Alexis stepped in the Ferrari HQ in Maranello, she successfully finished her second year at Nottingham it was now time for the placement year. She missed all her friends, even if she saw most of them during the British Grand Prix. She was walking to reach the desk when she saw a girl waving at her.
"Alexis! So good to see you back in town! I miss you and I'm not the only one!" it was Giulia, the chef of the design department, she seemed so enthusiast to see the French girl "Come her my girl!" Giulia pulled Alexis is a hug "We need you sweety." Giulia mumbled; indeed, the results aren't satisfying since the beginning of the season, Ferrari is 4 in the constructor championship.
"It's great to be home again, can't wait to start!" Alexis was excited to be back; she loved her job and all the atmosphere around. "It was long not being able to work in the factory and being with you guys!"
Giulia stepped back to face Alexis, she took her face in her hands "You have change sweety, you are even more beautiful!" Alexis started blushing "I have two news for you, first you will start today and second Mattia want to see you first." Alexis started worrying a bit "Don't worry he just want to talk about a new contract and stuffs like these." Alexis was confused
"A new contract? For this Year?" Giulia nodded
"Yes, nothing to worry about. Go, don't make him wait!" Giulia smiled at Alexis and left her in the middle of the lobby.
Alexis walked in the building to join Mattia's office, the door was closed so she knocked and wait.
"Come in!" Alexis was a bit stressed when she heard this voice, she didn't know what to think about the meeting. Alexis shyly opened the door and got in the office. "Hello Alexis, nice to welcome you again in the factory. I hope you finish you year with success."
"Hello Mattia, it's always a pleasure to see you. The end of the year was nice, I was excited to be back with you and the team." Alexis wasn't confident at all
"Great, please take a seat." Mattia point an empty seat in front of his desk "I would like to talk about some subjects with you today. First, we will make a new contact for your placement year, basically it's going to be the same one with just one exception: your salary. I heard rumours around the paddock, and I know many teams are interested by your profile. Therefore, to be sure you will stay with us I will double your salary." Alexis was dumbstruck, she never imagined that such a situation could happen. "Some teams will surely contact you this year, so I want to be sure that you are fully satisfied at Ferrari and money won't be a raison for you to leave us." Mattia gave her the new contract "I would like you to read it again and sign it as soon as possible. You are able to work today with the previous contract but if this one can be signed for tomorrow it would be lovely." Alexis took the contact.
"Sure, it will be on your desk tomorrow morning."
"Perfect, now there is something else I would like talk about. It's clearly written on the contract and it's about other drivers, your close relationship with Lando Norris interest the press. We both know that you were the girl on the pics from Silverstone, you can't deny it."
"And I'm not going to deny it, we were celebrating his first win in F1. We were just eating ice-creams on a bench." Alexis said
"I'm sure it was full of good intentions Alexis, but don't forget that if there are too much rumours about you being together you are fired. This is not what I want and I'm sure this is not what you want, live your life but be careful Alexis I'm not going to give you a second chance if something happened." Mattia was fixing her
"Understood." Alexis replied
"Fine, you have a lot of work to do now for next weekend. We need to be strong in Bahrein."
"We will." Alexis was sure, she knew she will help the team for the grand prix but she also knew that she will see Lando again. Sending messages, and calling him is so different from seeing him, hugging him. With him Alexis felt loved, and secured. Alexis stood up and left the office with her new contract, this pay rise was a wonderful thing for her. Studying abroad was expensive, and she wanted to help her parents with the fees.
Alexis went to the design department; she was now ready to dive into the new adventure of working for Ferrari for more than a year; it will be epic. Alexis was cheerful to meet once again her colleagues, all the work she had already done with the team helped her a lot with uni. Once she opened the door of the design department, all the computer sounds stopped and all the eyes were on Alexis. Everyone seemed glad to she her, they both stop what they were doing to come around her. Every one hug her, chatted with her, laughed with her until someone shew up.
