TEN
"Hey Sandra."
Josephine Rankin smiled as she walked in to the building where she was supposed to be doing a photoshoot, seeing her boss, Sandra, standing there waiting for her.
"Hello Josephine. It's nice to have you back." Sandra smiled at the young woman, furrowing her eyebrows together as she noticed the slightest of differences in the models mood and behavior.
She seemed lighter, happier almost.
"What did I miss?" Josephine questioned, since she had been off work for a couple of months due to none other than Lewis Hamilton convincing her boss to give her the time off.
"A lot. But nothing that you needed to be here for. How was your time off? Did you have a good time? Get some rest?" Sandra responded gently, since she had been keeping track of the Australian, making sure that she was okay and not putting herself under too much strain.
"Uh, I got some rest. I kept being woken up by this super annoying thing." Josephine smirked to herself, the quietest of giggles leaving her body.
"What was the super annoying thing?"
"His name is Esteban." The two women laughed together at the tone that the Rankin woman had used, one that was joking and teasing and was by no means serious.
"It's like as soon as the sun rises, he's awake and ready to drag me out of bed to explore and go on adventures." The model laughed, remembering just how many times that her French friend had woken her up in the times that she had spent with him.
"He must be a good friend. It sounds like he just wants you to have fun." Sandra nodded her head up and down proudly, since she knew that he was definitely not a boyfriend.
She knew that the woman standing in front of her was not ready for that.
"There's fun, and then there's dragging me on a bike ride for six hours." Josephine rolled her eyes exaggeratingly, whilst quickly doing a very basic makeup look on her face ready for her photoshoot.
"Keep the lipstick a basic color. We want the outfit to stand out." Sandra made sure to notify the woman, though she knew that Josephine was more than capable of doing it herself.
The Rankin woman nodded her head up and down a couple of times, placing a nude lipstick color on to her lips, followed by a clear gloss to help make the outfit that she would be wearing, a designer dress from a fashion designer called Vera Wang, stand out.
It was why the backdrop was all white, her hair slicked back, and her shoes were just some simple heels that weren't even going to be visible.
Josephine found herself staring off in to the distance as the camera was being clicked multiple times, the flash appearing in the corner of her eye as she posed for the photos, occasionally moving her hands and arms in to different positions so that all angles of the dress could be shown off.
Sandra found herself frowning as she noticed the ghost of a smile that had suddenly seemed to appear on the lips of her favorite model, wondering what was going on inside of brunette woman's head.
"Bonjour, Miss Josephine."
Pierre Gasly greeted the Australian woman as he spotted her walking through the paddock of one of his races, having not seen her since he was a teenager.
"Wha- oh! Mon chou!"
Josephine gasped as she recognised the French boy, seeing his crystal blue eyes gleaming back at her with his bright smile. Her arms immediately wrapped around the shoulders of the boy that was now a man, feeling him return the gesture instantly.
"How have you been? Charles said that you've recently been at a few races. Are you sure that you're up for it?"
Pierre questioned the woman, since he knew that she would have been struggling with the grief of losing Jules.
"Yeah I have. It's uh, it's been tough but I've had some good people around me so that helps the pain go away a little bit. How have you been? No race wins yet, huh?"
The model noticed the small laugh that left the French man, as he shook his head from side to side a couple of times.
"No, not yet. But when I do win a race, I'll dedicate it to you, how does that sound?" Pierre gave the woman a cheeky smile, noticing how she immediately rolled her eyes at him.
"Are you still trying to be my favorite French man?" Josephine laughed, noticing how the brown haired man laughed loudly, his head nodding up and down.
"Can't blame me for trying, no?" Pierre laughed as the woman nudged his shoulder with her hand, before his eyes trailed down to her hand.
"You here to see somebody?"
"Uh yeah, Daniel actually." Josephine admitted gently, seeing the Gasly man nod his head.
"Ah, Daniel. He is a good friend. I think he is with Seb right now, shall I take you to them?" Pierre spoke, causing the Rankin woman's eyes to widen slightly.
