"I still don't know how you made this-" Lando's fingers motioned to the empty plate in front of him. "from scratch. That's just unbelievable."
After we had let go of each other and I finally got back to cooking, we talked a little bit longer. At some point, where the curry was almost done and it had only to be heated, I told Lando to watch the food while I was quickly getting into the shower. I wasn't comfortable with eating dinner in sweaty sports clothing. Besides, I wasn't shaven completely and I didn't want to present myself like that to Lando when I would sit there in a top.
He didn't mind and watched the food for me. When I got back into the kitchen, he was holding his phone in one hand, while stirring lost in thought in the pot with the other hand. I scared him a little when I suddenly talked to him, which made both of us laugh. After that, we both got some food on our plates and sat down at the table in my winter garden. It was nice and warm while still having a view of the garden through the big glass windows and doors.
Outside, it started to get colder. Summer was over now and the leaves on the trees started to change colour. I was looking forward to the autumn and winter. There were a lot of great things coming. I just felt that they would. In my winter garden, it was comfortably warm though. I was fine wearing just some black leggings with a red sports top. My hair was still damp from the shower. It laid in strains over my shoulder. I hated wearing my hair down, but this way it could dry properly and fast.
"It's cooking, not magic.", I answered him. His eyes went to mine and we both smiled.
"It is to me.", he told me. I gave him a look to tell him I thought it was complete bullshit. His smile only grew bigger though.
"Trust me, you haven't seen me cook. I even managed to burn pasta while it was still in the water.", he told me some memory that just came up in his mind. I didn't want to laugh, but couldn't hold my laughter in eventually. He joined me in with a bright smile as I threw my head back.
"No way.", I managed to say under my breath. My head dropped back to its normal position.
"Yes way.", he laughed.
"Wow, I guess we need to cook together once then.", I remarked and took my wine glass into my hand. While taking a sip, my eyes still watched the boy across the table from me. There was still a weak smile on his face. Almost like he was enjoying this time we spent together. I wasn't going to lie, I was. There was something different about the way we interacted now that I knew he wasn't dating this Luisa girl.
"Well, I would say that we did that today.", he remarked and his smile grew in one corner. I sat down the glass again.
"No, today doesn't count.", I said back seriously.
"Why not?" His voice sounded like a disappointed kid, who asked for a sweet but was denied by his parents. I chuckled at that image in my head.
"Because you didn't do anything!", I said back and giggled.
"That's not true.", Lando defended himself.
"Oh, right! Sorry! You stirred the food for some minutes, so it wouldn't burn. How could I forget that!" My voice was full of sarcasm.
"Well, that is a big thing for me." Lando spoke quietly, but clearly.
"I'm sorry.", I said back with sympathy. "I didn't know this was a big step for you."
"It is.", he ensured me once more playfully and we both giggled. As our laughter quieted down, I took another sip of wine.
"So, how is everything going at the moment?", Lando then asked after some moments of silence. I nodded slightly to gather my thoughts.
"It's been well.", I told him honestly. "I've been busy and have a lot of things to do in the next weeks, but it's all fun. A lot of days on set. Some online interviews tomorrow. But I've been great. Feeling very well."
His eyes shined as he listened to me. The little smile had not left his lips since we sat down at the table. He looked tired, now that I have eyed his face more detailed. Big heavy black bags were under his eyes, his hair was not styled like usual. Brown curls were laying messily on his head. I realised some of the bruises he had on his face and his arms. They didn't look very bad, but I imagined they hurt. He still looked good, though.
"That's great. I'm happy for you.", he told me and I smiled back at him. These words meant much to me, coming from him.
"Thank you.", I whispered back.
"And you? Other than the incident stuff." It was now my turn.
"I came back from Italy yesterday.", Lando started to tell me. I leaned back in my chair. "Then went straight home to rest. Max was there, which was nice. Not to be alone, I mean."
He told me about his friend Max a few times now. He was a racing driver as well, taking a break right now. He lived with Lando for the past months now. They knew each other from early karting days, where they would compete together. Max has been a big part of Lando's life. I have not met him, but he seemed like a genuinely nice person.
"Then I was resting today as well but came here when I saw the interview. Jon and I will meet tomorrow but only to do some more checkups. If I'm alright then, I guess we make a plan to get back to work." I nodded as Lando ended his explanation.
"Just be careful?", I asked him. He knew exactly how worried I was about him getting back to working too soon. Concussions are serious injuries and you shouldn't underestimate their effects.
"I will be.", he promised me. I smiled slightly. His promise didn't take the fear off f me completely but I had to trust him. After all, he was a professional racing driver and in the end, he would know what is best for him. Besides, he had Jon on his side. He would be careful with Lando. That, I was sure of. My hand grabbed my wine glass again and I took the last sip out of it.