"What is going on here?" Every one turned over to face Giulia, but when she saw Alexis her face lighted up. "Glad you finish your meeting, now please can everyone go back to his work; lunch break is in less than one hour, you will have plenty of time to question Alexis then." As they were robots, all the designer got back to their desk. "Alexis, I would like you to work with the team for this season car. It seems that we clearly need you, three days until we leave for Bahrain so go to work sweety!" Alexis nodded and joined her new team.
For the rest of the morning the work on the rear wing, making sure to optimize the performance for this weekend. When lunch time came, she wasn't hungry so she decided to stay. She knew there was a lot of work to make it work, the car was slow compare to others. While she was analysing the data from last year, Alexis heard the door opened. She looked at the men who was walking in her direction.
"Are you going to say hi, or do I have to run after you blondi ?" Alexis smile
"Alessandro! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to ghost you, I was focusing on my work." Alessandro pulled her in a hug
"As always, work will kill you one day."
"Maybe, but I will be proud to see all my achievements that day and this is the most important."
"True, I miss you. The factory without you it's not as fun as with you."
"I know, no one can be as perfect as me!" Alexis chuckled
"Don't be silly." Alessandro rolled his eyes "I can live without you."
"No you can't." Alexis smiled
"Stop this game blondi, or I will ask Mattia to send you at Hass." Alexis gently pushed him
"He won't accept!" Alexis said with a smile
"You think so." Alessandro smiled as well
"Well I have a new contract, he doesn't want to lose me. I am his protégé!"
"You wish!" Alessandro chuckled
The two continued chatting a bit, until some designers got in the place to work on the car development. Alessandro gave an apple to Alexis and left her, she worked with her team for the rest of the day. Once she reached the parking, she was enthusiast seeing her baby, the Ferrari Portofino was patiently waiting for her. She missed driving this car, her fiat 500 wasn't that fun to drive. Alexis needed to hear the engine sound; therefore, she didn't go straight back to her apartment, she drove around before.
At her apartment, Alexis sat on her sofa she was exhausted; she needed some rest. But first she carefully read the new contract, it was the exact same but the salary changed. Alexis signed it, then she started preparing her diner, some pasta with cream sauce. While doing that, her phone started ringing; it was a call from Lando. Alexis was a bit surprise, since she thought he would be busy with the weekend grand prix but she picked up the phone.
"Hey princess! How was your first day?" Lando asked with enthusiasm; Alexis was astonished by the fact he remembered that today was her second first day at Ferrari.
"Hey Lando! Quite pleasant, signed a new contract and went straight to work!" Alexis was so happy to hearing him
"A new contract? Like, for after uni?" Lando was kind of confused
"No" Alexis giggled
"Ok, because tis was confusing. Since you want to move from Ferrari." Lando was right alexis wanted to left the team.
"Mattia is scared, it seems that many teams want me. I'm a bit surprise with that, but at least I got a pay rise!"
"Nice! You will invite me at the restaurant then!" Lando chuckled
"Well once I will be able to be see with you Lando. Mattia insisted on this point, anything and I'm fired." Alexis was upset with the situation
"Great! Then you will join McLaren, Brent is waiting for you!"
"This is not how it works Lando, I wish it was that easy." Alexis gasped
"At the end everything will be fine, and if it's not fine; then it is not the end! Remember that!" Lando tried to be supportive for Alexis "What are you going to do tonight?"
"I'm cooking pasta for my diner, after that I will fell asleep. I am so tired; I need some sleep. With all my final exams I have a lake of sleep, 3 hours per night it's clearly not enough." Lando started laughing "This is not funny Lando, it hurst me to see you doing some uno nights on twitch!" Lando was laughing harder
"Wait! So, you are complaining sleeping 3 hours per night, but then you watch my twitch. I will never understand you, Alexis!"
"It's like podcasts for me, this is entertaining." Alexis was serious
"Fair, now I will be shy knowing you are watching me; I hope you subscribed!"
"No!" the answer was brutal
"No? Like, no?"
"Bro I'm broke, I'm not gonna pay to comment on your twitch when I can send you message. I'm not stupid."
