Ange had fallen asleep within five minutes after she had gotten into bed. Between the heat, excitement, apprehension, and whatever other emotions had run through our bodies today I don't blame her. My body was tired, and despite having a million things to think about, everything had gone slack. It was one of those instances where you're so tired, but can't sleep because your mind is wide awake.
I had changed into a comfortable pair of shorts, but that was as far as I had gotten. Suddenly, going out again to meet up with Oscar seemed like a tremendous task. How did people go out and party after races? Especially if you were in the car. I grabbed my phone, which was sitting on the little table beside the bed plugged into the wall to check for any messages from Oscar. I kept reaching for the phone every two minutes, half expecting him to cancel to go out with Lando and the rest of the grid to celebrate the first race, he certainly deserved to. But it wasn't a cancellation message I received.
Finishing up here, you at your hostel?
The text message was sent one minute ago. So I typed a quick reply not wanting to miss him.
Yes, what's the plan?
Any chance there is a restaurant near you?
No, the breakfast bar here isn't locked at night, but that's all I got.
Sounds perfect.
I'm confused, was he really just coming here to raid a barely stocked mini fridge and toast? There wasn't a restaurant nearby, Ange and I booked this hostel without looking at the location, so we couldn't even walk to one. Great, just great, this is already doing so well. I'm making the man who just raced a freaking Formula One race eat dry freaking toast. I slapped my hand to my forehead before getting up to slip some sandals on and leave the room quietly, lest to wake Ange.
I turned around and slowly closed the door, thankfully the hostel was reasonably empty with most people out partying and attempting to get into the driver parties somewhere else in the city. I looked up the stairs to my left which went up to the third floor and for the first time noticed a small sign that read 'rooftop terrace'. I looked down at my phone, Oscar was going to be at least twenty minutes if he was just leaving the track.
Liking the idea of a distraction from disappointing food I climbed the steps up into a corridor and pushed open the door at the end of the hall. I pushed my foot into the door, holding it open in case it was locked and I looked around. On top of the hostel was a small empty sitting area adorned with six lounge chairs, a sun shade, and some sad-looking plants. They hadn't been watered in a few days although they were still green.
With the desert heat, nobody would be able to stand the heat up here in the day, but the cool evening desert air was chilly and welcoming on my skin. I turned around and headed back to Ange and I's room, entering it as quietly as I had left it. I grabbed Oscar's shirt from its folded-up position on the small desk in the room, assuming he would want it back tonight. I quickly ran a brush through my hair and removed most of the makeup on my face. I was too tired to try and look put together and an acne breakout is something nobody wants.
I glanced down at my phone. It had been eighteen minutes since Oscar's text. As quietly as I could, I slipped on Oscar's shirt and my phone along with my room key and slipped out of Ange and I's room again. This time, instead of climbing the stairs to the terrace I descended them down to the breakfast area. As I assumed, it was unlocked and I did a quick reconnaissance of what was there. A few scones, and some yogurt in the fridge. Nothing of sustenance. Shit. There were a few deserts left, maybe Oscar was feeling like a Nanaimo bar?
I kept trying to rationalize the sparse food here when I looked down to see my phone screen light up. I had turned my notifications back on after the race, not wanting to miss any of his messages. And it was Oscar's Instagram notification that lit up the screen.
I'm outside, I brought food.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and my shoulders fell away from my ears. Thank god. I let a smile raise my cheeks as I walked toward the front door, passing the twenty-four-hour front desk man, who offered me a small wave which I returned before pressing open the door and stepping out into the street.
Oscar was standing against his car in athletic shorts and a baggy Mclaren hoodie, holding a bag of takeout. He'd obviously showered because his usual fluffy hair was damp and ruffled up.
"Sorry, I couldn't do cereal," he said, crossing the street. I laughed.
"I don't blame you," I said, noticing my breathing become a bit quicker as he got closer to the door. "Come on, let's go sit."
Oscar nodded and motioned for me to lead the way. I quickly opened the door and led us through, waving again at the man at the desk. He just smiled and returned to his newspaper, not paying attention, or not recognizing that Oscar Piastri had just walked through the front door. I made it to the stairs and looked back, quickly checking if Oscar was still behind me, thankfully he was. I tried to make checking for him look non-chelant, but it didn't work, he smiled at me. I turned up the stairs again when I felt my face go red before starting up them again. I passed Ange and I's room, Ange was undoubtedly still asleep inside and climbed the last flight of stairs to the rooftop.
