"Who is staying in that big mobile home back there? I thought they never used those." Daniel is sitting next to Seb in front of the caravan. He just arrived after dinner and the two team mates are having some drinks together.
Seb shrugs, "somebody from one of the teams I guess. I haven't really payed attention to who is staying here honestly. Been reading my book all day."
He has never been a good liar, but it's already getting dark and Daniel wasn't looking at him, so he somehow managed to keep a straight face.
He knows all to well who is staying there, but he really wants Daniel to be surprised tomorrow when he sees her in hospitality.
He had spend the rest of the afternoon with Stevie, Tina, Cole and baby Zara. She even invited him to stay for dinner which he accepted.
Antti came to look for him just before dinner time to make sure he was eating healthy and found him on the porch of Stevie's mobile home with Zara in his arms.
The look on his trainers face was priceless. As if Seb had never held a little baby before. He's an uncle, so it's nothing new.
In the end Stevie made enough for Antti to stay as well and they enjoyed a delicious pasta with chicken, a whole bunch of vegetables and an amazing pesto sauce.
If she is going to cook for them more often he will be very happy.
Delores is amazing, but she's more for the basic meals so they often had similar menu's when they went to have lunch or dinner at hospitality. With Stevie he believes it won't be so basic and there will much more variety.
Even Cole finished his entire plate, including the vegetables. He can't remember his nieces and nephews ever doing that without making a fuss about not liking something.
Apparently with a chef as a mother it's not a problem to eat whatever she cooks for you.
He and Antti did the dishes for her while she and Tina were making sure the two kids were showered and ready for bed.
Then Cole came to ask if Seb would read him a bedtime story, which he did. How could he say no to that little guy.
After that he thanked Stevie for her amazing food and went back to his caravan so she could also put her feet up and relax a bit.
When he just got back Daniel texted him to let him know he arrived and Daniel is now staying in a caravan next to Seb. Daniel doesn't have one himself, but the team provides for one if he wants.
"Did you see Christian yet?" Seb asks him to change the subject. He doesn't want to accidentally have a slip of the tongue and ruin the surprise.
"No I'll see him in the morning when we have our meeting. Since when do we have our team meetings in hospitality and not in the garage?"
Seb hides a grin, he has an idea. Stephanie told him she hasn't taken the job yet, but if this weekend goes well, especially with her kids than she probably will.
He truly hopes she does. They both are not looking for a relationship and even though she is quite young, she is very mature for her age. He really would like to deepen their newly found friendship.
She has to be mature though, being a mother of two. He will never understand that ex of hers. He had an amazing girlfriend and two little angels of children. And he just walked out to be with some 20 year old.
Some men are seriously stupid to not see what they have in front of them. Thinking the grass is greener somewhere else.
She's better off without him anyways.
"I know you are smitten by this girl, but you don't even know if she's interested in a relationship. Or in a relationship with you." Seb knows, but he is not going to break Stevie's trust by telling Daniel what she told him.
"I know and that's fine. Sure it would suck, but not everybody is going to be fall for the Ricciardo charm. I just want to get to know her. Maybe in the end she's not even my type at all."
Daniel doesn't even believe that himself. She's definitely his type, or well his new type. His ex was a brunette with brown eyes. Of course very beautiful, but compared to Stephanie she was a bit bland.
He never really noticed, but now they are broken up he realized that her personality was a bit bland as well.
In hindsight he doesn't know how they managed to stay in such a long relationship. Probably because he was never home. During winter breaks he would always want to do things, be active. But she would rather be sunbathing on the beach or stay home. Every activity he suggested, like hiking, scuba diving or riding dirt bikes, she would always dismiss before he could even finish his sentence.
Somehow it feels like Stephanie would like to do stuff like that. He could be very wrong though.
"Well I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow to maybe get some information from Christian." Seb says, hoping to drop the subject of Stevie.
"Yeah I hope so."
Daniel looks at the mobile homes that are across the field.
One has a light on and he can see a shadow moving behind the curtains that are in front of the windows. So there's definitely somebody staying there.
The other one is dark, but Seb said there was somebody staying in that one as well.
He shrugs, it doesn't really matter anyways.
~~~~~~~~
"Tina go have fun. They are in bed, I'm sure I can manage my two sleeping kids for the night." Stevie jokes.
Tina was invited by one of the PR girls she met when she was at those two races this year.
They asked her to come have a drink at the hotel and Stevie thinks she should go if she wants.
"But I work for you. I'm here to help you with those two."
Stevie shakes her head.