"Fair, I'm shy starting my live tonight now. Thank you, Alexis!" Lando sounds upset
"What! Plenty of people are watching you!"
"Yeah, but I don't know them, whereas I know you princess! I'm stress now, I need to tell Max to cancel."
"Max?" Alexis was confused "Like Verstappen?"
"No, Max Fewtrell a friend of mine; he is currently staying at my house. He is part of the quadrant squad; I am sure you will like him." Alexis could hear the smile on Lando's voice.
"Making sense, like I didn't imagine you streaming with Verstappen; would be awkward."
"We have already played video games together, but I don't think I will a proper live with him. I don't want to disturb you more Alexis, I guess your pasta are waiting and my chat as well. Can't wait to see you on Thursday, I have already plan something for the evening. No need of fancy stuffs, since we can't be seen together. Good night princess!"
"Thank you Lan, have a fun evening with Max. I'm counting the days before I can see you again, I can't wait any longer!"
"Alexis?" Lando asked not that confident
"Yes Lando?"
"What are you doing during the summer break in august?" Lando was still unsure about his statement
"I have nothing plan for the moment; I will look forward having some holiday. I need to talk about that with Mattia. Why?"
"Well, I would like to know if you want to spend some time with me?" there was a moment of silence before Alexis' answer
"Sure! Any idea?" Alexis was enthusiast with the idea of spending some holiday with Lando
"Not yet, I... we need to find a destination where we can breathe in peace. Let me know if you have any idea."
"Alright, I will think about it. What kind of break do you want? Cultural, mountain, beach, city...."
"The one you prefer princess, since I'm with you this is paradise." Alexis blushed hearing Lando
"Since I'm a great Lando fan, I watched the YouTube video featuring Hilton. Texas is your favourite destination, isn't it?" Alexis was proud to remember that
"True" Lando chuckled "But you need to enjoy the trip as well, so we aren't going there if you don't want to."
"Lando, same as you I only want to spend some time with you. Furthermore, I never been to Texas so it could be a great opportunity. I guess Austin is a bit unsafe since there is grand prix there, but Dallas or Houston are fine."
"Yeah, Austin isn't the best plan. To be honest I really want to go to Dallas, so this could be our destination if it's ok for you." Lando was either happy and unsure
"This is perfect Lando, I will ask Mattia to have a week of. Or do you want to stay more than one week?"
"No, I can't more than one week; I will do some sim and I also want to visit my family."
"Do you want to leave after the Hungarian Grand Prix, for the first week of the break?"
"Yes, we can fly directly from the Hungarian airport, it's easier I guess."
"Sounds like a plan to me, I ask Mattia tomorrow; well to be honest I'm not gonna ask I will tell you that this will be my break." Lando started chuckling
"You sassy muppet!" Alexis started laughing
"Don't you have a stream to start?"
"Don't you have pasta to eat?"
"How dare you? Anyway, enjoy your evening Lando; can't wait to see you Thursday!"
"Yeah, have a great evening princess; sleep well!"
"Bye Lan!"
"Bye princess!"
Alexis hanged up, she always enjoyed calling Lando; always great moments. She got in her kitchen to finally eat her diner when she received a notification on her phone from Twitch.
@landonorris is on live!
"Hey chat! How are you today? As you can see Max is with me tonight!" Lando pointed Max
"Hi everyone!" Max Waved
"Tonight, we will just talk about everything and nothing. I was at the MTC for some sim today, it was nice seeing everyone." Lando started reading the comments "The guy next to you is good looking."
"Thanks people!" Max said with a smile "I know you have never seen two pretty best friends, I 'm the prettier." Lando hit gently Max' shoulder
"Shut up!" Lando said with a smile, he continued reading the comments
"Who was the girl you were seen with at Silverstone?" Max said laughing "Sorry mate, just to let you know chat I don't know either. He doesn't want to tell me, I'm kinda sad Lando." Max sniffed loudly
"She is a friend of mine; everyone is happy now?" Lando wanted to avoid the Alexis subject during his live. "Are you single?" Lando read "Good question, are you single Max?" Lando asked chuckling
"Yes, please ladies you can slide in my dm's." Max winkled at the camera
"Stop saying that, it's a twitch live not a tinder meeting!" Lando rolled his eyes "Thanks Emmy for the sub!" They continued reading the comments
"Are you exited for Bahrein Lando?" Max fixed him
"Yeah! Can't wait to be there, I love this race and this place!" Lando was a bit to enthusiast for this race and Max noticed that
"Why so much enthusiasm for Bahrein? This is sus bro!"
