"Ugh this is not what I would call a holiday." Lily complained gesturing to the chaos around her. The men were playing some form of water polo in the pool with some of their girlfriends playing as well. Emilia, Lily and Isa excluded themselves and resorted to sunning themselves instead but it was hard to relax with all the noise and frequent splashing of water beside them.
"We need a girl's day somewhere." Emilia added.
"There's a spa not too far from here that's good." Isa suggested.
"Can you book us in?" Lily asked.
"Yeah I can try." Isa nodded.
"How many people are coming though? Surely, we don't want to invite the boys?" Emilia needed a break from the testosterone obviously not including Lando and maybe George. "I'll ask. Oi who wants to go on a spa day?" She shouted. She caught most of their attention Some of the boys responded with yes. "Women only, sorry men you can have a men's day or something."
Isa sorted the spa talking to someone on the phone in the kitchen so she would actually be able hear the person on the other end of the phone. The only booking they had for the rather large number of people this week was this afternoon. There was a hurry to get everything ready as they had to leave soon. As there were seven of them, they had to take two cars. Isa drove her car and Max had a nicer rental car than the one that Lando hired.
"Max let me take it." Emilia pleaded. "It's not a Formula 1 car so I won't crash it or anything."
"Not a scratch okay? This car isn't mine so I can't afford to pay damages." Max responded.
"Of course you can afford it, you would rather not pay it. Trust me it's fine and if I crash it I will pay for it." Emilia promised. "But you're paying for any speeding tickets."
"What hang on?!" Max protested.
"Bye see you later." Emilia shut the front door behind her before Max could stop her. She's already said goodbye to Lando and the girls bundled into Max's car with Emilia driving and Kelly next to her. Char and Lily were in the back. "I don't trust myself Kelly you drive." Emilia swapped seats with Kelly letting her drive. It's not that she didn't trust herself it's that she now feared driving. Not once, had she driven anywhere since her accident. She almost could but she sat in the driver's seat and realised she couldn't. Emilia thought she hid her fear pretty well acting as if she didn't want to drive because she didn't feel like it and that her hands were shaking in the pockets of her shorts.
"We should have booked taxis so we could go for drinks afterwards." Lily pointed out.
"We can still go for drinks just less I guess and Isa says there's loads of shops around here that do late night shopping so we can do that." Charlotte added. "Em what you thinking?" Emilia was still trying to calm herself down from her little freak out she had while in the driver's seat.
"Uh yeah that sounds good." Emilia nodded. If anyone noticed anything was up with Emilia, they didn't say anything.
The girls chatted about Monaco which was a conversation that Emilia couldn't really get involved with. She could have tried and listened but she was having a meltdown inside. The accident kept replaying in her head. From her listening to music to suddenly becoming unconscious, it freaked her out.
They arrived at the spa and Emilia got out the car taking a deep breath. They had had the windows open in the car but she still felt like she couldn't breathe. Her mood improved once the other car arrived. The group of women were probably very annoying to everyone else but they were having the best time. They were relaxing and mostly quiet but often someone would reveal something and they would all squeal and be overexcited and they hadn't even had that much alcohol. Emilia sat chatting in the sauna to Cate when the other Kate came in. She sat the other side of the Williams driver.
"Um do I need to leave?" Emilia asked. She sensed some awkwardness between the two of them.
"No you're fine you can stay." Cate answered.
"I really don't want to be interrupting anything." Emilia insisted.
"Emilia, stay. It's fine." Katerina responded. "I have no problem with you Cate."
"Neither do I." Cate replied. "I think Pierre is still slightly awkward around me because of our breakup but we decided to stay friends so we're not ripping each other's heads off."
"Yeah Pierre has never said a bad word about you and I'm glad you've found someone else who loves you." Katerina smiled.
"Fucking hell that was dealt with like adults." Emilia admitted. "Pierre and Callum could never."
"Yeah I definitely think we're a lot more mature than them." Cate laughed. They were having a good laugh bitching about people in the paddock for a while. Emilia left them to chat and poured an ice bucket over her head in another room to cool down.
"There was no hesitation there Em." Lily chuckled.
"Nope. My soul is cold so it feels right." Emilia said with no emotion. Lily looked slightly horrified. "No I have a lot of ice baths after exercising and racing, I'm used to them."
