TWO
Josephine Rankin was in Melbourne.
The feeling of nausea was building in the back of her throat at the thought of going to a race, knowing that he wouldn't be there, but she had promised Lewis that she would attend.
She was slightly excited to get to see the world of racing once again, but she knew that it would bring back memories.
She would just have to face it.
In the time since the photoshoot where she met Lewis Hamilton, the pair had been speaking by text for quite a few days.
He had even organised for her to be a guest at Mercedes, and had cleared it with his team principal Toto for her to be allowed to listen in to his radio during the race.
"Hello there, my name is Angela. Lewis sent me to collect you, I presume that you are Josephine?"
A blonde haired woman smiled gently at the beautiful woman before her, seeing the brunette wringing her hands together as she became nervous.
"Uh, yes I am." Josephine smiled back at the woman. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."
"Please, no need to call me that, honey. Angela will be fine." Angela Cullen shook hands with the model, finding the woman incredibly polite.
As Josephine was being led to the Mercedes garage, another man came running up to her, recognising her immediately.
"Jospehine!"
Josephine's eyes widened at the face of the man quickly approaching her.
"Sebastian?"
Angela looked on confused as the two interacted, with the Vettel man pulling her gently in to a hug.
"It's so good to see you! What brings you back to Formula One?" Sebastian smiled at the woman who he used to care for, seeing how she was practically exactly the same.
"Uh, Lewis invited me actually." Josephine admitted with a small smile, seeing the German man's eyes widen slightly.
"Oh." Sebastian nodded slowly. "Are you two-?"
"No, no definitely not." The model couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head.
Sebastian's cheeks tinged pink slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry. How are you doing, you know, after Ju-"
Josephine couldn't stop the sad smile that formed on her face as the German mentioned him. She didn't really want to talk about it.
"I'm alive so there's that." Sebastian's face filled with sorrow at the heartbroken look on her face. "I'm just living my life how he would want to me to, I guess."
The German nodded as he listened to her words. "Look, if you want to catch up, maybe grab a coffee, you know where I am. I still really care about you, you know that."
Josephine just smiled at him, as he received a look that was familiar with him, all too well.
"I think we both know that it's not a good idea to do that. It was lovely to see you, but I've got to go." Josephine gently kissed his cheek before heading to the Mercedes garage, leaving the German man to go back to his garage.
He was incredibly surprised to have seen her at a race in the first place, since he knew that she practically avoided everything to do with motorsport and Formula One, since the death of Jules Bianchi.
He did still care for her deeply, since the pair were romantically involved before she got with Jules, and whilst he hoped that they could rekindle what they had, he realised that she was not ready.
She still hadn't got over Jules.
As he walked his way back to the Ferrari garage, he noticed the Renault driver, and his friend Daniel Ricciardo staring frozen in the direction of the Mercedes garage.
"Daniel, are you okay?" He questioned the man, who was enjoying his home race in Melbourne.
Daniel snapped out of his trance to stare at his friend, before speaking. "What that Josephine Rankin?"
Sebastian nodded his head with a smile. "Yeah, are you a fan?"
Daniel blinked before shrugging. "Yeah, something like that."
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"Josephine, this is my team principal, Toto."
Toto Wolff greeted the Australian model with a polite smile, offering his hand for a handshake to the woman who was the guest of his top driver.
"Nice to meet you, Josephine."
Josephine offered the Austrian man a polite smile, gently shaking his hand to be polite. "Nice to meet you, Sir."
Lewis chuckled at the woman as she called his team principal a sir, figuring that it was just what she did to be polite.
"Please, call me Toto."
Josephine nodded her head, smiling back at the Austrian. "Then you call me Josie."
"This is my team mate, Valterri." Lewis introduced her to his team mate, seeing the Finnish man smiling brightly at her.
"Hello, Josephine. My girlfriend is a big fan of you." Valterri shook her hand as she grinned.
"Hello, Sir. Really? In that case, I would love to meet your girlfriend." Josephine noticed the side eye between the two Mercedes team mates and immediately became self conscious.