"I'm not your boss. And if I was, I'm telling you to take the night off and enjoy yourself. Once I actually start working here I'll need you. Right now I'm going to think of some menu ideas so you can do whatever you want. Have fun!"
The young woman still hesitates, she can't just go out while Stevie might need her.
"But..."
"Go! Do you want to go?" Stevie asks her and she nods.
"Good, then have fun."
After going back and forward in her head if she should actually go and another stern look from Stevie, Tina finally gives in and goes back to her place to get ready. She will only stay a short while and she's not going to drink alcohol. There's no way she will be able to properly look after Zara and Cole if she's hungover.
Not much later she picks up her purse and heads out.
Mollie, one of the girls has made sure there's a taxi waiting for her to bring her to the hotel.
According to Mollie, there are a lot of drivers staying there as well and even though she worked for Christian and saw plenty of those guys walking around, she still gets a bit star struck around them.
If she is lucky, maybe the Ferrari boys will be there. She won't admit it to anybody, but she has a bit of a crush on Charles Leclerc.
She has never seen anybody as handsome as him, but she also feels he would never look twice at her. He can have any model he wants, she's just a nanny.
But still, she can look and admire from a distance.
The taxi is indeed waiting and very soon she is sitting on a table in the hotel bar together with Mollie, Caroline and Ellie.
Mollie is one of the PR girls from Red Bull, Caroline works in media at Williams and Ellie she hasn't met before, but she quickly learns Ellie is one of the social media creators for Ferrari.
"So Tina, I thought you wouldn't be working for Christian anymore. His kids aren't here right?" Mollie asks.
"No, I'm not taking care of his kids anymore. Mrs Horner is home a lot now, so they didn't need me as a nanny. I'm here on a try out for somebody Mr Horner really wants to work for him. She happens to have two small children and I hope I can be their nanny for a long time."
Mollie claps her hand in excitement.
"That would be so awesome! We would be able to spend some more time together."
"I will be working, just like you. Taking care of kids isn't exactly a nine to five job, but Stephanie is amazing. She pretty much told me to come here to hang out with you guys. And Cole and Zara are so cute. I already love them."
The four girls chat and laugh and just have a great time. Tina is very happy Stevie told her to come here. She didn't get that much time for herself working at the Horner house and she won't be having much time for herself once Stephanie actually starts to work for Red Bull.
Not that it matters, she loves working with children. It's all she ever wanted and to do that in an environment like this is even more of a dream come true.
She never thought as an ordinary Slovenian girl, that she would ever end up here, in the crazy life of Formula 1.
If she can take care of Cole and Zara she would truly be happy. They are the sweetest children and of course Zara is just a baby, but so precious. Cole is super funny and outgoing. She just knows she will have an amazing time with the two of them and Stevie who is only three years older than her. She can easily see them become close friends.
"Hot Ferrari boy behind you, don't look right away." Caroline whispers.
Tina tenses up, is Charles here?
She sees Ellie smile at the person behind her.
"Carlos! Don't forget tomorrow. You and Charles are doing that music challenge."
She relaxes a bit. It's Carlos. Not that he is not beyond hot, but he's not Charles. The Monégasque, green eyed hottie is just her dream guy.
"As if you would let him forget about that."
That voice... that accent...it can't be him...
"You know I'm going to beat your ass Lord Perceval!" Carlos jokes with his cute Spanish accent.
"I think I know more music than you."
Tina feels like she's going to pass out, she's sitting here and Charles is standing right behind her.
"You only know depressing music."
"And you only know Maria Carree. She doesn't even exist."
Ellie starts to laugh, everybody knows the video of Carlos and Lando when they were both still driving for McLaren. They got asked about their favorite Christmas song and Carlos said Maria Carree which sent Lando in a complete laughing fit.
Of course he meant Mariah Carey, but it was so funny.
"Ellie aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?" Charles asks her.
"Sure, this is Mollie, she works for Red Bull, Caroline works for Williams and Tina here works for ehm Christian Horner I guess?"
Tina knows she has to turn around to introduce herself to Charles, but she is almost frozen to her chair.
While Charles and Carlos introduce themselves to the other girls she somehow manages to compose herself and turn around.
"Hi Tina, nice to meet you." Charles shakes her hand and smiles at her. His dimples are enough to make her melt right into her seat, his piercing green eyes make her heart rate go up to 200.
"Hi."
She's not a shy person but having Charles in such a close proximity is just mind blowing and making her unable to function properly.
"Ellie, you could have told me you had such beautiful friends." Charles says, never taking his eyes off Tina.