"I enjoyed night race, and the town is so nice!" Lando was trying everything to escape the situation "Thanks Theo for the sub!" Lando's phone started ringing "Oh my god! Zac Brown is calling!" Lando smiled and left the room, Max started reading the comments
"Does Lando have a girl friend?" he read "Well, this is sus; like it's been some months that lil Lando is acting weirdly. Hiding his phone screen, leaving the room for calling people; I won't be surprise if he say yes. But he will never." Lando came back "All good?"
"sup chat! Just got fired!"
"Oh nice!" Max smiled
"Yeah! No I'm fine, I'm not fired. Just signed a contract for eleven years." Lando smiled
"Alright, I was enjoying my time without you." Max suspiciously smiled
"What the hell did you do?"
"Just answering random questions." Max said with innocence
"Should we watch the unboxed, from the Spanish Grand Prix?" Lando looked at Max, who nodded. "Alright!" Lando started searching the video when a new sub appeared "Thank you Alexis..." Lando looked at the camera, he was surprised "for the sub" he spoke slowly at the end, and a smirk appear on his face.
"Mate, what are you doing it's worrying; like really!" Max looked at him "Do you know this dude?"
"Yeah, a great friend!" since Alexis could be a boy or a girl, Lando tried to hide the real identity
"Why did I never hear about him before then?"
"You have, just you don't remember. Two different things." Lando was focused, trying to find the video.
"You woke up and choose violence this morning bro?"
The stream continued for two more hours, Alexis didn't watch everything since she was tired and needed to wake up early tomorrow to got to the factory. She quickly felt asleep in her apartment, in Maranello.
Tuesday morning Alexis woke up and got ready for her work day, she had two more days to find a solution for the car. With the analyses she did on Monday, Alexis understood that the problem was from the engine rather than design of the car. They needed more power, Alexis was a bit unsecure to talk to Alessandro about this issue; but she had to.
While driving to the factory, Alexis listened to some music. Once she arrived at the parking she saw Carlos ' golf, Alexis always wondered why he was driving this instead of a Ferrari or anything else. Carlos was such a sweet guy, taking care of his family and friends; his relation with Lando was and is still kind of a bromance. When she opened her car door, Alexis saw Carlos who was still in his car looking at his phone. She approached his car and waved at him, Carlos saw her and opened his car door.
"Alexis! Nice to see you here." Carlos pulled her in a hug, and step back to face her "I thought you would arrive in September."
"Unfortunately for you I'm here!" Alexis joked
"This is fortunate, with you performances will come, right?"
"I hope so, but with what I saw yesterday; it seems that there are issues with the engine and a lake of power."
"I know." Carlos gasped "But Alessandro is convinced that the engine is perfect. It is, its reliable and everything but it's damn slow."
"I will speak about that with him, first I need to see Mattia." Alexis smiled
"Everything is ok?" Carlos asked with a bit of worry
"Of course, it's for my summer break!" Alexis chuckled and Carlos smiled
"This is important!" they both started laughing "Well, Alexis see you around!" Carlos waved at her and left
"See you!" Alexis smiled at him, she opened her boot and took the contract and her bag. She entered the building and joined Mattia's office, she knocked at the door and Mattia let her came in.
"Hello Mattia, this is the contract for you. I signed it yesterday." Alexis placed the contract on his desk
"Perfect Alexis, anything else?" Mattia looked at Alexis signature
"Well I would like to know if I could take some holiday during the summer break, the first week?" Alexis was confident, she prepared arguments if she needed.