"You do realize that this is a lot of stairs for someone who just finished a race right?" Oscar asked from behind me. He wasn't out of breath, but he was climbing the stairs slower than I was.
"Sorry, there's no elevator," I said, genuinely apologetic as I opened the door to the rooftop. The night air welcomed me again and once Oscar was through the door I checked to see if it was going to lock us out before letting it shut. "Here we go, somewhere quiet." There was a bit of awkward silence as we made our way over to a set of lounge chairs adjacent to the door which looked over the tops of a few close buildings.
"Here," Oscar handed me a wrap out of the takeout bag. "Sorry, I don't know if you have any dietary restrictions or anything so it's just a chicken Caesar wrap. I figure everyone likes those."
"Thank you," I said, not realizing how hungry I was until the food was in my hand. I hadn't eaten since three o'clock in the Mclaren hospitality. It was now well after midnight.
"No problem," he paused, taking a few bites of his food, a wrap also. We ate for a few minutes, Oscar, depleted of all calories from his race, finished his food before I was halfway through mine. "So, how should we do this?" he asked, relaxing back in the chair, and taking a sip of his water bottle.
I sighed, leaning back. "Well, I guess it depends on what we are both comfortable with, we barely know each other." I pointed out. I didn't feel awkward around him at the moment which was a pleasant surprise that made being in each other's company less nerve-wracking.
"So, let's get to know each other." Oscar said, "What's your favourite colour?"
"Wow, asking all the deep questions already, that may be too much," I laughed.
"Out of your comfort zone?" he joked.
I smiled, "Oh definitely."
His smile was wide, matching my own. "Okay, well, my favourite colour is red."
"I thought you would've said orange."
"I wear lots of orange, and I do look good in orange," I laughed quietly at him, taking another bite of my food. "But I like red, couldn't tell you why."
"Green," I said, finishing up my wrap and chucking the paper back into the takeout bag.
"Why green?" he asked.
"I couldn't tell you either," I wrapped Oscar's shirt around me a little tighter and it took the chill off the night air. There was a pause as we both looked up at the sky. The city drowned out most of the stars but you could see a few, and the moon was half there, right in the middle of the sky.
"What should we do next weekend?" Oscar was quiet now, and I didn't know if that was him being tired, serious or both. "Can you come?"
"Yes," I replied. "I can come." I looked over and saw the faintest smile.
"So, what should we do for the press? The media already thinks you're my girlfriend because we follow each other on social media and you came to the race today. Which is insane by the way. I did not expect people to put the pieces together that fast."
"Me either, but it's alright. It means we can just do one of those. What do you call them," I paused for a second "Soft launches I think?" Oscar nodded.
"Yeah, good idea. It would give us a bit more time to figure things out. If we just post we're dating right away people will ask questions. If we leave some things up to speculation then people won't ask me questions in interviews before we've figured this out." Oscar motioned to the space between us and it was my turn to nod.
"As for the media side of things. Well, we could always do what you suggested on Friday, walk into the paddock together next weekend?"
"You don't think that would be too fast for people to keep up with? You walking in with me might be a bit more of an abrupt announcement."
I sighed. "I suppose, but maybe leaving the relationship mostly off of social media is enough to keep the questions to a minimum."
"Okay, let's do it then. It might be hard to convince some people we are dating though."
"Well, I guess that depends on who you are trying to convince." I took a second to think. "Are you only trying to convince the media and Zak, or everyone?"
Oscar was silent, thinking for a moment. "I think it will be hard to convince everyone. Especially the people who knew about Lando and Carlos' plan to try and get us together. But I doubt they'll tell anyone it's fake either. So how about we try and convince everyone but them?"
"All right. Yeah, it would be impossible to convince Lando. He introduced us Friday and for us to all of a sudden show up in Saudi saying we have been dating for a while. He wouldn't believe it."
Oscar shifted to lay back on the lounger looking relaxed he sighed. "I'll have to tell Lando. I don't think he'll appreciate finding out by surprise."
"Okay. So, we convince everyone but those who were there on Friday?"
"I guess so, you think we could do it?"
I shrugged "I don't see why not, we have already convinced social media and we haven't even been pictured together yet."