Her cheeks start to burn when she starts to blush. He can't be talking about her surely.
"So where are you from?" He pulls a chair from another table and sits down next to her.
"I ehm, I'm from Slovenia."
She tries to stay calm, but on the inside she is screaming from excitement.
The man she has dreamed about so many times is sitting next to her and talking to her.
"If I knew Slovenian girls were so pretty I would have visited a long time ago."
Tina sees Carlos who is sitting next to Caroline pull a face which causes her to giggle.
"What is funny?" Charles asks.
"Your team mate is."
Charles looks at Carlos who know has the most innocent look on his face.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing, but could you make it more obvious that you are flirting with her?" Carlos smirks.
Tina's face turns even more red. Charles probably flirts with every girl he meets, but it does feel nice that somebody like him would even pay a little bit of attention to her.
"Ssssht Carlos. Don't ruin it for me." Charles warns Carlos which causes everybody around the table burst into laughter.
When Tina walks back to her mobile home a few hours later she is floating on air. Charles and Carlos eventually had to leave, but not before he asked her phone number.
She doesn't expect him to contact her and she is not going to chase him around. But she still had an amazing evening and it was truly a dream come true to be talking to him.
She did relax eventually and she was able to joke around and even flirt a bit. So even if nothing comes of it, she will be able to remember this evening forever.
~~~~~~~~
"So guys I expect this weekend to be a great one again. Last week was amazing and we are miles ahead of the rest of the grid, but we cannot stop focusing. We're not there yet."
Christian is giving his little motivational speech he holds every weekend.
Seb and Daniel are sitting a bit in the back, mostly because then Daniel can be a pain in the ass without Christian noticing.
On his lap he has his phone and is showing Seb all sorts of funny videos which forces Seb to cough a lot to hide that he is laughing.
"Seb are you alright? Do you need to see a doctor?" Christian asks which makes Daniel chuckle.
"No Christian I'm fine. Just had a little tickle in my throat." Seb answers giving Daniel a nudge between his ribs with his elbow.
"Ok so we are going to give it 150% this weekend and let's also have fun out there. We are in Ferrari territory, but that doesn't mean we have to make way for them. If they want to beat us, they will have to fight for it."
Ferrari has been close, just as Mercedes. But Seb and Daniel are confident they can keep the silver arrows and the My Little Ponies behind them this weekend.
"Then there's another item on the agenda for today."
Daniel groans, he thought they would be done now. He will hardly have any time to talk to Christian about Stephanie before he has to go to the press conference. Usually after Christian's pep talk he's done, but now there's more.
"God this meeting never ends." He whispers to Seb who just sits there with an accepting smile on his face.
"Stop being a whining baby. It could be important."
"Yeah like what? We already covered the plans for this weekend. What could be more important than that?"
Daniel sighs and looks back down at his phone where he now sees a video of people being chased by chickens or other birds.
"Obviously we all know our dear Delores is leaving. She wants to spend more time with her family and of course we understand that. It will be really difficult to find somebody who can fill her shoes."
Daniel's attention goes back to Christian. He adores Delores and he was kind of hoping she would change her mind and stay at least till the end of the season.
By the sounds of it she hasn't and maybe there's already somebody to replace her. It will not be the same though. Delores is like a mother for all of them while they are away from their families. She's always there with a kind word or a hug if anybody needs one.
Daniel is not looking forward to seeing somebody else being in that kitchen.
"Let's see what kind of witch Christian has been able to dig up. Couldn't he just offer Delores more money. There's nobody who could ever take her place."
"You are such a cry baby sometimes. Just wait and see." Seb rolls his eyes, but he's also amused. Daniel is going to have a heart attack if he finds out who is hopefully going to replace Delores. He won't be such a whining little shit after that.
"I think I managed to find the perfect chef. She will be here this weekend on a try out to see if she feels like our team is right for her."
"So it's a woman. I bet it's going to be one of those grumpy, stuck up old hags."
Seb snorts. Daniel couldn't be more wrong.
"I want to ask all of you to make sure she feels at home and welcome here. Because I promise you, is this talented chef cooks for you, you'll be just as enthusiastic as I am. I had the honor of tasting her meals a couple of times and I have never tasted anything better."
Seb couldn't agree with this more. That pasta from last night was amazing. Somehow with the limited space she had, Stevie still managed to make fresh pasta from scratch.
She claimed she would never cook pasta from a store, no matter what, she always makes it fresh. And he could definitely taste that.
