing however, they were still very focused on getting their points across.
Emilia and George had a few things to do together but had no time for a team bonding exercise as Jost called it. They'd been informed they were going to do a who am I type game where they have to guess the driver through yes or no questions tomorrow. It seemed easy and fun and Emilia looked forward to it.
At the end of the day, Emilia left the paddock with Aurelia and Christine. They were talking about going evening shopping because that was happening at a shopping centre nearby. Emilia was involved in the conversation until they saw Lando. He met eyes with her and smiled so Emilia returned one. The guy in McLaren gear next to him poked him so he rejoined that conversation. They continued walking for a minute before Aurelia spoke up.
"Did I just see you smile at Lando?" Aurelia quietly probed. Her tone wasn't it was curious. Emilia nodded. "So are you friends again?"
"Bit more than that." Emilia answered almost inaudibly. She knew Aurelia was going to react to the news.
"Ugh." Christine groaned. She had other reasons to Aurelia for being unhappy.
"You what?!" Aurelia raised her voice but it was still a whisper.
"Yeah, I forgave him so we're all good." Emilia shrugged like it was nothing. She was trying to downplay it so Aurelia wouldn't react but it seemed to make her react more.
"He cheated on you with some other girl for no reason." Aurelia pointed out.
"Yes I know that." Emilia groaned. She was avoiding thinking about it because it did hurt to think about. It wasn't ideal but there would always be hiccups in a relationship.
"It takes longer than three weeks to forgive him." Aurelia decided.
"I'm staying with him." Emilia folded her arms stubbornly.
"What's to say he won't do it again?" Aurelia questioned with both of them talking faster and faster.
"Then I'll definitely break it off with him."
"Why give him a second chance?"
"Because I love him." Emilia practically shouted. Luckily, there was no one around to hear her other than the two next to her. She was shocked at her own words that she'd said without thinking.
"Woah, that escalated quickly." Christine commented.
"Well I can't fix that now." Aurelia sighed.
"Glad to know I need to be fixed." Emilia rolled her eyes.
"Yeah I can't argue with you on this one. If you love him, there's no way I'm convincing you out of this. You do you." Aurelia smiled kindly. Emilia was surprised with her sudden change in emotion.
"Did I say I loved him?" Emilia asked confused.
"Yeah, you did." Christine confirmed. "You should say the same but just switch it to George." She advised.
"I said I loved Lando." Emilia ignored her trainer and was in disbelief at herself.
"God help us." Aurelia exhaled.
"I love Lando." Emilia repeated. She hadn't been certain about it after her dream but now she was sure of it. She loved him.
Starting chapters is actually the hardest part by far. I also thought I wasn't going to write enough words in this chapter but I managed to hit 3000 which is my aim so I left the "team bonding exercise" for the next chapter. I also cannot believe we are at chapter 30 already like we're so far into it and I have to say I've loved it and love all of you as well <3
Just out of curiosity how old do you think I am? I was just wondering and I'm not going to give you the answer because I don't fancy giving out personal stuff like that even though it's not that personal. You can have my first name and that I'm English but that's it🤣
I hope you all enjoyed and have an amazing day wherever you are in the world <3