Did she say something wrong?
Toto noticed the woman's smile fade and immediately tried to make her smile again, not wanting her to feel uncomfortable in his garage.
"So, Josie. Do you have any projects coming up?" Toto question the model, seeing a nervous smile creeping on to her lips as her hands shook slightly.
He felt sorry for her, having been able to see her nerves getting the best of her. He noticed when she suddenly became self conscious.
He knew why, too.
He knew all about her battles, of insecurity and anxiety since the death of her fiancé, Jules Bianchi.
It was a very well known thing, due to her fame. Gossip magazines would always comment on her when she would disappear from the spotlight for weeks, sometimes even months, before reappearing.
It was deeply upsetting for him, since he had seen her when she was with Jules at the races that he was in.
It was like she was a completely different woman.
"Uh, I'm supposed to be launching my own skincare brand next month." Josephine smiled gratefully at the team principal.
Toto smiled, gaining interest. "Really? I'm sure my wife would love to try your brand when you release it!"
Lewis watched as her shaky hands pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, sadness and concern forming inside of him.
"I'll be sure to give her a bunch of the products when I launch them."
She thought, that maybe, just maybe, that if more people were like Toto Wolff, that she would be okay being at more races.
She really hoped that they were.
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"Hey."
Josephine jumped as an accented voice sounded from behind her.
The brunette turned around, from her place in a small café, near to the Melbourne race track, to see a young looking, tall, dark haired man smiling at her.
"Uh, hi? Can I help you, sir?" Josephine questioned cautiously, all whilst still using the manners that her father had drilled in to her since she was a child.
"May I?" He motioned his hand towards the vacant seat across from her.
He noticed how the woman squinted at him slightly, as if examining him, before she slowly nodded her head, allowing him to sit with her.
"It's nice to meet you Josephine, I'm quite a big fan of you." He smiled sheepishly at her, his voice sounding as if he was French.
"Thank you. Now, excuse me if I come across as rude, but who are you?" Josephine watched him carefully, trying to see if her brain would come up with a name for the boy but found herself coming up short.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I apologise." The dark haired man blushed slightly in embarrassment. "I'm Esteban."
Josephine slowly nodded her head, still not quite figuring out who he was.
He noticed how she still didn't know and just smiled at her, trying to not seem as if he was being weird.
"I was a Formula One driver, up until last year. I lost my seat, this year." Esteban explained, seeing her face fill with realisation.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that. I'm surprised, why you're coming to me though. I don't know much about the sport." Josephine spoke, ever so slightly telling a lie to the man.
"I thought that I would come to keep you company whilst you were here, that is all." Esteban responded to her, whilst glancing behind her.
"There is also a group of men who have been staring at you, so I figured that I would make sure that you are okay." Josephine smiled at the man, finding him quite sweet.
"Well, thank you, Esteban. I appreciate it."
The model took a sip of her drink as she watched him, whilst he watched her with a dorky smile, as if he was in awe.
Which he was.
Josephine Rankin had always been his biggest celebrity crush, ever since he first saw her modelling for a very well known brand called 'Gucci'.
It had been at least eight years since he first saw the commercial for what she was promoting, and he was amazed by her, finding her not only naturally beautiful, but finding her personality was beautiful as well.
Though he could easily see how much she had changed in the past five years.
As he was such a big fan of hers, he was easily able to notice the small changes within her.
The weight that she lost, the fact that she took on less work meaning that people were worried when she went out of the spotlight.
The way that her eyes lost their sparkle, her smile lost its authenticity, her laugh sounding less genuine.
It was deeply upsetting for him, as a fan to see.
He could only hope that somehow, somebody was able to bring her back from whatever hole she dug herself in to.
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A/N
she spots Daniel in the next one, so you should look forward to that!!
Also, this is set in 2019, and I know that Esteban didn't have a seat, but I feel like he's underrated and so I am bringing in to this, so that he can be a friend off track for her.
Enjoy!!
-RUBY