"Oh my Lord, I'm so exhausted and the season hasn't even started yet!"
I exhaled loudly in my hotel room, here in Barcelona. The first day of pre-season test went by, the car was feeling quite good even if with the team we discussed a lot of aerodynamic details we need to fix. Being back on track after two months just on the sim was amazing, also because of the amount of great fans already there, just to hear the engines or to get to see their favorite driver.
For the very first time I also met a young girl who came for me. As soon as I passed the controls entering the paddock, I heard my name from behind me. When I turned around, I met Sofia, a young girl from a little town close to Barcelona. She was 15 and was with her dad, waiting for me only, outside the track. When I got closer to her to sign her cap with my number on it, she started to cry and I felt useless. Fighting my embarrassment, I wrapped my arms around her in a big hug, trying to comfort her. Her dad was speechless, but honestly I was too. My number one fan laughed hysterically when we took a photo together, and she was about to faint when I waved at her, calling her by her name, while going back to work.
"I'm so tired. I feel like a train had just passed over my body." Lando agreed with me, jumping on the bed like I did a few moments before.
We were in my room, lying on the huge bed. We came back to the hotel together as we were staying in the same one, exactly like most of the other drivers and staff members.
"My back hurts so much. That stupid porpoising will be the end of me." I said while passing a hand on my spine to find some relief, but it was useless- only a good massage will help me.
"Here, let me help you." He got up and walked to the bathroom. He knew where my bag was and also which cream I was used to put on my sore knee on bad days. He came back to the bed with the lotion and sat again next to me. "I saw Jon made this massage many times on me, I think I could try to help you doing the same, if you let me, of course."
I looked at him and immediately smiled at his caring. After the huge fight, we talked about the problems and missing pieces of our relationship when we spent a few days together in Florence at mine. Things were finally going ok again, even if the struggle now was about how to act in front of the others.
"Please, help me!" I said with the most dramatic tone I could have, putting my arm on my forehead. He chuckled at my ridiculous acting skills, positioning himself closer. I rolled on the mattress to lay on my stomach but before I removed my shirt to let him massage properly my sore back. When I unclasped the bra, I heard him gasped nervously. "C'mon Lan, come closer. I promise I've never bite anyone, neither Mike when he tortured me after a hard gym session."
He sat on his knees, putting some of the magic lotion on my back and starting to move his warm hands on me. At first he was cautious but as soon as he noticed how much I was relaxing, he added some pressure, going from my shoulders and neck to the lower back.
His massage was definitely helping me release the stress of the day and some pain too.
"Oh, Lando. I can't believe you've never done it before." With my eyes shouted and the face pressed into the pillow, I whispered these desperate words, hoping he would hear me.
"What can I say, I'm talented, in many things apparently..."
"Even if I can't see your face, I know you have a huge grin, Norris." I giggled at him and in response he gave a pat on my butt. "Hey!"
"Ok, Bianchi, enough sweetness. What about dinner? I'm starving."
I got up slowly, realizing how good was my back now. I stretched a bit, feeling so light-weighed. I must admit that he was way better than Mike, a thing I thought was impossible.
"What do you have in mind, magician?"
While asking him about dinner, I was struggling with my bra. He stopped my goofy movements, reached my back, still facing me, and closed it, without any effort. His face was closed to mine, I could feel his warm breathe against my mouth, his eyes were stuck into mine and I couldn't do anything apart close the distance, pulling him a long kiss. I kept him in that position, closing my arms around his neck and making him hover me.
"When I said I was starving, I didn't mean this. But I can't really complain." He said in between the kisses.
"Ok, romantic moment ending. What were you saying about dinner?"
"Uff, I should take more advantage of these rare moments. Anyway, Carlos invited us to a great Spanish restaurant, to eat typical seafood."
"You know seafood consist in fish, right?" Knowing his peculiar food taste, I was so confused.
"He promised me that will be some meat options too."
"Oh, now everything make sense." I said, caressing his cheek. "So you wanted to go?"
"Only if you want. I want to stay with you as the upcoming weeks are gonna be busy."
"How sweet." He blushed a bit at my words.
"Yeah, I'm sweet and also hungry. So do you want to go? I think some other drivers will be there too."
"Let's get ready."
We stood up and said a quick goodbye, as he needed to go back to his own room to change clothes. I took a shower just to pull away the oily lotion from the massage and chose something nice to wear. I was glad I decided to put in the luggage a few clothes to hang out. I picked a light blue jeans, comfy and easy, with small flowers printed on it, combined with a white satin shirt. Even if it was February, it wasn't cold at all, so I just grabbed a dark blue blazer to put on when being outside.
I met Lando downstairs and exited the hall, a bit behind him to not attire paparazzi's attention. We were trying hard to keep our relationship secret, fighting our instinct to run to each other anytime we were in the same place.
Outside the hotel there were many fans, so we made our way to them, waving, signing some autographs and some pictures. Actually they asked it mostly to him but some of them called also my name, maybe for pity. The chauffeur brought my car there, I thanked him and sat in the driver's seat. He entered the car too after a while and stopped my hand while I was turning on the engine.
"What? Don't you trust me? You know, I crashed just once." Sarcasm filled my words.
"You silly, of course I trust you. I just wanted to make sure you're ok to drive."
