The last race in the triple header was Monza which was one of everyone's favourite. Everyone liked racing at the Temple of Speed because it was so fast. It was also a lot less driving and steering with there being many straights and a few chicanes. That meant it was physically less demanding as the corners was where the highest g-forces were experienced. Though, that didn't mean it was going to be an easy race, those didn't exist.
Unintentionally, Emilia met George at the entrance of the paddock. The two drivers strolled ahead chatting as they headed towards their garage. Behind her, Christine, Aurelia and Aleix were engaged in a conversation.
"How did it go with Lando on Sunday?" George questioned. The question caught Emilia off guard. Clearly he wasn't up for small talk about the weather or the food or something.
"Yeah great thanks. We broke up and I ended up in Mick's bed the next morning." Emilia responded without expression in her voice.
"How did that happen?" George enquired.
"He found me, we chatted, we drank, we swam in the sea, we went back to his room. I'm sure you don't want more details than that." Emilia replied.
"I didn't realise you and Mick were close." George commented.
"We dated in F2 but the championship got in our way. We were fighting on track and it affected our relationship off track so we decided to break up before the relationship got toxic like it did with the engineer we saw on Saturday. He was also the one to tell Lando I cheated on him but I'm not going to speak to him, he's no longer part of my life." Emilia explained. George didn't seem to have a response to that. "Anyway I decided to create a helmet design and I got it sent off to be made and I'm going to wear it the race weekend after I've sorted next season out as like a reward for myself. I really like the design."
"What's the design?" George asked.
"You'll have to wait and see and hopefully not too long." Emilia smiled. "I think I've had two strong weekends so I should get that contract offer soon."
"I don't see why they haven't already given it to you. You've been amazing the past two races and it's not your fault you didn't win either of them."
"Holland I couldn't keep up with Max and Lewis." Emilia reminded. She didn't mind talking about her failures because she was aware that they weren't her fault really. There's nothing she would have done different in those situations and she was now more motivated than ever to win.
"True but the car isn't fast enough, that's not your fault." George answered. "We've got another Head to Head later haven't we?"
"Yeah I think we're making pizzas." Emilia replied as George opened the door for her to enter the building. They greeted everyone there and went into the garage together. When they got in there, Emilia grabbed George's arm. She kept her eyes forward looking at someone who made eye contact with her. His eyes widened and a smile grew on his face. Emilia's face did not grow a smile. It took a second for George to work out who it was.
"Emilia great to see you!" He greeted leaving his conversation to walk over to the driver. Emilia let go of George's arm not intentionally holding it.
"What the fuck are you doing here Richard?" Emilia asked impolitely. She had no time for patience with this man.
"I'm sure you're aware that John got fired last week so I'm here as his replacement. I'm your new race engineer." Emilia's ex revealed grinning. Five minutes ago, she had just been saying this man was no longer part of her life and somehow he'd worked her way back in it.
"Seriously?" Emilia enquired.
"Permanent replacement." Richard answered. He was enjoying this encounter too much for Emilia's liking.
"We can go ask Jost to swap if you want." George offered. Emilia nodded and walked out with George. She didn't say a word until they got into Jost's office and she didn't bother knocking, Emilia stormed straight in.
"Good morning to you both." Jost greeted cheerily. "What's the matter?"
"I want to swap engineers." Emilia demanded.
"Are you not warming up to Richard?" Jost questioned. "He mentioned you two had worked together before that's why I hired him." Emilia sighed.
"I haven't worked with him before. He's my ex and I can't be around him."
"Can't or don't want to?" Jost queried. Emilia didn't reply. "Here's the thing, I didn't know he's your ex but you make the point with Lando that relationships don't matter in the work environment so you can work this one out."
"Lando and I broke up because relationships do affect the work environment. But this is different, I cannot work with him." Emilia argued making Jost sigh. George was still standing quietly behind her. That's not why her and Lando broke up by Jost wasn't going to know that. She hadn't seen Lando since their argument but she wanted to talk to him and try and make things right.
"Emilia you are nineteen. You are an adult. Please be mature about this situation and work with him. That's all I'm asking." Jost calmly requested. Emilia saw no way of winning this argument so she stormed out again back to her driver's room. She slammed the door shut but within seconds George was knocking on it. Emilia opened it so she could let him in before shutting it loudly.
"Are you okay?" George questioned.
"I don't know, no. I can't work with him." Emilia panicked.
"Slow down, what happened between the two of you?" George calmly queried.
