I hadn't been able to stop smiling since I had walked through the airport doors. There had been some mentions of that by my lovely co-workers and most of them came from Carlos who was dying to know what had me smiling like that. Glady as soon as I had sat on the plane I had been out like light and woke up only when the plane touched the ground again.
I hadn't been this happy in a while and I was kind of excited for the Hungarian Grand Prix to be over so I could go home and spent the summer break doing every Finnish summer thing and more. I knew that it may have seemed like I had a pretty easy job with many days off, but the truth was that there was not that many days completely free, and needed to also remember that most of the weekends we were working from early morning to late in the night. So yeah, I wasn't complaining getting few weeks off.
I needed to pack before next week as I would be flying straight to Finland once the race would be over. Sure I was waiting for the race weekend but I think this was the first time I was waiting more it to be over. I think everyone was actually, I knew how much everyone needed a break from the work on the factory and the drivers as well. It would be quiet in Maranello for next two weeks once we would leave to race.
I spent the week trying to do my job and little extra so I wouldn't have to think about the work while on my holidays. Most of the time I would be found in the factory doing whatever the thing I was doing at the moment was and besides that I hang out with Carlos or ran with the same guy. I had visited Charles also for the first time. He lived twenty minutes outside of the city, near the mountains. The place was beautiful, and I was little jealous how alone he could be there. I had also had a chance to play piano for the longest time in forever, just with one hand which was a bit of a bummer but still. Before the broken arm I had been determined to improve my guitar skills as it was the only instrument I had with me here and I had been taking some steps forwards, but now I couldn't really do that either.
It was already Tuesday night and we were sitting on the living room in Charles' place once again. It was Charles and his girlfriend Charlotte, who I had met before, but never really had had a chance to get to know her better before these past few weeks. Carlos was with us as usual too, there weren't many places I went without him these days.
"So how are you handling these two?" Charlotte asked as we were sitting on the couch while the two guys were playing their games or something.
"Barely" I laughed and the girl next to me grinned. "No but for real there isn't much for me to do, they treat me like a little sister most of the time and they also know that if I lose my temper it won't be too pretty, so that motivates them to behave"
"Yeah, I've heard a lot of nice things about you and the work you've been doing" she gave me a friendly smile. I still didn't know her that well and the conversations usually stayed at this level but it was okay with me. I mean she was kind to me, which was more than enough and I appreciated that.
I just smiled to the girl thinking back the six months I had already been doing this. "I can't believe it's been already half a year" I thought out loud. "Feels like yesterday when I first got here"
"Yeah, I can imagine that" she agreed. "They say that time flies when you're having fun right?"
"I don't argue with that" I smiled. "So you have any plans for the break?" I asked changing the subject.
"We're going to Greece actually" she told me. "I'm pretty excited about that" she smiled and I could tell she couldn't wait to get to spend some more time with her boyfriend.
"That sound pretty nice, I gotta admit" I smirked and we began to talk little more about their vacation as well as mine. It was around eight when we left back to Maranello with Carlos. I was little tired, but the mood was more waiting than anything. I think Carlos was heading back to Spain for his break as well.
"So you had good time?" Carlos asked as we drove towards the red city.
"Yeah, Charlotte is great" I told him, but I bet he already knew it.
"Yeah, she is, they make a great couple" he agreed. "So you already waiting the break? I heard you been working your ass off this week" he glanced at me.
"Yeah I am and I have, I just don't wanna work on my days off this time" I sighed. "I always end up doing something work related when I'm off"
"Tell me about it, but I promise the summer break is different" he gave me a small smile. "You get to disconnect yourself from this world in whole, no co-workers, no driving, at least for me, just time to relax and do anything and everything but F1" he said excited.
"Does that mean that I'm not gonna hear from you during the two weeks, fellow worker?" I teased him but was actually little scared what he was going to say.
"Yes if you keep saying stupid cheeky things like that" he shot back and I let out a little laugh.
"So I can call you and ask how you doing?" I confirmed smiling.
"Yeah you can" he grinned as he parked the car in front of our building.
"So you leaving straight from the race or coming back here first?" I asked getting off the car closing the door behind me.
"I need to come back here to do some analysis before I'm free unfortunately" he told me as we walked inside.
"That's too bad"
"Yeah well, it's worth it after all and I don't have to take that much stuff with me so it's okay" he shrugged his shoulders.
"True" We reached my door. "I'll see you in couple hours" I said opening the door to my apartment.
"Try to get some sleep before that" he told me and we parted out ways just to meet in the same spot four hours later as the clock turned one in the morning.
"I'm gonna kill whoever booked this flight to us" I said walking out half asleep.
"Come on" Carlos said laughing as he lead me to his car.
"No I'm serious, travelling this early should be illegal" I stated being hundred percent serious.
"Just think about the positives" he tried to cheer me up.
"Name one" I dared him.
"I can name more" he said cocky.
"Let's hear them then"
"Well first of all, think about the fact that sooner we are there the sooner you get to go home and to the break" he gave me a knowing look.
"Go on" I nodded approving.
"Lando" was all he said and I could feel my cheeks turn red.
"What do you mean?" I played dumb knowing all too well what he meant.
"Come on. He is the only reason you've been this happy since the day we left the UK and same time so down that you haven't been able to see him" he looked at me with a knowing look, but I could see a glimpse of pain behind his eyes as well.
"Not the only reason" I mumbled crossing my arms.