"This is your second day here, and you already want some vacation?" Mattia started fixing her
"Thought it would be easier for your organisation." Alexis was still very confident
"The three weeks are important for the development of the car; we will need you. So for the moment it's a no." Alexis expected that answer
"we both know that this pay rise is because you want to keep me at Ferrari, right?" Mattia nodded "If Mercedes really want me they will be able to give me more, right?" Mattia nodded again "The salary would be higher and I'm sure if I asked for a vacation week during the summer break they will say yes. I don't want to leave Mattia; but if I have to I will." Mattia was silent
"I guess I have no other choice if I want to keep you with us." Mattia gasped, Alexis knew that she won. "Are you going to ask the same thing next year?"
"I don't know yet, but I might." Alexis was satisfied
"Alright, we will see then. My secretary will plan your vacation week, she will send you an e-mail."
"Thank you Mattia, have a good day." Alexis smiled and left his office. Now she needed to talk to Alessandro and she knew it will be a tough moment. She was walking in the direction of the engine department when she saw him speaking with Charles. She didn't want to interrupt so she wait until Charles left, then Alexis caught Alessandro.
"Alessandro!" Alessandro turned over to face the blond girl
"Hey blondy, how are you today!" a wide smile appeared on his face
"Quite good, you?" Alexis smiled back
"Perfect now I see you!" Alessandro was still flirty with her, even after Monaco.
"Well, it won't last, I want to talk about your engine. To be direct, it sucks. We need more power, it is reliable and everything but compare to others we are fucking slow. I analysed the data from the wings yesterday, and drag isn't that important so now it's clearly the engine. You need to work on it, we can't be four or five in the constructor championship; this has to change as quick as possible." Alessandro looked irritated.
"First, you arrived yesterday so you have nothing to say about the engine since you are in the design part. Then no one is complaining about the performances of the engine."
"Are you sure about that? Before arriving, I talked with Carlos and he found the car slow as fuck. His fist complaint was about the engine and the lake of power. Open your eyes Alessandro the results aren't there; we both need to work on the car."
"I have worked here for years, you what did you do? You did an internship last summer, where you were useful. Then you decide to date the whole paddock and you want to teach me how to do my work?" Alessandro was furious
"Absolutely not, I'm just saying that the engine isn't as perfect as you pretend." Alexis was annoyed that Alessandro didn't want to change his point of view
"Ok then we should go and talk to Mattia, he will give us his point of view on the situation." Alexis wasn't sure about that, she just left his office and not in the best way "Or are you too scary to face him."
"Certainly not, if this is what you want then I guess there is no other solution." Alexis gasped
"There are, but you are to blind to see them!"
"I'm not fucking blind Alessandro; I'm just telling facts." Everyone in the factory were avoiding the corridor, they didn't want to interrupt the argument. The whole town could hear it, they both chose violence this morning. Some footstep arrived in their direction; they were too focused to be distracted but a voice stopped them.
"What's going on?" they turned over to face Giulia, who looked furious "Why aren't you working, the grand Prix isn't going to wait and the car is this slower than my grandma!" Giulia fixed Alessandro then Alexis "Can someone give me an explanation?"
"Nothing important." Alessandro first say, he looked at Alexis with insistence to be sure that she won't say a thing. But Alexis is stubborn
"Well Giulia, I was telling Alessandro that there is a lack of power; the car is so slow. The engine department should find a way to reduce this shortage." Alexis softly said, Alexis could see in Alessandro's gaze his desire of killing her.
"How did you get it Alexis? That the problem was from the engine." Giulia was interested
"By analysing the data yesterday, I saw that the car wasn't' producing that much drag. So I needed to find an explanation; and when Alessandro came for the lunch I though about the engine. I did some researches and concluded that we needed more power." Alexis was a bit proud of her statement and her searches
"How can you figure it out in less than a day, and my team needed two months?" Giulia was concerned "Anyway, this is not the point for now. Alessandro, I have a fresh rapport about your engine and it's not good for you. You have less than a month to find a solution, otherwise you are fired." Giulia was serious
"I will do my best to find a solution." Alessandro shyly said
"Your best isn't enough Alessandro!" Alexis never saw Giulia like this before; Alessandro left the girls to reach his department.