"What time is it?", I asked, after I sat down the glass again. Lando turned his wrist and took a look at his watch.
"About 10:30.", he answered me. I inhaled a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, I met Lando's eyes again.
"I should get these dishes done before I'll go to sleep.", I mumbled more to myself. It wasn't meant to be heard by the boy in front of me but he did anyway.
"I can help you.", he offered without hesitation.
"You don't have to.", I said back but he laid his head to the side.
"But I will.", he told me and stood up from his chair. Without waiting for me, he grabbed his plate with the utensils on top of it and the glass. He had finished his glass of wine way before me but didn't want a refill. I exhaled heavily but followed him into the kitchen with my things in hand. When I set my dishes down, Lando had already started to let the water run into the sink. Some detergent was also already in the water and started to create some bubbles. The man stood in front of the sink, leaned his body on his arms and watched the water fill the sink.
"Guess I'll dry the dishes then.", I said and Lando just nodded. He dropped the dishes into the sink, then waited a little more until the water was enough to clean all of the dishes. He soon after turned off the water and started to clean the plates with a dishcloth. In the meantime, I stepped to grab a fresh towel and stepped back to his left side to wait for the clean dishes.
"So, how many days are there left for you at the set?", Lando started to pick up our conversation from before while cleaning one of the plates from the yellow sauce from the curry.
"Oh, a couple.", I told him. "About ten days left for the movie, and then I'll go straight into shooting the second season of Toxic here in London."
"Straight after finishing the movie?", Lando dug deeper. He put down the first clean plate. I let it dit there for a moment so some of the water could run off before I would dry it with the towel.
"Yeah.", I answered and looked at him from the side. He was focused on the task at hand though.
"So, how do you do it with your lines, then?", he continued to ask. I let out a breath, which was half a quiet laughter.
"I learn them in the weeks before.", I told him.
"So you have the lines you speak in the movie and the lines from Toxic in your brain right now?" Lando seemed stunned.
"Yeah, some of them.", I told him as I grabbed the plate and started to dry it with the towel.
"Wow.", he said under his breath.
"It's not that hard.", I ensured him, walking over to the cupboard where I kept my plates.
"For you, maybe. I could never." He took a quick look at me.
"If you would have practised memorising lines since you were about five years old, it would be easy for you as well.", I replied and made him stop his movements for some moments. His head turned to look at me once more. This time for longer.
"Your mother made you practise memorising lines since you were five years old?", he asked me again and I nodded. His eyes, it felt like, were glued to mine. "That's brutal." He turned his main attention back to the dishes in front of him. I had walked back to his side.
"I didn't know different.", I downplayed it and took the next plate after Lando had put it down some moments ago. My shoulders shrugged, even though I wasn't sure if Lando saw that.
"Any news on your music?", he changed the topic.
"I recorded a song already. It's in production right now. Some others are still in writing.", I explained and came back to the sink after putting away the second plate. Lando was almost done cleaning the dishes. The utensils and one wine glass were already waiting to be dried.
"And you haven't shown me it yet?" His voice was playfully hurt.
"I haven't shown it to anybody.", I explained.
"Yeah, well. I'm not anybody, am I?", Lando argued back.
"No, you're not.", I told him truthfully.
"What's its name?", he asked me interested. He just finished cleaning the second wine glass and now rested his wet hands on the edge of the kitchen sink. His body rested on said hands but his head was turned to me. Our eyes were once more connected.
"Spider.", I told him and watched his expression change into something as confused.
"You named a song 'Spider'?", he asked me again as if he didn't hear me correctly. He did though.
"Yeah.", I told him and needed to hold in my laugh as I literally saw his brain trying to work some things out.
"What's it about?", he then continued to ask me.
"The McLaren 720s Spider.", I answered drily and waited for his reaction. His eyebrows narrowed even more.
"You wrote a song about a McLaren car?" I could tell that my answer, which was supposed to clear things up for him, confused him even more.
"Well, not about the car itself, but it has something to do with the storytelling.", I teased him more.
"But that's all I will say. You have to find out yourself when it will be released."
"No, show me now.", he demanded and I turned my back to him to put the wine glasses in their place. They were the last things that needed to get put back, so I spread out the towel over the counter to let it dry. When I turned around again, Lando hadn't moved and was still staring at me.
"No.", I repeated my previous answer and a cheeky grin appeared on my lips. I stopped again next to him. His eyes had not left mine for a split second. His expression was emotionless.
"Well, then you leave me no choice.", he said then mysteriously.