"He was just everything a boyfriend shouldn't be. He manipulated me into thinking I was a bad person and he didn't think I should be friends with the other drivers. We always did what he wanted to do and I thought that was okay. I changed into the person he wanted me to be. Anthoine said this to me and I told him he was wrong. I didn't get the chance to tell him he was right. He did change me into a person I really didn't like and I disconnected with people because he wanted me to. I listened to him and saw no reason not to believe everything he said to me. He manipulated me to the point where I didn't think about me. In a situation, I didn't think about what I would do, I thought about what he would want me to do. That damaged me as a person I had to learn to rethink to do what I wanted and what I thought about things. I can't risk losing myself again. And then he-" Emilia explained as Aurelia rushed in.
"What happened?" Aurelia asked.
"Her ex is her engineer." George answered.
"He's here?" Aurelia wanted clarification. She seemed to have latched onto which ex George was on about.
"Yeah he's in the garage." Emilia nodded.
"We can go to Toto if you want." George suggested.
"No I don't need to run to Toto for everything. I'll just deal with it." Emilia sighed walking out. She had better things to do than sulk in her driver's room. Aurelia followed her out as they headed to the media pen to give interviews.
"Why did Jost employ him?" Aurelia questioned.
"He thought he was a good fit because we'd worked together before." Emilia answered.
"But you haven't worked together before." Aurelia realised.
"Exactly."
None of today's questions made Emilia too mad. They were mostly about John and what happened with her engineer to which she gave the same dull answer to. At least it made Aurelia not complain.
After that, Emilia had to do another Head to Head with George. To fit with the fact they were in Italy, their task was to create pizzas. They had an array of things to decorate their pizza with some that they would definitely put on others were questionable.
"Right I'm going to start with the tomato base." George announced smothering his dough with a red sauce. Emilia did the same. "Have you made a pizza from scratch before?"
"Yeah I did when I was drunk once. It didn't turn out very well." Emilia responded sprinkling cheese on her pizza. It was in her F2 days her and she'd been drinking all night with Mick they'd come home to her house and she was starving so she decided the best thing to do was make a pizza.
"I want to hear that story." George chuckled.
"Another time." Emilia replied cautious that they were filming and the media would probably find a way to make it bad.
"I'm counting on it." George answered. "I think I'm going to go for a classic pepperoni and some vegetables."
"You don't need vegetables on a pizza." Emilia scoffed adding some tuna to hers. The team must have known that she once said in an interview that she liked tuna on her pizza. Emilia was trying to put it on without attracting attention from George but he eventually saw it.
"What is that?" George questioned judging.
"No, it's actually good." Emilia defended equally spreading the fish around. She didn't have much.
"That's just disgusting." George shook his head.
"No it's not!" Emilia protested laughing as she piled more on to annoy George. Her phone started ringing and she hurried to pick it up. In every challenge George and her had done previously, her Grandad had interrupted accidentally by phoning her. "Hello?" Emilia asked hopefully as she picked up.
"This is Clarissa from Chanel we were hoping to contact you about modelling a range." Clarissa informed. It wasn't Fred. Fred was gone.
"Oh wow that sounds great can I call you back sorry I'm sort of in the middle of something?" Emilia enquired.
"Yeah of course. Please call me back on this number and we can book you an appointment to come and meet the team in Paris." Clarissa answered.
"Okay thank you so much for this opportunity, bye." Emilia hung up. Sure she was really excited to work with Chanel if it worked out with her schedule but she was more upset that it wasn't Fred who picked up. She knew he'd passed she knew he wasn't here anymore yet she had a slim bit of hope that he would pick up - but he didn't.
"Em you okay?" George asked gently.
"Yeah I'm fine." Emilia nodded adding the finishing touches to her pizza.
"Em?" George questioned sensing she was off. Emilia felt her eyes watering and buried her head in George's chest. He wrapped his arms around her.
"He's gone George." Emilia sobbed.
"It's okay." George assured rubbing Emilia's back. Emilia composed herself wiping her eyes and smiled before continuing her pizza. She was sure they could just edit that bit out.
"Boom I win." Emilia celebrated as she finished making her pizza first.
"It's not a race." George clarified slicing peppers carefully.
"Then how else do we decide who wins?" Emilia questioned.
"By taste except I'm going nowhere near yours." George replied.
"You'll be the one missing out then." Emilia responded peeking at what George was doing. She watched him for a few minutes occasionally checking her watch to see how long her teammate was taking. "Come on George." Emilia huffed.
"Perfection takes time." George answered. Emilia took another look at what George was creating.
"That is not perfection." Emilia chuckled pointing to George's pizzas.
"Okay I'm finished." George decided brushing all the excess stuff off his hands onto his custom Williams apron they had to wear.
"That's finished?" Emilia queried with her eyebrows raised.
