The morning after, the first day I had to be back on the paddock but with a hangover and a head full of what had happened and didn't happen with Charles. Willow immediately noticed that something was off and pulled it out of me. I told her that the alcohol made not think about the consequences and I'd not be pursuing the Monagesque driver. Willow had groaned, something about that I was no fun like this, but then eventually told me with the biggest grin on her hungover face that she had a little moment with Daniel Ricciardo, the third driver of Red Bull and it was my turn to let my jaw drop in shock. The night had been a slight blur after I had returned inside with Charles as my head was spinning from the alcohol and the intimacy, but we had danced together for a while - I made him and he didn't refuse and for multiple songs, our bodies danced closely to each other -, I had found Olivia after a while, with Lewis, who had apologized and we had sung on stage again - she wanted to -, but I had forgotten that Willow was nowhere to be seen. She had gotten herself a nice private spot with Daniel, where the pair had shared drunken kisses before meeting up with me again to go home. I hadn't noticed, probably to confused, intoxicated and focused on different things than where Willow had ran off to. They had shared numbers and now I could also tease her.
"It was just one kiss, it literally means nothing. He's just another hot Aussie to put on my kiss-list. What you did with Charles was way more intense and you didn't even kiss him!" She grinned, but I knew she did like him a bit more than that, especially when she turned the attention back on me. I could see it, but I let it slide, knowing that I'd get the teasing back just as hard. I was going to keep an eye on how much they were gonna text.
Somehow I made it through the weekend with the whole tension with Charles from Wednesday and Willow and Olivia teasing me relentlessly. Some stolen glances throughout the weekend from other sides of the paddock, small waves when we passed each other, cheeky smiles, giggles and pink cheeks when nobody looked and many, many cute text messages, which had really turned up a step on the flirting scale. According to Willow and Olivia, I was acting like a love-sick high schooler when I received a message or when he was around. Olivia had heard from Pierre that Charles wasn't any better. I had rolled my eyes at her, she had formed some sort of alliance with the Frenchman and I didn't know if I liked that and I didn't know if I trusted that.
The weekend in Melbourne had ended on a high for Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton finally back on the podium with a P2 finish. We celebrated, hard. Lewis made sure that I got my first champagne shower as both Mick and Toto held me by my arms so that I couldn't run away. I screamed laughing. The many pictures of the moment that circulated the internet were all just horrible and adorable at the same time, I was mostly screaming in them from the cold champagne shower. Olivia even put one of them on our social media. It said: The first champagne of many more to come for our lovely Teddy Wolff to enjoy.
In the evening we got drunk with the team and the Aston Martin Team, who also had an amazing result. I ended up chatting the whole evening with the great Fernando Alonso and he ended up teaching me some stuff about whiskeys as we drank them. We had the same sense of sarcastic humor, so we kept each other company throughout the night with our whiskeys, weird stories and humor. And again, somewhere the internet had picked up on it, now I was suddenly dating Fernando Alonso as we were spotted just laughing with our whiskeys at the after-party. Toto really wasn't happy that this had happened again, but knew that it was just the media being the media when a man and a woman were spotted having fun. He had also given his grumpy reaction to the media where he said - in his own carefully chosen words - that they should leave me alone and not pull every move I make out of context, because I am just living my life, meeting people and they should back off. Of course, people seemed to have an opinion about the new rumor for a couple of days - mostly about how Nando was too old for me and I had to agree as he was closer in age to Toto than to me, but he was an attractive guy and actually really funny, they could've paired me with a much horrible person to be honest.
The rumor quickly died down again before the next race weekend in Baku as we paid no attention to it and we both just joked about it over text messages. After that, he was suddenly dating Taylor Swift and I told him that I'd love to have a rumor like that as well. During this time, I noticed how I reacted differently from last time a dumb rumor had started and figured that I was also growing into my place in F1 and in the limelight. I was still annoyed, but my head was dealing with it better. I had tried to find Charles after the race, but he was nowhere to be seen after he DNF'ed. I had seen him entering the garages again from a distance, but that was it. We had texted a little bit during the race, where I mostly tried to put him at ease. It broke my heart to read his messages where he was clearly mad and frustrated about himself.