"I'm more than ok. I feel like a new girl right now and just thanks to your magic hands! Now, anything else to say? I'm really craving a paella!"
"Oh my goodness! Forget any kiss, I'm not gonna touch you if you eat fish!"
His face showed me all his disgust, scrunching hard his nose.
"Your loss Norris, I'll find someone else to kiss!" I wanted to tease him a bit, it seemed to work though.
"You little muppet, you're gonna regret it."
Laughing, I started the car and drive through the street of Barcelona, following Lando's directions, after he put the name of the restaurant on his phone.
We parked and reached the others, already sat at the table- maybe we were a bit late.
"Guys, you're finally here!" Carlos said, standing up and hugging his best friend, while I stood next to them, waving and greeting the rest of the drivers. "Hola Kiara, glad you came."
"Gracias Carlos, thank you so much for the invite, even if it was for him and not really for me." I whispered the last part, so he was the only one to heard it.
"Kiara, down here. I kept you a seat!" A hand was waving in the air.
"Thank you Pierre. Hi guys, how are you doing?"
I took my seat at the opposite side of the small table, just in front of my boyfriend. Pierre was on my right with Charles, while on my left was sat Max. In front of me there was Lando, Carlos, Fernando and Daniel. Apparently the others already left, maybe to spend a few days at home before flying to Bahrein.
We chatted a bit, before deciding what to order. We picked an appetizer to share and almost everyone ordered the typical paella, apart from Lando who went for a special paella with just vegetables.
"So Kiara, tell us, how are you? I mean, your teammate is Pierre, you only know Mick and you just came with Lando, basically you got the chance to meet only the worst of us." Fernando asked jokingly.
"What can I say? I keep pretending to be fine but they're so annoying!" I tried to be serious but I broke in a loud laugh, seeing their faces. "Joking, I'm joking. Everything seems good so far. Of course I can't wait to meet you all."
"So it's true, you know only Pierre, Mick and Lando?" Carlos then asked.
"Basically yes. Well I also met Sebastian a few times, of course Max and Checo for some RedBull PR events. Actually I also know Charles a bit, as I used to race with his brother."
"Oh yeah, Arthur couldn't stop talking about you back in the days!" Charles laughed remembering his crazy brother.
"My teammate is a heartbreaker then, huh? Mick, Arthur, who else?" Pierre pointed his fingers at the men at the table.
"The real question is: who will be next?" Daniel asked, still joking.
"C'mon guys, don't exaggerate. Believe it or not but I've never had a relationship with any driver." I tried to break some tension, noticing Lando's stoned-cold face.
"Maybe not yet." Carlos added and it was evident his teasing tone.
We all laughed at the hilarious conversation. Fortunately the waiter broke the moment, bringing our meals.
"Let's cheer, guys. To a new eventful season!" Carlos got up with his glass filled of white wine, soon followed by us.
During the rest of the dinner, I spent lots of time chatting with Pierre and Max, as they were closer to me. I laughed at their jokes and then we discussed about the feeling the car gave us during these few days.
All of a sudden, I felt that someone touched my leg from under the table. I thought it was a mistake, maybe because some of them moved their foot, but this mysterious leg kept caressing my calf. I tried to ignore it, even if I found it weird. Pierre was telling a silly story and I laughed loudly, grabbing his arm to stop it. Lando sent me a glare fulled of flames. I understood immediately- he was jealous.
I kept having fun with the guys, ignoring his looks. I wanted to tease him a little bit, maybe also for revenge for the past events. I wasn't mad anymore but I just wanted to have a bit of fun.
We split the bill, payed and said goodbye before seeing each other again in Bahrein for the start of the season. Lando walked a bit behind me, with his head pointed at his phone, completely ignoring me. As soon as we reached the car, I turned to him.
"Ok, no need to ignore me now. I admit that I enjoyed your jealousy, maybe a bit too much. I'm sorry, really, I didn't want to make you feel bad. But you have to understand that you have nothing to worry about."
"Seeing you so close to Max and Pierre, my friends, was killing me. The worst part was that I couldn't do anything in front of the others. I tried to gain your attention but you ignored it completely." He spouted back all his worries and annoyance.
"As I said, I enjoyed it, maybe a bit too much. I'm sorry, ok? We decided to keep it a secret, to be able to enjoy our relationship as much as we can. I think we just need to find our dimension, to learn how to handle our instinct, I guess? You can't imagine how many times I wished to kiss you or just grab your hand at dinner."
I gently caressed his face with my hand, passing my thumb on his lips. I wanted him to trust me as I was doing with him.
"I know babe, but it's just so difficult." he leaned in my hand, making me finally relaxed.
"I know Lan, we can do it."
"Can I sleep with you tonight? I'm gonna drive you to the airport tomorrow morning."
"Of course, actually I can't wait to sleep in your arms again." I leaned in, to face him but he stopped me.
"I'm not gonna kiss you, at least until you brushed your teeth ten times."
"Oh c'mon, you're so dramatic!"
"You ate a whole plate of fish, it's disgusting."
Laughing like kids, we drove back to the hotel and sneak into my room, trying to hide from the other's guests eyes. We spent a wonderful night with passion and love, enjoying each second of it.