The next week and a half I kept on texting Charles about literally anything and it felt good. There wasn't a day where we hadn't texted and he was the sweetest: asking about my day and talking about whatever he had to do for Ferrari and just talking about ourselves and our lifes outside of F1. He had sent me a little clip of him playing piano when I didn't believe that he could play that well - he proved me wrong so hard - and I had shared my latest favorite reads - which he now wanted to read as well. It was just a continuous chat in which we got to know each other better and just talked about our days. It was nice to get a inside look of the luxurious life of a driver, but also of a new friend.
My friends couldn't really believe that I was texting the Charles Leclerc, as they apparently knew him as 'the hot one' in F1 and they had kept me up to date about any form of media I had appeared in. Which actually happened to be a lot. There were some cool shots of me in my Mercedes blouse walking around the paddock and of course a lot of crappy journalistic work that made me cringe.
On the day of my birthday I had received a very sweet video message from Charles and Carlos and Isa, who were at the Ferrari base in Maranello wishing me a happy birthday. I kept on repeating the message as they were so sweet and I might have looked at Charles who was a giggling mess a little too long. He looked dashing in his red Ferrari shirt in the morning sun at Maranello. My friends were completely over the moon when they saw the message and it was like it had finally clicked for me that their friend - me! - was really part of that famous Formula One world now. Also Lewis, George and Mick had all sent me some lovely messages. All the messages served as a real eye opener for me that I was actually part of this crazy world now. My friends were completely starstruck and wanted to know everything about everyone, but I reassured them that there was nothing going on and everything that might have been slightly interesting for them I had already shared multiple times. Willow had sent me a birthday message from Australia when she woke up, I couldn't wait to see her again in a couple of weeks. My mum had also messaged me a 'happy birthday sweetheart' and it took me a while to send a 'thank you x' back to her. I missed her, but wounds caused by David and her were still fresh and needed time to heal, even though I knew that she was just as much of a victim to David as I was, maybe even more. It stil hurt like hell and it felt like I couldn't trust her. I kept her at a distance
My friends and I had a few beers to drink at home and jammed for a while on my guitar on the floor as we loved singing. We all had met through our university's musical theatre group, so we always ended up doing something music related. We filmed a little TikTok on my friend Ruby's account where we say a little song that had been going viral and afterward got ready to go to our local and favorite pub and sang a lot more until the sun started to rise. It was a fun night.
I never really bothered too much about my birthday, I barely celebrated it when I was younger, but this year I got so many felicitations it was so heartwarming. I had posted a picture on my birthday that my friend took from me when I was trying to find the right accords on my guitar from our little get-together and it felt like my Instagram was blowing up. Both with birthday wishes and confusion about the fact that I was playing - or trying to - a guitar. My friends found it hilarious.
The day after my birthday, my father and Susie took me out shopping and to dinner in London as a present. Susie had taken a very sweet picture of me and Toto when the waiters came with my dessert with some sparkles on it for my birthday. He looked so excited to be able to celebrate my birthday and I actually was laughing and smiling so genuinely that I barely recognized myself when I saw the picture. I posted it on my Instagramstories and got more birthday messages in my DM's. Again, I usually wasn't fan of my celebrating my birthday, but this year felt different. I had a great few days actually celebrating the start of a new year, I hadn't felt loved like that in a long time. It almost made me feel uncomfortable, but I didn't let it ruin the amazing few days and embraced the love I received. It was something I had to get used to. I usually had a rather small group of loving friends that always stood by my side and now I going to surrounded by many more people who seemed take interest in me.
Only two days later we were on a private plane to Saudi Arabia. Again, something I had to get used to as I only had been on a plane a couple of times before F1. I could hop on Toto's flight and even though I had seen his private plane when we went to the last Grand Prix, I was still in shock by how luxurious it was. I felt like I could never really get used to this, but then again, I didn't make that much money to ever be able to afford a private plane of my own. Mick and Susie were there as well, so it was nice to be able to chat with some people as that made me feel more comfortable with the whole private plane idea. Mick and I were chatting for a long time about our favorite music, movies and series, he was just so lovely and easy to talk to. Time went by fast.
To be honest, I was very excited for my second Grand Prix and going to work, but even more excited to see the drivers and other employees on the paddock again and get to know everyone. Olivia had become my absolute favorite person the second we met and I was glad that I could catch up with her again. Even though she was responsible for social media, she wasn't really good at texting back and I wasn't really good at being the one sending the first message.
But, the jet lag was horrendous. I had underestimated this big time. My body was completely confused and just flat-out tired at any point during the day and caffeine didn't fix it. I didn't know I could feel so horrible without being sick. I was glad that we came earlier during the week so that I could sleep off the jet lag, but I still had many appointments so it wasn't going as well as I had hoped and sleep was hard to come by. I had seen a couple of other people having the same issues, so I was glad that I wasn't the only one, but it did feel like it. I thought today was looking better as I had slept a couple of hours during the night, but I wasn't even halfway through media day and I was already a jet-lagged mess again. The bags under my eyes were clearly noticeable when I had at least three people ask me how I was doing, as I was looking like a walking corpse. The last few days were extremely busy and I had been living on caffeine and barely any sleep because I couldn't sleep when I was supposed to. Toto had joked around about my grumpy demeanor while I was trying to fuel myself with another coffee - I had lost track of the amount of cups I had filled this first day on the paddock.