I almost cried when I had to leave Willow again on Tuesday to go back home and catch the horribly long flights, but she promised that she'd make sure to come to England again soon. I had missed her so much and the week I got to spend with her, getting a small glimpse of her life in Australia and giving her a taste of mine in F1 was just the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. It had been way too long. Willow told me she'd try to come to the GP in Silverstone in a couple of weeks. She loved the atmosphere of F1. I teased her about her wanting to see Daniel again and she tickled me in return, I screamed, but knew enough and left it there.
In the three weeks between Australia and Baku I worked quite often at the office in Brackley. I took the train to a city close to the office that had a direct connection to London by train and took the company car that I had parked there to take me to Brackley. As I lived in London and I had no place to park the expensive car that I got anywhere near my shady studio, I took the first part of my journey by train and drove the last part myself. I loved public transport, as it was a place where I could ground myself and just disappear and basically read my book in peace. The car was a little present from Toto, but he said it was just a company car, paid for by the company to accommodate my journey, but I knew that not everyone got this treatment, but I was grateful because otherwise, my journey to work would've been so much longer. And the car was also quite cool, as I was used to driving in my friend's very old crappy cars and this was a brand new one, not even that fancy but to me, it was the most fancy thing I had ever possessed. Maybe this was one of the pros of having a rich father?
"No pressure, if you don't want to, you don't have to. Only the drivers and your father need to do a certain amount of press, you don't, so lucky you." Olivia grinned on my computer screen and I chuckled. I often had lunch with Mick when we both were around the factory, who was working the simulator quite often, and it was very nice to see a friendly face around, as Olivia had been working from home during the break. I had a lot to do, and Olivia had told me that many people wanted to interview me and wanted to know if I was ready, but I wasn't sure.
"Yes, lucky me." I joked and adjusted my headphones. "But, I'll think about it. I just think that I'm not trained enough to not embarrass myself I think when they ask weird questions, you know. I'd love to be part of some videos or something, ones that we edit later on though, just to get less camera shy and practice that first? I don't know if that's possible, if people want to see and hear more of me that way they get something..." Olivia nodded excitedly on screen. She had told me earlier that she was working on some challenges and questions for our drivers to put online for entertainment purposes for our fans.
"I'll see what I can do. Maybe we can do some TikTok content in the future, they loved the video of you singing. You have no trouble in presenting yourself in a good way, so it will mostly be helping you with what to say and what to avoid when being interviewed. I think something casual to put you more out there on our social media, as people want to see more of you and that way they'll get more and we can completely mold it to our liking." Olivia explained and I had nodded. "And maybe if you get to meet more people, you can just find some interviewer or a podcast that you feel comfortable having a conversation with eventually, because again, you don't have to if you don't want to."
"Well, if you'd like some content, I'm going to visit my father in Monaco later this week for the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters 1000 finals as he got invited and is going to take Susie and I. Maybe we can get a nice picture or something? There will probably be enough photographers around, as we are gonna be in the VIP-section I believe." I added and Olivia squealed excitedly.
"You are going to Monte-Carlo? Girl, you are living the life!" She said excitedly and I chuckled and nodded.
"Toto asked if I wanted to stay the weekend and go to this event with him and Susie and we'll just relax and I'll probably spend some time with little Jack as well. Just some family bonding I guess." I answered and I was honestly very excited. It was a little holiday and I was really looking forward to visiting the famous city of Monte Carlo in Monaco, ever since I watched the Monte Carlo movie when I was a young teen, I have wanted to visit it. It didn't really help that one particular nice hot gentleman was from this city. I had texted him that I was visiting my father and he was really excited, but I had to disappoint him that Toto had the whole weekend planned, so I couldn't get my Monaco tour from him, the one he promised a while back. He told me that I still owed one for somewhere in the future and gave me some really cute tips on what to do if we have some time left.