Oscar nodded before speaking again. "Should we have rules?"
I couldn't help it. I laughed. "Did you read a romance book since Friday?" I asked, my smile spreading on my face. Oscar looked at me sheepishly and I theatrically gasped. It was his turn to go red.
"No, I just read up on them," he tried to cover. "You know, trying to get a general idea of what to do here." He motioned to the space between us and I laughed.
Calming myself, I spoke. "Okay, sure. What rules are you thinking?"
"Well, we shouldn't date other people," he said and I nodded. "There will be cameras always on us, especially me, and I think the last thing either of us needs is to be labelled as a cheater."
"Agreed." It made perfect sense, if we were going to try to fake being in love, we couldn't be off-dating someone else. "No big extravagant dates," I said.
"What do you mean?"
"If we are trying to convince people we have been dating for a while, people who have been dating for a long time don't make every date super huge." Oscar looked a little confused so I attempted to simplify it. "No flower bouquets and twenty-star restaurants, later on, we could post pictures of us making food, or going for a drive, simpler stuff like that."
"Not much of a flower girl?"
"Every girl likes some flowers sometimes, but I don't think we have to try super hard to prove this thing. If we just act like a couple and keep it simple, I don't see how it could go sideways. I think people will assume we have been together for a while before this."
"Okay, fair point." Oscar rolled onto his side, I hadn't noticed he reclined the chair back, I looked at him before he started talking again. He tried a few times to get the words out, failed, and then rolled back onto his back. "What about," he paused again, "Kissing and stuff?" I froze in place. I hadn't exactly thought if people expected to see that. I assumed holding hands, hugging, simpler things. "Won't people expect to see that kind of thing?"
"Um," I cleared my throat. "I don't think we have to worry about kissing or anything yet. But I'm sure it's fine if people see us hug or something." I fought the redness in my cheeks but it was somewhat comforting to see the same redness on Oscar's cheeks.
Oscar paused. "Okay." He slowly said. "We should have a way of asking if things are okay"
"Now it's my turn to ask what you mean."
"Well, sometimes media can be a lot, we should have a way of checking in with each other when things get hectic."
"Okay sure," It made sense, then if either of us were ever uncomfortable we could come up with a way out together. "Like what?"
"Bird sounds?" The humour returned to his voice and I lightly laughed the awkwardness dissipating.
"It may be a bit too obvious something is up when you start making pigeon noises." We both laughed. "What about just squeezing each other's hand?" I suggested. "We'll have to most of the time be holding hands anyway, and it won't look weird if we randomly grab the other's hand."
"That would work," I could tell Oscar was thinking by the way his voice trailed off. "Two squeezes for yes and three squeezes for no."
I let myself think for a second too, that it would work. "Okay, let's do it."
We both sat in silence for a few minutes. I finished my wrap and balled up the wrapping before chucking it into the now-empty takeout bag. I let myself relax, reclining back in the lounger like Oscar. The air was chilly, but not freezing, I was still warm with Oscar's shirt on. The stars that were visible through the city lights were dim, and few between. The air was fresh though and I found myself shutting my eyes, taking a deep breath in and out.
I heard Oscar shift in his chair beside me and I turned my head to look at him. He was looking straight at me and there was something soft in his eyes. His hair fell loosely over his forehead and he looked content.
"So," he said softly. "What's our story? How did we meet and fall in love?"
I smiled, "Well, I told Margret when she asked today that we met through social media."
"How very boring of you," he teased.
"Well, I could've said you said some cheezy pickup line to try to pick me up," I said, getting the hint I could have said that to Margret and Oscar would've found it funny.
Oscar's nose crinkled up in mock disgust. "I'm way above pickup lines Blake."
I laughed. "Yeah?"
"I'm too shy for it, I just let my friends set me up with people."
I laughed. "Well, that seems to have worked out for you."
"This time it seems so." Oscar smiled, still lying on his side on the lounger across from me. I met his brown eyes. "How long have we been dating?"
"Hmm, how about six months?"
"That doesn't seem too long. But I guess it would work," Oscar pulled his hand out and started counting his fingers. "How about seven? That puts our first date over last year's summer break."
I nodded. "Sounds good, and that way if we get asked something about each other and we don't know the answer it can be explained by only being together for seven months."