" I miss your work Alexis! Now let's improve the performances." The two girls walked in direction of the design department, it was another win for Alexis this morning and as we both know never two without three.
During her lunch time Alexis send a message to Lando:
Lando⭐
I have my week 🥳!!
Nice !!!!!
Did you struggle for it ?
It as ok, I had great arguments😉
Sure about that princess
Can't wait for this trip now, i'm so exited
I will buy the tickets tonight
I can buy mines Lan
You don't have to do it for me
No I will, and I insist this is my present
For what?
Having you 🧡
I guess anything will change your mind
Exactly 😁
Is everything fine at your work?
Well I had kind of a fight with Alessandro for some professional reasons
Apart of that everything is perfect.
I never liked this guy
Like idk but there is something with him
be careful
always
Sim today?
Yes it was exhausting
Daniel is next to me and wanted to say hi
Hi daniel 😂
vocal message :
daniel: Hi darling, hope you don't miss me that much! I can't wait...
lando: Stop this!
daniel: I can't wait to see you my love !
(Alexis could hear that daniel was laughing hard, and guess that he stole Lando's phone who tried to take it back)
Happy I will see you this weekend daniel 😂
Are you alright Lando? 😂
Yeah sorry for that, I'm working with a kid 😂
Can I call you this evening?
I would love to, but I have a lot of work to do before our flight
so I guess it will be complicated for tonight
When do you arrive in Bahrein?
Wednesday but late
U?
Wednesday as well
nice 🤩
Come to my room then
We arrive at 11 pm
I arrive at 11:45 pm
I don't want to disturb your sleep
You can't disturb me Alexis
Ok fair, then see you tomorrow night
See you princess 👸🏼🌑
Can't wait to see you 🧡🧡
Can't wait as well 💛💛
Alexis worked the for the rest of her day, the good news what she heard that the engine department changed some adjustments. She hoped it will give more power to the car for the race this Sunday. Alexis left the factory at 9:30 pm, she was as usually one of the last employees. When she passed Mattia's office the door was open and he was still there working.
"Good evening!" Alexis stopped and stepped back, Mattia was now looking at her "Oh, it's you Alexis. You should have left this place hours ago!" Mattia was surprised to saw her, he thought it was a department director rather than a simple employee.
"It's a Grand prix weekend, I needed to finish everything for tonight." Alexis smiled at him
"Are you pay for your extra hours?"
"Never, but these are part of the job. I'm a perfectionist girl so I won't leave this place until I did everything I wanted. I needed the engine department new report with the changes; and it arrived just few minutes ago." Alexis was still in front of the door
"Flying for the employee of the month!" Mattia chuckled
"Well this isn't the motivation; winning is!" Alexis smiled wider
"Enjoy your night Alexis and see you tomorrow at the airport." Mattia smiled at her
"Good evening Mattia!" Alexis left the place and got back to her apartment. She prepared her bags for her trip to Bahrein, then she slid in her bead and checked her messages.
Lando ⭐
Good Night Princess 🧡
Night Lan 🧡
She felt asleep without waiting for Lando's response, she was too tired for that.
Ok Guys I have many good news that I want to share with you; first I have been accepted to Nottingham University!! I am so happy, it's a step on my journey to get to my dream job. Then I watch Max Fewtrell (one of Lando's friend) live on twitch tonight and he congrats me for this; like for real! I wasn't ready for that, like he read my comment and replied to it !! (If you are wondering I am now on cloud 9)
Also I can't wait for the Grand Prix this weekend and the sprint race, sure it will be interesting !!
Don't forget to check happymuffin7story, it's amazing !
I love you guys we recentrly hit 2k reads and this is crazy; I started this story as a joke and now it's getting more serious!
Take care of you, don't forget to vote and comment!
I'm so so happy you can't imagine, like this day is unbelivable for me !! And I want to share this good vibe with you !!
See you soon
PS: next chapter will be ... special