It was a couple of days later and me and my little backpack filled with some clothing, two books, my iPad, charger and some toiletries walked out of the airport. Toto picked me up in a very, very, very fancy car and drove me to his home in Monaco. It had been a while since we had actually had some time outside of work together and actually be father and daughter instead of boss and employee. It was such a beautiful place and Susie had made the guestroom for me, it was bigger than my little studio in London and I tried my best to not show how shocked I was. I said 'hi' to little Jack, who was excited to see me and hugged me tight and I got told I needed to get dressed as we had to go in a little while. The schedule was tight apparently, I had no clue and followed Susie. Susie's stylist had gotten some outfits for me as well to pick from as we had to look good for the pictures.
I wasn't the biggest fan of dressing up, knowing that we had to sit in the sun for a long time, so I wanted something nice but also comfortable. I had picked a linen baby blue suit, with wide airy pants that ended above the ankle, and a black top to match with some black heeled platform boots that fit nicely. Susie got dressed in a similar white suit. They touched up my make-up and Susie's and we chatted and giggled throughout the process. It was great fun to be able to chat with her, as we have been working so much lately and she also had been trying really hard to get to know me better. The stylist was getting annoyed at us, but it was nice to have some bonding time with Susie and I think she thought the same.
"How are my favorite ladies doing? You both look absolutely stunning. Almost ready to go?" Toto entered the room beaming as he looked at us. He seemed so relaxed and a different person than he was at work. Of course, now he was Toto the family man, the one I had been lacking basically my entire life. He gave Susie a quick peck on the cheek and petted me on my head with a grin as I was a lot smaller than he was.
I was a bit nervous, but I tried to hide it. I knew that a few drivers would be there too. Lando, Pierre and Charles were all going to be somewhere around there and I just didn't know what to really expect, it was the first time I actually went to something like this and was going to be treated as a VIP. I had to try not to be too excited when Charles let me know that he was also gonna be there. He sounded excited as well, but it's hard to know that through text. To understand this man was already hard, to understand myself was even harder. Outside we were greeted by another very old Mercedes car that Toto owned and which was probably the most expensive car I had ever sat in. Susie sat down in the back so that I could have the whole experience of driving through Monaco in some crazy old and expensive car in the passenger seat. I could swear that Toto looked very proud and excited when I was taking a quick Instagram story from my view.
"You like the car?" He asked as we were driving to the venue. I nodded excitedly.
"It's so cool, this is the most fancy car I have ever sat in. It's so beautiful!" I beamed and he smiled. "This is how you arrive in style." He chuckled.
"Wait until you see what the rest of the VIP's drive, this is nothing." He said with a grin, as if this car wasn't that impressive.
"Yeah, maybe it's not the fanciest car in Monaco, but to me it is! First time going to something like this in a car this fancy after getting ready with a stylist in freaking beautiful Monaco. Nothing can top that!" I beamed.
"Glad to hear that you are enjoying it so far." Susie said from the back with a bright smile with her adorable Scottish accent and Toto agreed. "There will be some press around to take pictures and try to get some unofficial interviews, but as long as you stay close to us everything will be fine, because the media can be quite pushy from time to time as you might have noticed." I nodded.
"Yeah, Olivia and I are looking into it to give them something to still their hunger for now, but I'm just not ready to do a quick-fire interview yet, I think." I answered and I saw Susie nodding as she understood. "I'd like to push it forward for as long as I can." I chuckled.
"That's totally okay and good that you and Olivia are trying to find alternatives to please them for the time being." Toto answered as he drove towards the parking valets. I was surprised by how quickly we arrived, but Monaco wasn't that big. Toto held the door open for me and Susie as we got out and we were greeted by some fans before we walked towards where we had to go.
In the beginning it was mostly Toto talking to some important-looking people and Susie joined him from time to time, but she mostly was chatting with me to keep me company as I probably looked a little lost in the VIP area. I still had to find my way during these kinds of events and meetings, but I was glad to have Susie by my side as we were letting Toto do all the official and business stuff. I had been looking around in awe at the place I had ended up in. Everyone seemed very important and was dressed up so nicely to go and watch the tennis matches. I smiled as the warm sun hit my face as Susie handed me a glass of champagne that some server was walking around with.