"And living in like, a hundred different time zones" Oscar added, agreeing with me. "Let's make our anniversary the tenth."
"Why the tenth?" I was genuinely curious.
"We met last Friday, and it was the tenth." He stated obviously, tapping his temple. "Easy to remember."
"Oh, gotcha. Tenth of August it is."
"And we went for a picnic on our first date," He said, gaze returning to the sky when he adjusted to lay back in the recliner again.
"Why a picnic?" Oscar had read some kind of romance book in whatever free time he had this weekend. I was now determined to figure out which one.
"Because you said you don't like extravagant stuff, that's how I won you over." He stated matter of factly as if it was obvious, but there was still some humour in his voice.
"You won me over on our first date?" I breathed, suppressing another laugh.
"Oh definitely," Oscar was joking again. "I was super charming, pulled out all the stops, blanket, cookies, sparkling wine at sunset, and all of it."
"Oh, I don't know, that's starting to sound very fancy Oscar" I laughed. "Sounds like a great way to win over a girl on the first date though."
We both laughed, I liked seeing his smile. We hadn't talked about the race today at all, but the exhaustion from it was slowly taking hold of me, I couldn't imagine how tired Oscar was. There was a pause in conversation again as we both thought of the upcoming chaos of having to make this plan work. I looked down at my phone screen, it was nearing three in the morning and the ambient noise of the clubs and parties in the distance was beginning to fade.
"I should head back to my hotel," Oscar said. "Mark will kill me if I am late for my flight tomorrow morning." He paused, pulling out his phone, "In six hours."
"Oh my gosh, yeah you better get back," I laughed embarrassingly for keeping him out so late. He smiled at me and grabbed the empty takeout bag, standing up I followed him to the door back inside. Panic momentarily went through me when I struggled with the latch on the door, I had checked if it was locked before I closed it. Had the front desk man come up and locked it? Oscar reached around me and pushed the latch down. The door opened with ease.
"Why do different countries have different door layouts?" I questioned, staring at the open door. "It's stupid, I look like an idiot every time." Oscar smiled then bypassed me to walk through the now-open heavy door.
I followed him downstairs, the man working reception was asleep in his chair, newspaper draped around his chest. People were beginning to flood the streets, escaping from the clubs and bars closing down soon for the end of the night. There were a few people I recognized walking down the street I knew from seeing them around the hostel the past few days but I ignored them and headed over to Oscar's car with him. He had discarded the takeout bag in the trash bin outside the front door and was reaching into his pocket to fish out his keys. Oscar clicked the unlock button and the running lights on the car came on as he turned to face me. I had no idea what to say, the awkwardness that had vanished between us on the rooftop had returned. Not in the same force, but enough to make me question my breathing.
"Here," I said, slipping his shirt off my shoulders to give it to him.
"No, no keep it," He said. "I have a hard time wearing white, it looks better on you."
I nodded, slipping the fabric back over my shoulders, warmth returning to my body. I wasn't sure if it was his actions, his words, or the shirt itself that was making me feel warm. "So, I guess I'll see you in Saudi?"
He smiled again, tiredness starting to be visible in his eyes. "Give me your phone," he said, and I fished it out of my shorts pocket, handing it to him unlocked. Oscar was standing, leaning against his car and I moved to stand beside him. I watched as he navigated to my contacts, creating a new one. He typed in his phone number and then labelled his contact Oscar <3. I smiled and he handed me back my phone.
"Text me?" He said it like a question but I assumed it was more so he could get my number than anything else so I nodded, placing the phone back in my pocket." See you in Saudi," he said.
I stepped away from the car when Oscar opened up the door and walked back across the street. I heard him fire up the engine and I turned back around, standing just outside the entrance of the hostel doors. I saw him wave through the dark tint of the McLaren's window. I raised my hand and waved back, watching him drive off down the street. I stood there until I couldn't see or hear his car anymore. Then, I let the overwhelming amount of tiredness take over me.
The man at the front desk was still asleep when I managed to drag myself through the doors past him and up the stairs one last time for the evening. I didn't bother getting ready for bed, committing mentally to a shower in the morning. My limbs were heavy when I unlocked and pushed Ange and I's room door open. My hands subconsciously checked the lock, and before I could think any further about Saudi or Oscar I collapsed onto my bed and let the peacefulness of sleep wash over me.