"Leave you no choice in what?", I asked back. Now I was the confused one. I waited for an answer for some moments. He didn't move or say anything more. Only a slight grin grew on his lips. I was caught off guard when his hand suddenly raised and smudged the lather from the dishwater all across my face. I left my mouth open in shock. Lando started to laugh loudly. I didn't move for another moment, then grabbed some of the lather and threw it at him. He dodged my first attack, but he didn't expect to throw some more right after. The bubbles hit him right in the face as well. Now I was the one loudly laughing.
"Oh, you're dead.", he said and grabbed the tea mug I still had sitting on the counter close to the sink. With one quick motion, he filled it with the sink water and wanted to pour it over my head. I dodged his attacks multiple times, before running away from him. I ran in circles around the kitchen island, him chasing me with the mug.
At some point, I changed the direction we were going. The laughter of both of us filled the room. When we were exactly in the opposite position around the kitchen island I stopped and held up my hands. Lando stopped running as well but had the mug ready to shoot the water at me.
"Alright, alright, stop.", I told him out of breath. "Please don't."
"Why not?", he asked me cheekily.
"I want peace.", I offered him and walked around the kitchen counter to face him directly. The entire time it took me to stand in front of him, he was ready for a sudden attack from me and watched me without any breaks. His eyes were narrow, his hand with the mug in it ready to attack. I stopped walking right in front of him. My head needed to turn upwards a little bit to be fully looking at him.
"Alright.", he agreed as he realised I wouldn't try to attack him and he sat the cup down on the counter next to us. His gaze relaxed a little. Exactly what I wanted. Without breaking eye contact between us, I tried to quickly grab the mug and pour it over his head. What I didn't consider, though, was that I was dealing with a Formula One driver, some of the athletes with the quickest reactions times. Before my hand could get the chance to reach the mug, it was stopped by his hand. His fingers wrapped around my wrist and his body pushed me to the opposite kitchen unit.
My back was now pushed against the marble countertop. His leg was pushed in between mine, so I wouldn't have any chance to escape. His hand still was wrapped around my wrist and held it on the same level as my head. Our eyes didn't break contact, our giggles were sounding quietly through the room. Both of us had smiled on our lips.
"That's not going to happen, darling.", he told me with a deep voice. In some try to ease the situation a little bit, I jumped up and sat down on the counter. Lando let go of my hand and rested his hands next to my thighs on the counter as he immediately and without thinking stepped closer to me. Our giggles had quieted down. The atmosphere changed a little. My eyes went down to his lips, hung onto them for some moments, then went back up to his eyes. I repeated the movement until I saw Lando moving his feet impatiently closer to the kitchen unit.
"And why not, Lando?", I asked him quietly and seductively while looking at his lips. They parted a little and I heard him exhale. He was just as impatient as I was feeling. The gap between us became smaller and smaller as Lando leaned more and more forward. The last few inches, he bridged them by suddenly crashing his lips onto mine.
We both inhaled as our lips connected. My eyes immediately closed themselves and I felt my muscles relaxing. Without thinking much, I felt our lips move in sync. My hands went up to his hair and neck. He held me in place by my waist. We needed to break the kiss every couple of seconds to get some air, but reconnected right away.
It was a steamy kiss, nothing like the times we had kissed before. In the previous times, we were shy, careful, like we weren't sure about our feelings. Maybe we weren't, but the passion that went into the kiss right now told us that we were both crystal clear about how we felt about each other. I felt my cheeks heat up. There was a tingling sensation in my stomach. And I felt that I was happy. The happiest I've ever been.
The kiss was deepened by Lando as he pushed up my top with his hands. When his skin touched mine, it sent immediate shivers down my spine. His fingers traced little circles and other shapes on my skin and left goosebumps on the spots. He smiled a little as he realised what effect he had on me. I broke the kiss and moved my head to the crook of his neck. I left a trail of kisses on his neck down to the edge of his collarbone and back up. When I reached his ear, I took my time to whisper something.
"You know I'm sitting on a dishwasher, right?", I whispered quietly and a little out of breath and watched the little hairs on his skin rise as he got goosebumps. I smiled as I saw that I had the same effect on him as he had on me. My hands rested on his shoulders as I waited for an answer just next to his ear. Lando decided he wanted something different, so he moved his head. His face was now in front of me again, only a few centimetres away from mine. He looked down on his lips. My eyes jumped from his eyes to his lips. He was breathing heavily as well.
"Oh, baby, I know. I saw it when I walked in." There was another cheeky grin on his lips before he crashed them back onto mine and continued our make-out session. His tongue entered my mouth soon after. I felt his hands lifting the sides of my top. He tugged at the ends of the top and I understood what he meant. Without thinking, I lifted my arms and he pulled the top over my head, before reconnecting our lips.