"Oh, that's the stuff."I grinned as I took a sip. I needed to make sure that I wouldn't embarrass myself and I straightened my back and took little sips when I suddenly heard my name in a very British accent and I shot my head in its direction to reveal the one and Lando Norris, who came my way.
"Lando!" I exclaimed excitedly and we gave each other a quick hug. "Good to see you, you look very handsome!" He grinned widely and said 'hi' to Susie and Toto as well.
"Thank you, thank you. You too, Teddy, the suit looks great on you! You look amazing" He spoke with a grin on his lips and I smiled back at him. We chatted for a bit and I was sure that someone had taken photos of us while we were getting a bit excited and loud with our British accents.
"Aww, it sucks that you are not staying longer in Monaco, otherwise we could've get you on our twitch stream to play some games with me and Max." He chuckled and realized I didn't know who this 'Max' was. "Not Verstappen, but Max as in Fewtrell, my best mate!"
"Maybe next time? Because it sounds like a lot of fun and I am luckily a good loser, so I don't mind if you guys beat the shit out of me as I'm a terrible gamer." I joked and Lando chuckled.
"Ah no, you are not terrible. You weren't that bad at Mario Kart. Maybe I can teach you how to play F1!" He tried and put the emphasis on 'that' and it made me laugh, that was when we noticed the camera coming closer to us, we posed for it for a second. It was a little awkward, but part of life now.
"Well, I'm looking forward to see what they'll make of that picture. If they think we are dating or if I'm trying to bribe you to come to Mercedes." I mumbled as I straightened my linen blue blazer and threw the last bit of the glass of champagne down my throat. Lando sighed deeply.
"Yeah, we shall see. But at least we look good in it." He tried to lift my mood as I thought of how the media had basically turned every picture they had taken of me with a driver turned into a random idiotic love story up until this point and I had been painted the bad guy. I chuckled.
"You mean, we look damn good." I added and we laughed and chatted on as Toto and now Susie as well were talking to someone I didn't know and I felt comfortable with someone I knew in this VIP area and Lando didn't seem to mind to be spending some time with me.
After a little while and another glass of champagne while I caught up with Lando, who was also just lovely, got a few confused looks of Toto about why I was now non-stop talking to the McLaren-driver - I was certain that I'd not hear the last of it when we'd be in private - when there was some noise around the VIP area, like every time someone new would arrive, but this time it was almost as if some kind of royalty would be joining the group. Well, they weren't actually royalty, but a few of them certainly got the royal treatment as I spotted the familiar green eyes that belonged to Charles Leclerc through the small crowd - my heart skipped a beat when I recognized them -, with Pierre Gasly by his side, who brought his new girlfriend and behind them there were two men who I recognized as Charles's brothers from one of my Olivia's Instagram stalking session.
"Earth to Teddy?" Lando said and waved his hand in front of my face as I was watching them enter and greet everyone. Lando smirked as he noticed where or who I was looking at. I rolled my eyes. "Hey Charles, Pierre!" Lando now waved the pair over and Charles looked confused as to where it was coming from, but quickly spotted Lando and me. I smiled shyly and his whole face seemed to light up and relax at the sight of us. Pierre was smirking as the small group walked towards us and I couldn't help but feel my heartbeat go faster and also feel a deadly stare from my father from the corner of my eye which I decided to ignore. But God, Charles looked so good in his light beige striped suit. Charles immediately hugged me tight. It was good to see him again and we held each other for a little longer than we probably should've. We hadn't really seen each other since our moment in Melbourne. His soft gaze made me all warm and fuzzy and I smiled back at him as we let go. Our gazes stayed connected for a little longer and the other probably noticed it as Pierre said 'hi' to me with a smirk on his lips. I introduced myself to his girlfriend Kika, who seemed very lovely, and Charles's brothers Lorenzo, the oldest, and Arthur, the youngest, who were also joining them. A little later I also noticed Joris who I had met a few weeks back on the paddock who came rushing over as he seemed to have lost his friends in the mass of people. I couldn't understand a word of the French that suddenly got spoken and both Lando and I looked confused at each other and started giggling at the other one.