"Uh, n-no that's not necessary. I think I'll just go and see Lewis and Valterri for a while. I would hate to interrupt the two of them." Josephine shook her head dismissively, walking away from the Gasly man, and walking towards the Mercedes garage.
Her eyes fell upon two figures that were Sebastian and Daniel, with the two of them talking with each other. They were near the Ferrari garage, laughing and joking together.
Daniel Ricciardo's eyes widened as he spotted the familiar face that was Josephine Rankin, and apologised to his German friend as he ran towards her, a large grin spread across his face.
"Hey there."
Daniel laughed as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, hearing a small squeal leave her lips which was then followed by a laugh.
"Ohmygod! Danny, you scared the hell out of me!" Josephine laughed, her heart beating rapidly from the scare of the other Australian approaching her from behind.
"You said that you were meeting me, not Lewis." Daniel faked an offended pout, since the two of them were supposed to be hanging out before she watched him race from his garage.
"You were busy." Josephine gave the curly haired man a tight lipped smile, watching as he immediately understood what she meant.
"I was with Seb, yeah sorry about that." Daniel gave the woman an apologetic smile.
He knew that the woman standing in front of him used to date that of the Vettel man before she dated Jules, and was friendly with him but she felt uncomfortable around him due to the fact that he still felt feelings for her and she didn't feel the same way.
He swore to himself that he would never make her feel like she had to spend time with somebody else because he was distracted.
His attention would be solely on her.
And it was. All of the time.
He just didn't realise it.
____________________________________________________
"Hey Auntie Josie."
Charles and Arthur Leclerc both smiled at the woman that they had reconnected with, seeing her lifting her head up from where she was sat on the floor of her apartment, having given the two boys a spare key to her apartment.
"Hey boys. Want to help little old me wrap some birthday presents?"
Josephine smiled as she ushered the two siblings towards her, watching as they both removed their shoes so that they weren't bringing out dirt or mud from the outside in to her apartment, before making their way to sit down beside her.
"Yes!" Arthur cheered, excitedly grabbing some wrapping paper and a pair of scissors.
"Who's the presents for?" Charles smiled at his auntie as he questioned her, his eyes grazing over the stack of presents.
There were some small and joke like presents, obviously meaning that they were part of inside jokes, and teasing, whereas some obviously had a lot more thought behind them.
Like a framed photo of Jules Bianchi and Daniel Ricciardo.
Charles felt his smile growing as he realised that the presents were in fact for the Australian Formula One Driver that was Daniel Ricciardo.
"His birthday isn't for another month, why are you wrapping them now?"
Arthur furrowed his eyebrows together as he listened to his brother, whilst simultaneously trying to get some sticky tape off his fingers that was refusing to come off, no matter how many times he shook his hand.
"I just want to make sure that they are all wrapped, so that I'm not stressing and panicking about it." The Rankin woman spoke, whilst chewing on her bottom lip anxiously.
The two brothers noticed the smallest of shakes coming from her hands whilst she was wrapping some of the presents, more so being the ones that held any memory at all of her deceased fiancé.
The two of them subtly moved their bodies closer to her, so that her knees were touching theirs, the two Leclerc boys using their hands to lace her fingers with theirs so that they could hold her hands and comfort her.
They had an idea that she didn't want to talk about what she was thinking, so they just decided to comfort her without speaking, the three of them having all lost the man that they all loved.
They didn't even know that by doing so, they were helping to heal her heart, piece by piece.
____________________________________________________
A/N
I'm slowly coming back with the updates
What do you think?
Please go and check out all of my other books, because I feel like they deserve some love and some comments
Also please check out all 3 of my meet my ocs books, number 1 contains all of my current ocs, whereas 2 and 3 contain all of my ocs for future books that I will be releasing in sets throughout 2023 and possibly 2024
Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one
I'm so proud of all of you, my loves
Love you all,
-RUBY