"So without dragging it out too long. I want to introduce you all to, hopefully, our new chef. Stephanie Dawson."
Daniel's head shoots up, Stephanie??!! It can't be?
But then he sees her. That long black hair, tied back in a braid. Those piercing blue eyes.
It's her!!
He looks next to him and sees Seb sitting there with the most smug smile on his face he has ever seen.
"You fucking dickhead. You knew! Didn't you?" Seb nods.
"I only found out yesterday. Guess who is staying in that mobile home?"
That question causes him to receive a punch on his arm from Daniel.
"You knew she was in that mobile home and you didn't tell me? Fuck Seb you knew I was trying to find her and she was like 50 meters away from me. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I wanted to see this exact look on your face." Seb raises his phone which is on record. He has the moment of Daniel realizing Stevie is here on video and it's absolute gold. If they ever get married, he will play this video on a massive screen.
In the front Stephanie stands next to Christian. She is very overwhelmed and shy by all this attention. She was hoping to just be behind the scenes in the kitchen, but Christian wanted to make this big announcement even though nothing is official yet.
In the back she can see the man she has dreamed about so much lately.
His facial expression is priceless. He is in shock and surprised. She's not sure if it is because he is happy to see her or not.
Then she looks at Seb who is pointing his phone at Daniel and he seems to be recording the Australians reaction.
Christian is looking at her as if he is expecting her to say something. She didn't prepare anything.. what is she supposed to say? She's only a chef who might work here. Why does he make such a big deal out of it?
"Stephanie I truly hope our team can persuade you to accept the job. We would love to welcome you in our Red Bull family. If you need anything just let me or anybody else know."
She nods and smiles at the many faces of the team she will have to get to know.
So many people, so many different preferences in food she's going to have to consider.
"Thanks Christian. I will definitely try my best to make sure I'll be able to come up with dishes for everybody. But I would love to hear any suggestions or allergies I have to keep in mind. I don't want to kill anybody on my first weekend of course."
The people in the hospitality area start to laugh. That must be a good thing right?
Suddenly a familiar face gets up and steps forward.
"I know we will be getting delicious food with you here. Not that Delores didn't make good food, but I know how talented you are."
It's Calum who gives her a warm hug to welcome her.
"Well if I decide to stick around it will be thanks to you." She had never met Calum before last weekend, but he seems like a really sweet guy.
"Christian you hear that? If she stays it's thanks to me, so I'll be expecting a raise." Calum jokes and Christian slaps him on the shoulder.
"Then better make sure she stays around."
Daniel in the back is still completely stunned by the fact that the woman he was looking for is standing right there next to Christian and Calum.
The fact that Seb didn't tell him anything about this kind of irritates him, but when he thinks about it. He would probably have done the exact same thing to Seb. So he can't stay mad for too long.
"Dan, buddy. Wipe your chin please. You're drooling all over the place." Seb jokes and Daniel, being oblivious at the moment, actually wipes his chin. Only to be rewarded with laughter from Seb.
"You really are a knob sometimes Seb."
"I know, she is an amazing chef by the way." Seb pokes Daniel a bit more.
"How do you know? Have you eaten at that restaurant she used to work before?"
"No she invited me to stay for dinner yesterday. It was amazing. Had a really good time as well. She really is a lovely person. Very sweet, obviously gorgeous and an amazing chef. It's like hitting the jackpot with her."
Daniel's jaw drops.
"You had dinner with her and you didn't even tell me. Fucking hell Seb why would you not tell me?"
"Because this is way too much fun. But don't worry. I'm just friends with her. I'm not looking for a relationship right now and you know that. Besides I know how smitten you are, I would never stand in your way. Just, you know, take it slow with her. She might need some time."
Daniel look at him questioning. What does Seb know? His team mate doesn't want to elaborate so he will have to find out himself. But if Seb thinks he should take it slow he will. Seb wouldn't say that if he didn't have legitimate reasons.
God she looks even more beautiful than last week, his entire body feels warm when he looks at her. He can't remember ever having this feelings with his ex. They were friends before so they just gradually grew into a relationship.
But what he feels right now, his heart is racing and his stomach feels filled with butterflies. That is a new feeling for him.
She suddenly looks at him and they lock eyes.
He's lost in those enchanting deep oceans of blue. She gives him a careful smile and it just lights up the room. He forgets about everybody else in the room, all he sees is her and he knows he will do whatever he can to make sure she accepts that job.
He has to get to know her, he wants to know everything about her. He wants to be her friend just like Seb and hopefully, fingers crossed, she will maybe become even more.