"True to be fair I have had quite a few after golfing." Lily replied. She sat down on the edge of the pool with her legs dangling in the warmish water. "We haven't had much time to talk really since everything."
"Everything." Emilia sighed.
"I don't know where to start. You and Lando? How did that happen?" Lily enquired.
"Uh well we grew close and I shut him out several times because I refused to date drivers but I gave into my feelings in Spain where we almost kissed except I got a phone call. We decided to go to Paris for a few nights after that where we kissed by the Eiffel Tower and grew closer until Baku where he thought I was cheating on him because I was with Daniel wearing his jumper but Daniel found me after something uh really horrible so we had an argument and didn't talk to each other for days. We made up and have been together ever since." Emilia couldn't help but smile.
"You kissed under the Eiffel Tower that is so romantic stop!" Lily squealed. "That's so cute. So you're like boyfriend and girlfriend now?"
"Not exactly." Emilia admitted. Lily's face grew shocked. "No there just hasn't been a good moment. I know we really should have but we didn't want labels at the beginning. I know it's only me asking for him to be my boyfriend or vice versa but I still want it to be perfect."
"That's fair enough. You two might as well get married at this point. You are literally perfect for each other." Lily smiled. Emilia was happy to hear that other people thought they worked.
"We're not perfect. We still have disagreements and he strops sometimes and he has a weird problem with George some of the time." Emilia disclosed.
"Oh that's odd." Lily replied. She knew perfectly well what was going on; but then everyone seemed to, apart from Emilia.
"Yeah it's probably just because they're racing closer and clashing more. Though, I fear that if they crash into each other, their friendship could be over." Emilia sighed. Sometimes, him and George were fine; other moments there was this unresolved tension that never went further than glares though Emilia knew at some point it would.
"Yeah I'm sure it's nothing to worry about they'll be back to normal in no time." Lily assured.
After their time slot ran out at the spa, they still had a bit of spare time and headed into town. Two of them had offered to drive after not drinking at the spa. Emilia had quickly downed two glasses of champagne making her ineligible to drive. She hadn't discussed her fear of driving with Lily though she debated doing so. Emilia knew she had to drive an F1 car in a few weeks so she needed to drive before that but decided now wasn't the time. She kept getting flashbacks and the turmoil of emotions washed over her again.
There was a prom dress shop in the town centre where they admired the dresses from the outside. They made the decision to go in. After all, Emilia needed a dress for her brother's wedding which was after Monza. She had already requested that Lando goes with her as she needed him for emotional support but Mick was probably right. It might be best if she didn't go. If Fred was here, she would definitely go and would have the best time. Her Grandad would have gone just for her, ignoring the rest of their family. He would have danced with her and bought her loads of drinks and ordered her a cab home when she drunk too much. But he couldn't do any of that now.
"Em, you coming in?" Charlotte questioned as the rest of them had scrambled in to try on dresses but Emilia was reminiscing about her late Grandad.
"Yeah." Emilia nodded and followed the Monegasque in.
The dresses in there were absolutely stunning. Emilia put aside her sadness to make room for the eagerness. She knew what size she was and knew that she was not the same size as most of these girls. Her thighs were a bit bigger and her waist slightly wider. It made her feel quite insecure as she had to go to a rack a few sizes bigger. Emilia was still a size that was below average of the population but she felt fatter than she was. She needed to understand that everyone was all naturally different sizes and that she was beautiful either way but she seemed to miss that point. Emilia was also a racing driver, she needed quite a lot of muscle on her and with it relaxed she thought of it as fat even though it wasn't.
Nevertheless, she picked out a dress to try on. It wasn't really her colour. It was peach that had one shoulder and a thigh slit but the dress went down to her ankles being flowy though it hugged her hips. She changed and stood in her cubicle. The dress had surprised her. She had just grabbed it because everyone else had already rushed into the changing rooms after quickly picking dresses out.
Emilia sort of felt left out. Not that it was any of the girl's fault. She just didn't feel that she fit in with them. Though she wouldn't feel any better if she was with the men back at the villa. Emilia didn't realise that it wasn't that she didn't fit in, she was distancing herself from the rest of them. She was scared to open up to them but also that she was going through a tough period and felt that she had to deal with it alone, because that's all she knew.