"Hi Teddy! So nice to see you again!" Joris said excitedly and gave me a quick and unexpected hug. I smiled and hugged him back.
"Thanks, Joris! It's nice to see you too!" I answered politely with a smile and I caught Joris smirking at Charles and him rolling his eyes. It made my lips twitch upwards and Charles now caught my eye and looked as if he had been caught, trying not to laugh too bright and suppress a bigger smile to not cause any attention, by pursing his lips together. I was the only one who saw. It was adorable and I held his gaze as long as I could with a grin of my own. He was the first to break the contact to look me up and down, which made me blush. Lando suddenly switched places to go and talk to Pierre as the other Monagesque men were chatting way too loud in French and I was now standing next to Charles. He smiled down at me. I was a little bit taller than I normally was, thanks to the heels I was wearing, but he was still much taller. I looked up at him and gave him a bright smile as I started playing with the rings I was wearing. He lowered his head a little bit towards my ear and I felt his breath against my ear.
"You look absolutely gorgeous today, Teddy. The suit looks amazing on you." He smirked with his hands in his pockets to keep him from touching me with all these cameras around and tilted his head as he saw how I tried to keep my cool, but my smile grew at his compliment.
"That's sweet, thanks Charles." I answered politely and he chuckled. "We do kinda match though, both in summery and casual suits." I winked with a grin on my lips.
"We do, we do and we both look good." He grinned and put his hand on the small of my back and stepped a little bit closer towards me as someone wanted to pass. And so far the no touching went. I don't mind, his hand fits perfectly on my back.
"I did have to fight the stylist to get me something comfortable as I wasn't going to wear some tight-ass dress after traveling the whole morning. Had to settle on the shoes, but they aren't terrible and comfortable enough." I joked and he laughed, leaving his hand on my back as it burned its print through the fabric.
"I can totally picture this happening." He giggled and lowered his head again for a mere second. "But I wouldn't mind seeing you in a beautiful dress either." My eyes shot his way as a blush crept up my cheeks and I looked with a little frown at him. Did he just flirt so bluntly in public? He was biting softly on his lip to suppress a nervous chuckle, hoping that nobody else had heard him besides me. I shook my head but with a small grin on my lips. "But you always look good, even in your black and white Mercedes-kit." I looked down at his compliments with red cheeks and a nervous smile, why does this man make me feel like this? It was unfair, but I picked myself and my confidence up again.
"But the Ferrari-red would look better on me?" Now it was my turn to tease and I saw his eyes widen at the idea and again he pursed his lips to not smile wider than he already had been doing. "I can tell you that the red does suit me quite well." I grinned cheeky and we were interrupted by a photographer, who I could barely understand as he spoke in French. Charles had tried to get himself together from our little flirtation. I figured that he wanted to take a picture of the drivers from what I could understand as both Kika, Joris and Lorenzo stepped back, so did I, but the photographer had other plans as he pulled me back - I was at this point extremely confused as he was talking very quick French at me. I saw Lando looking just as confused as I did as he shrugged, but Charles quickly rescued me as he saw me struggling.
"He wants you in the picture too, as you are also part of F1. But only if you don't mind of course" He inquired as he leaned towards me, carefully grabbing me by the arm to pull me into the group of four young drivers beside himself and Lando when I nodded that I wouldn't mind. His thumb caressed my arm softly as if it was programmed to do so when it touched me. I quickly straightened my jacket - Susie's stylist would've murdered me if I posed with a crooked jacket - as I felt Charles place his hand back on the small of my back again, his thumb going up and down my back, its favorite place to be, as we smiled big smiles together. I had to remind myself that I had to let Olivia know that this picture might pop up somewhere. The photographer proceeded to ask me more questions in French and again I had a complete brain error, as if I had never learned a single word in French. I could only understand the words 'Toto' and 'Susie', who were still talking with a group of people behind us. I tried to understand him, chuckling nervously before Charles stepped in again to translate with a grin on his face and his hand on my shoulder.