"Yeah yeah, just be careful okay?" he said to me more seriously this time and I gave him a questioning look. "You know just don't get yourself hurt again and maybe try not to hurt him either" he had gone all serious.
"I'll try my best, but I think it's gonna be okay this time" I told him. "You have nothing to worry about" I promised him.
"I'll still be worried about you" he stated.
"I know" I gave him a smile. "And I'm really grateful for that, you know" I looked at the guy next to me who nodded to me like confirming that he knew.
.
The plane landed in Hungary early the next morning and I dragged myself to the luggage claim. Five days, I thought. Five days. I could do five more days.
Almost two days went by and I hadn't still seen the one person I wanted to see the most, but was also most scared of seeing. I wasn't probably going to be able to avoid him, nor I wanted to, too much longer as the drivers press conference was about to start and every driver was on the track for sure. Our drivers were in the first two pairs and Lando was named to be only in the second last so I didn't actually know if I would see him here after all.
I was little down after I arrived hotel again not seeing him. I had basically bumped into everyone else but him. My thoughts were running while overthinking the whole thing. Maybe he was avoiding me and was already regretting every single moment of his life that he had spent with me. I mean we had been talking a lot after the UK but less than usually. Again I didn't know if it was just because our busy schedules and the fact that I had been working almost every hour of the last week or was there something wrong. The knock on the door woke me up from my thoughts and without thinking any further I opened the door finding Lando behind it.
"Hey" I said a little confused. "How did you?" I pointed the door I was standing.
"Oh I bumped into Camila. Camila right?" I nodded "In the lobby and asked her if she knew where I could find you." he explained. "And hi" he finished his cute speech with a grin on his face as he usually had.
"Okay, so what's up?" I asked letting the guy inside.
"Nothing much, I was just wondering if you had eaten yet?" he asked jumping on his back on my bed.
"Nope, only just got back from the track" I told him sitting the other bed crossing my legs.
"So you wanna come eat with me?" he said picking himself up leaning his arms.
"Are you asking me out Lando Norris?" I teased him smirking.
"Maybe, maybe not" he wiggled his eyebrows. He seemed to be in a good mood.
"Maybe this once" I told him with a grin getting up from the bed.
"Oh wow, you're really hurting my feelings here" he said placing his hand on his heart.
"Come on let's go then" I shouted at him being already on the door, which made Lando jump off the bed. He ran past me to the hallway making some weird pirouette thingy and I shook my head to the guy. He seemed to finally to be able to just to be himself.
"You're in a good mood" I pointed out and couldn't help but smile to the silly guy.
"Yeah, I'm with you" he said smiling hugging me from behind. I blushed at the compliment. I wasn't very good at receiving those.
"So what are you gonna do on your break?" I changed the subject as we walked to the elevator.
"We're going to Greece with the boys" he told me happily.
We decided to eat in the hotel being too lazy to go anywhere else and sat down little further back so there wouldn't be that many people disturbing us. Or well Lando.
"What about you and your summer break?" he asked once we had sat down.
"I'm going home" I told him with a big smile forming on my face.
"Excited?" he asked grinning to the huge smile on my face.
"Yeah, I mean, I can't wait to see everyone, but even more I can't wait to do all Finnish summer stuff and just isolate myself in our cottage and you know just be" I told him with my eyes glowing.
"I can see the Finn in you Miss 'I just wanna go home and isolate myself from everyone'" he laughed and I glared at him.
"It's not like that, well it is, but you know it's the best thing in the world just take the boat and drive it to somewhere in the archipelago and you know just chill. I mean of course I'm pretty happy that I can get back to training with my friends for even a little while, I've missed that quite a bit. And of course to see my family and all that" I couldn't stop smiling.
"I've never seen you this excited about anything" he said looking at me in awe and I just smiled looking down. "It's not a bad thing tho, really shows that you care" he added and I looked at him biting my lip nervous as I didn't really know what to say.
"Yeah I have learned to love and appreciate it in the past years, so even though I love being here, I think it's always going to be the home for me" I shrugged.
"So after this internship thing, you think you're gonna stay in Finland?" he asked his big smile disappearing a little.
"No, I don't think so" I said straight away. "I mean, I love it there but it's never really been the place for me." I explained. "Since I can remember, even if it hasn't been motorsport related possibly always, I've dreamed about working abroad and seeing everything I possibly could, so I feel like I owe to myself at least to try to make a career somewhere else" I ended my monologue.
"So you didn't always wanna work in F1?" Lando seemed bit surprised.
"At first yeah, I mean I guess I wanted to drive when I was little and then I got a bit more realistic and I thought I would just love to work in the sport, but then.." I stopped talking realizing that I didn't really wanna talk about all that. "Well things happened, and I lost the love for a while but few years later I found the passion for the sport again, and after that it's been the one thing I've tried to work towards" I stuttered still being caught up the things that I had almost let slip. Too painful.
"You drove when you were young?" he looked at me with his mouth open and tried to come up something to tell him knowing I wasn't ready for the whole story to come out just yet. I mean, it would probably some day knowing Mick was here.
"A bit yeah" I told him putting some more food in my mouth.
"Oh wow, you really are perfect." he sighed making me laugh.
"Not really" I grinned.
"I can't wait to get that thing off your hand so we can go karting" he then said talking about my cast, which was covered with signatures.
"Don't know about that" I cringed to the idea of driving again.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun" he begged.
"Fine, maybe" I broke.
"Good"