"Emilia, how are you doing in there?" Kate called.
"Just coming." Emilia replied and opened the door. They were all still in sandals because they're dresses came over their heads so they weren't walking around the shop barefoot.
"Girl, you look stunning." Kate complimented. Emilia didn't know whether she was just saying that or whether she meant it.
"Seriously, red is your colour." Emilia responded grinning. She put on a smile because she didn't want to ruin it. Of course, Emilia would never have ruined it by not sharing the joy that the others had but she thought that she would.
"You need to send a photo to Lando." Kate ordered.
"You need to send a photo to Pierre." Emilia instructed. "I'm sure one of the shopkeepers will take a photo for us to all send back to our boys." The shopkeeper did so and Emilia was on the end of the photo. Someone sent it back to the villa and they bought their dresses. Emilia didn't know whether the others were buying it for an occasion or whether they were buying it because why not?
Emilia was exhausted by the time they got home. The boys had replied to their messages after they all simultaneously sent the photos to their other halves. They were showered in compliments and informed that the boys had decided to do a BBQ. The women hadn't made any plans for dinner so they finished up their shopping and headed back to the villa.
"Em did you want to drive back?" Kelly questioned.
"Uh no it's alright. You can. I'm over the limit anyway." Emilia didn't sound as confident in her answer as before as the question had caught her off guard. She imagined some of them were figuring out her fear of driving but if they had, none of them said anything. Emilia was trying to keep it on the downlow because it was something the media would die to get hold of. But she also didn't want to tell anyone because she thought it sounded ridiculous. She raced cars for a living and now she didn't even want to drive on the road.
When they got back to the villa, the girls headed outside but Emilia slipped up to her room. She could hear everyone outside and smell the BBQ but Emilia lay flat down on her bed. Lando came up and found her after a few minutes. He flopped on the bed next to her and met her eyes.
"Talk to me." Lando prompted. He didn't get any response from Emilia so he wrapped his arms round her. They didn't speak for a few moments. Lando didn't want to push her to open up about what was bothering her. "You looked amazing in that dress." Lando quietly said.
"Not as good as the others." Emilia sighed.
"Is that what's upset you?" Lando rubbed Emilia's back as he spoke. She had the opportunity to tell Lando about her fear of driving but she didn't.
"Mhmm." Emilia replied.
"Emi sit up." Lando instructed sitting up himself. He put her face in his hands running his thumbs across her cheek. "You are so beautiful, and if it means I have to tell you that for every five minutes for you to see that, then I will."
"But I don't feel it compared to them and I'm worried you'll leave me for girls like them because they're prettier." Emilia responded. She didn't blame any of the others at all for how she was feeling.
"Babe meet my eyes. You are so much prettier than every single girl on this planet but you know that's not why I fell in love with you. I fell in love with you because of your kindness, your generosity, the way you make people laugh without trying, your drive and ambitious to do what no woman has ever done before and you have no fear in doing so. You are so amazing and I literally cannot believe out of seven billion people including a seven time World Champion that showed interest, you chose me. You don't ever have to worry about me leaving you." Lando promised. Emilia couldn't help but smile.
"You don't have to worry either. I love you so much. And I would choose you every time. Every fucking time, out of all the men in the world, I would pick you every time." Emilia assured. She felt a lot better but still not good. She shared a kiss with Lando but it was left at only that.
"Do you just want to stay up here and watch Shrek?" Lando offered.
"Shrek 2 is better." Emilia smiled.
"Okay let me go tell them you're ill and we can watch Shrek 2." Lando wasn't an idiot, well not with this at least. He knew there was something that she wasn't telling him. Lando just didn't want to push it out of Emilia. He trusted her enough to tell him when she was ready. That's what love is after all.
Do you think it would be bad if I resurrected Fred? I mean I can find some loop to do so. No I'm joking, as much as I miss Fred I killed him off for a reason. He won't be coming back as much as it saddens me.
On a different note, I just want to remind you that every single one of you are beautiful in many ways. Emilia doesn't seem to be understanding that now but she and all of you are perfect. Okay Emilia isn't perfect because she keeps crashing her F1 car but still. You are all beautiful in your own way <3
Next chapter will be a lot more exciting😁🤭