"At least mine will be edible. Fish, who puts fish on a pizza?" George argued.
"You'll change your mind after you taste it." Emilia promised.
"I am not tasting that." George refused.
"Fine gives me an automatic win." Emilia folded her arms grinning.
"Okay I'll try it then." George sighed letting his competitive nature get the better of him. The pizzas were taken to the oven and cooked leaving George and Emilia some time to chat. "What are you doing next weekend seeing as we get a weekend off?"
"I have my brother's wedding to go to and I was going to bring Lando but I guess I won't now." Emilia chuckled. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing planned." George replied. "I didn't think you liked your family."
"I don't but if I don't go to this wedding they'll phone me and ask me why I wasn't there and shout at me so it's better if I go and keep my head down." Emilia explained. She wasn't enthusiastic about going but even less now that Lando wasn't coming with her.
"I can come with you if you want." George offered.
"You'd do that for me?" Emilia asked.
"Of course I would. I'll check later whether I'm actually free or not yet but yeah I'd be happy to come with you if you wanted." George smiled.
"That would be amazing if you could but if you can't don't worry." Emilia replied. They continued talking about family and racing with George trying to bring up her breakdown in the middle of filming but Emilia dodged the question until the pizzas came out.
"Cut me a small slice of yours." George requested. Emilia obviously ignored George's request and cut a big one with the pizza wheel cutter that squeaked when she moved it. "Wow thanks Em."
"Cheers." Emilia clinked her slice against George's and took a big bite. She loved her pizza obviously and George wasn't as much of a fan.
"That's absolutely disgusting. How do you like that?" George commented.
"It's amazing what are you talking about?" Emilia shook her head taking a massive bite out of it.
"I want a change in teammates I can deal with someone who puts fish on a pizza. You are probably offending Italians with that monstrosity." George gestured to the pizza.
"Italians put seafood on pizza." Emilia responded.
"Right let's try my pizza." George started cutting his ending the conversation on fish on pizza. George's pizza was a lot more average.
"So what's the name for this pizza?" Emilia queried inspecting her slice.
"Well I don't know pepperoni with extra pepper I guess." George answered.
"That's actually quite funny." Emilia complimented as she ate her teammate's creation.
"Why do you sound so surprised I am always funny and, fast." George boasted.
"George you really need to get better at determining what you see in your dreams and what's reality." Emilia sighed.
"I definitely win." George determined. "You liked both pizzas I only liked one."
"Fine I'll let you have this one." Emilia sighed. They signed off the video and ended it. "Well I'm going to be taking this to eat lunch thanks everyone."
"You actually eat that?" George asks horrified.
"Yes." Emilia defended and walked went downstairs to eat her pizza in the using eating place. She joined Aurelia and Christine at a table.
"What is that?" Christine enquired.
"Fish pizza, do you want some?" Emilia offered.
"No thanks." Christine shook her head the same time Aurelia tore off a bit for herself.
"See someone else has taste." Emilia pointed out and fist bumped her manager.
"You two make me feel sick." Christine pulled a face. "You've actually put me off my lunch." Richard strolled past Emilia but stopped at her table when he saw her.
"Hey Ems can we talk?" Richard asked.
"No fuck off." Aurelia responded.
"Exactly what she said." Emilia replied.
"It'll just be a nice chat for a few minutes to clear the air." Richard promised.
"Yeah the last time you said that the conversation ended with you throwing a vase at me which luckily missed me so it's a no from me." Emilia answered sourly.
"You know I never meant to hurt you." Richard assured putting a hand on the driver's shoulder.
"I think it's best if you leave." Emilia decided turning her attention to her pizza.
"Fine I'll see you in practice tomorrow." Richard huffed and walked off.
"The only thing I like about him is that I can shorten his name to Dick." Emilia smiled.
"He threw a vase at you?" Aurelia queried.
"Ages ago." Emilia shrugged. "But it's fine he missed." That time.
"Have you told Jost?" Christine enquired.
"Can we stop talking about him please? Let's talk about Aurelia's new highlights because I know she's been dying for someone to point it out." Aurelia rambled on about her hair for a while because Emilia knew that would make her happy.
So Richard is her engineer! Surprise! l was so excited to reveal this one and it's going to bring lots of dramaaaaa
Also should Emilia go to the wedding with George or should she go with Mick?
Also thank you again Segelfliegerj1 for the idea of doing team games I hope you like how it's turned out! If there's anything else anyone wants to see leave a comment and I'll definitely add it in!
This chapter almost wasn't posted and I've had to write it on my phone hence why it's probably a mess but at least it's up!
Hope everyone has had a great holiday, love you all <3