"I told you that the F1 life can be quite hard. Jet lags are one of the worst things that can totally ruin your weekend. You'll get used to it, or not and then we have to get used to your grumpy jet-lagged self." He joked. I had been hugging the pillow while I was sitting - almost laying on my back - on the couch in the Mercedes hospitality and threw the pillow at his face, somehow actually managing to hit him from my position. Toto was shocked and the sound of Mick Schumacher's laugh filled the room as he saw it happening. I like the sound of his laugh, it was so genuine and warm. I hadn't noticed him come in and I guess Toto didn't as well, as we both looked in confusion toward the golden retriever boy who was wearing a black Mercedes shirt. He seemed slightly startled by the two Wolff's who were looking at him with raised eyebrows and I could swear that he blushed a little bit, it made me smile. I had kept bumping into him all week, but he seemed to manage the jet-lag way better than I did. He had been complaining about it on day one a lot and that was it. But he was sweet and kept up with my grumpy ass the last couple of days. We had to wait until the last of media day was over to evaluate the day and look forward to the training, qualification and the race with a large part of the team. Mick was early as he had no media duties today and he sat down on the couch at my feet. My feet and legs were covered in a soft blanket with the Mercedes logo. Jeddah might have been quite warm, the AC was working overtime to keep everyone cool and as I was so tired, I needed a blanket.
"Are you still that jet-lagged?" He carefully asked with a cheeky grin and I wanted to throw something toward his face, but I had no pillows left, Toto was still holding the one I had thrown mere moments ago.
"No, the bags under my eyes are fashion statements and the tremor in my hands are not from the absurd amount of coffee I have consumed over the last few days, so shut up." I said sarcastically and looked at him. His sky-blue eyes were looking back at me and I could see he felt sorry for me. He had been used to flying across the world, I hadn't. I had barely left England before I got this job, only a couple of times for a holiday. He chuckled softly and I couldn't help but smile and his adorableness.
"Yeah, early bedtime for you today." Toto joked as he threw the pillow back at me to catch my attention, which I managed to catch in time. I rolled my eyes at him as he walked away with a grin on his lips. "You need to be at your top the next couple of days, just like the rest of us, jet-lag or no jet-lag."
"Yes, yes, I know that. I'll be fine." I sighed and rested my head against the backrest of the couch me and Mick were sitting on. Toto walked away to chat with someone I couldn't remember the name of. He looked like one of the many, many engineers. I looked back at Mick, who apparently had still been watching me with his big blue eyes. It startled me a little bit and I felt my cheeks flush slightly.
"If you'd like, we could order some pizza and watch a movie tonight? Just have a relaxed and lazy night in as I'm also in need of one and I guess from the stat of you do too." He offered sweetly. We had been chatting about our favorite movies on the plane here and my eyes lit up. Olivia had been quite busy with maintaining the Mercedes F1 Instagram and TikTok as the admin had been ill and she had taken over the account and Lewis and George had their own stuff going on. I had been texting Charles a lot and we had agreed to get a coffee tomorrow morning at the paddock to catch up, as he was staying in another hotel and was just busy at any other moment during the week. Having a relaxed night with pizza with Mick and some movies sounded incredibly lovely, especially after having slept horribly the last couple of days, it would be a great way to relax and maybe actually get some decent hours of sleep before the whole hectic weekend will officially start. I automatically smiled at the boy who was sitting on the opposite side of the couch.
"Sounds great! Maybe this time I will actually fall asleep on time." I joked with a grin and his eyes lit up as I accepted his offer and he smiled wide.
"Don't you dare to fall asleep during the movie." He warned me with a cheeky grin and I shrugged.
"I can't promise anything about my sleeping habits at this moment." I joked back and giggled.
"I'll make sure that you won't fall asleep before 10, after that I'll let you sleep." Mick said as I pulled my legs towards myself to sit cross-legged on the couch. "What movie do you want to watch?" I made a sound that seemed like I was thinking and thought for a moment about what he had told me on the plane about the movies he'd liked. I wasn't going to make him watch a musical, because I wasn't trying to make him hate me, but I'd love some Moulin Rouge or The Greatest Showman.
"Maybe a Marvel-film?" I asked. We had bonded over the fact that we both liked those movies and had talked about the franchise for a while on the plane. He smiled.
"We could watch Infinity War and Endgame?" He proposed and I nodded with a soft giggle.
"I was planning on having a relaxed and easy night, not one where my heart is going to get broken into a million pieces again." I joked, remembering when I went to watch those movies for the first time with friends. We were heartbroken. I didn't cry, but I almost did and that says something as I wasn't that much of a crier at movies or series, only if there were pets involved or adorable old people. Mick laughed.
"Who is breaking your heart?" George asked as his head popped up in the room, clearly very curious about what Mick and I had been talking about.
"Robert Downey Junior and Chris Evans." I spoke with a grin, leaving him completely confused as we were called for the meeting to talk about this weekend's schedule and strategy. Mick and I walked in giggling about our little private joke, George following us in utter confusion. As we were walking towards our seats, Mick rested his hand on the small of my back as we walked past a couple of people and chairs to get to ours. And I couldn't help but smile and felt awake for the first time since arriving in Jeddah.