"He asks if he also can take a picture of you with Toto and Susie." Charles said and the photographer nodded excitedly. I shrugged.
"I don't mind, but he has to ask them." I said, nodding towards where they were standing and before Charles could translate, the photographer jumped towards them to ask them for a picture. It made me giggle at his excitement, how can one be so happy to take a picture of me? I couldn't understand, but it was fun to experience as he seemed nice and friendly, only very bad in English and I'm very bad in French apparently.
"God, I didn't know my French had become so bad." I said a little flustered and Charles chuckled. I looked over to Toto and Susie as Susie waved me over to come and join them for the photo and also to get towards our places as someone from the organization had joined them, who looked like a placeur. I smiled and nodded. I said my goodbyes to the others.
"I can teach you whenever you are in Monaco again if you want? It will probably make your life a lot easier." Charles whispered in my ear before pushing me off with an iconic wink to go get another photo taken. That image would forever be in my mind, that goddamn wink. Why does he have to be such a tease? I giggled and shrugged with a grin as if I was going to think about it. I waved at the others
"See you guys later, so nice to meet you! Have fun!" I smiled and quickly skipped toward Toto and Susie for a photo.
More people had gathered and wanted a picture of the three of us. I felt how Charles kept looking my way with a dreamy small smile on his lips and his arms crossed as if he was looking out for me. We took a couple of pictures before Toto decided we had enough and wanted to go to our places. I thanked them politely with a smile and followed the placeur, Toto and Susie and looked over my shoulder towards the group I had just left to see Charles's green eyes following me as I left. As our gazes crossed, his face lit up, he smiled and gave me a little wave. He had been watching me the whole time. I waved back and he got a nudge in the side of Joris, who had noticed.
"I think that Charles likes you." Susie suddenly stopped walking to get next to me and my eyes grew. She grinned and I frowned at her words. "I see the way he looks at you, Toto does too but I think he ignores it. But I do think it's cute, he seems nice." I couldn't fully pretend that I didn't care and a small smile slipped onto my lips. "Toto thinks it's bad for business if you get on with any driver, but I guess he also doesn't want to see his daughter go off with one of his rivals. It's hard, juggling his somewhat new father role of a grown woman and the boss role in the eyes of the camera, I'm sure it's even harder for you as you are not used to it at all." Susie chuckled and put her hand on my shoulder as I looked her in the eye. She was just really sweet. I felt like a little girl again, needing the kind of support that Susie was casually giving now as if she had been doing so for years. "If you want someone to talk to, I'm here, as a friend and you know as the whole stepmom thing. It's also new to me, but I'm a little bit older and maybe a tiny bit wiser and I also started dating someone famous in the F1 world when I was in it myself so I think I can give you some solid advice as both a friend, but also as a stepmom. Depends on who you need at the time." Susie rambled on and I felt loved. God this woman was just amazing. "And you don't have to answer, but did something actually happen?" She whispered the last part with a wide grin.
"You are the sweetest, Susie, but there is nothing, I think. But thanks for looking out for me. I really appreciate that." I said with a genuine smile on my lips. I had barely talked to my mom in a long while as I hadn't been able to forgive her for what had happened with my stepdad, how he had manipulated me and Toto - and also her - but also with her help. It was a hurtful situation for everyone. I was too busy to even think about it, but it didn't help to forgive and go on with my life as I didn't have time to process it. Susie was a real sweetheart and I was glad to have her in my life as a stepmom. I had the most horrible stepdad, but I now have the sweetest stepmom in return. Susie gave me a quick side hug as we walked towards our places behind Toto and we sat down, in the bright sun to go and watch some tennis games. But my mind kept wandering towards a certain brown-haired, green-eyed Monagesque man in a beige suit. And the pictures were beautiful and were received online with full enthusiasm and delusional stories surrounding them.