The movie eventually ended and Casey pushed herself up, stretching her arms out.
"That was a long movie," she commented with a yawn. She wasn't tired as such, Seb was just so damn cozy.
"There were like 10 moments where I thought that was the end, but it kept going," he agreed with a bemused look on his face.
Casey leaned forward and picked up her phone from the tabletop. It was 9:45pm.
"Another?" Seb asked, sitting forward with her.
She chuckled and nodded, "On the condition that you have to choose this time."
He smirked, "If you insist. Though I don't really mind whatever we watch." This whole human contact thing was more than enough for him to want to keep this train chugging along.
She tossed him the remote and he cycled through the choices, eventually choosing "World War Z".
"Do you mind if we lay down?" he tried to ask as casually as possible.
"Of course not," she replied; her tone light, giving nothing at all away either.
She sat patiently on the edge of the couch as he propped up a pillow and lay on his back. Once he seemed settled, she boldly wedged herself in between him and the back of the couch, resting her head on his shoulder and an arm across his stomach. Was this okay?
It must have been, as without without further ado, he hit a button to start the movie. From that moment on, she spent approximately 90% of her mental energy focussing on the fact that some of her fingers were resting against the exposed skin at his hip. He was maddeningly warm and soft. Despite her initial anxiety, she was so comfortable that she surprised both of them by falling asleep somewhere during the second half.
At some point she twitched slightly and Seb turned his chin back towards her, "You okay?"
No reply.
He turned a little further and pressed his lips against her forehead before returning his attention to the movie. A small, smug smile slowly spread across his face.
---
Just after midnight, Casey bit her lip as she let herself into her apartment. She leaned her forehead against the door on the other side as it clicked shut. She could hear the Infiniti's engine outside fading into the distance. Seb's cologne hung on her clothes where she'd been pressed against him for the last several hours. For good measure, he'd given her one last lingering hug as they'd parted on her doorstep.
Well, that was it. It was way too fucking late now if she'd thought she had any hope of having a regular friendship with him. Even if he hadn't been giving her obvious signals that he wanted more, which he indisputably did, she knew she wouldn't be able to get him out of her head. Not anymore. She had no idea though what it would mean for her job. Was it even remotely allowable? Would it matter? What was Seb thinking about all this?
He was flying to Switzerland tomorrow night for some time off at home. He had one last breakfast interview commitment tomorrow, so she wouldn't see him again until the next Grand Prix. She hoped the next week of work at the factory would go quickly and got ready for bed in a daze, still trying to process what had happened that day.
---
The next week and a half felt like the longest days of Casey's life, but finally the first day of the Spanish Grand Prix arrived. The team had all flown in very early that morning. She'd exchanged a few text messages with Seb during the break, though nothing more than friendly banter. She'd tried not to think too much about it or go into the overanalysis black hole too quickly.
It had barely hit 9am when she found herself laying on her back at an awkward angle on the floor of the Red Bull garage. A connection behind the tire had become stuck and she was trying to re-align it. She was furthermore flustered that her shirt kept coming untucked and riding up, exposing her stomach.
She knew full well that Seb was leaning against the bench next to her, watching the show as he munched on a bowl of chopped fruit. Whenever she re-appeared from under the car he'd have a stupid smirk plastered across his face and pretend he was looking just about anywhere else.
"Smug little German..." she mumbled to herself as she glanced again at his feet before pulling the wrench around with all her might. Finally the piece came loose and clinked to the ground. She sighed in relief and let her body sprawl out on the floor like a starfish.
"Morning Seb," Heikki said as he approached him with a notebook in his arm.
"Hey, how's it going?" the German replied, swallowing his mouthful.
"How'd you go with the nutrition plan last week?" Heikki asked briskly, getting straight to business in a very Heikki-like way.
Seb was quiet for a moment and Casey rolled her eyes from her position under the car, imagining his expression. She pushed herself out from underneath the car and looked up at the two of them.
"It went... fine," Seb replied loftily, not looking at Heikki. He stuffed another forkful of banana in his mouth.
"Really? Because I found it on your desk after you'd already left for England."
Casey tried to hide a laugh and Seb glanced down at her. As soon as he saw her, he had to look away again quickly to keep a straight face. He continued chewing and defended himself with his mouth still full, "Yeah, I memorised it."
"You memorised 10 days of meal plans?" Heikki demanded in exasperation, clearly not buying it.
Seb nodded innocently, glancing at Heikki before quickly looking down at his bowl again and forking an apple slice. His eyes met Casey's one more time and he bit his lip to stop himself from laughing, averting his attention to a suddenly fascinating stack of tires near the garage door.
Casey giggled to herself and sat up. Heikki finally looked down at her and held his arm out. She took it, squeaking as and he lifted her up as though she were a feather.
"Thanks," she breathed, slapping the dust off her uniform and internally scoffing at his ridiculous strength. Seb watched on quietly with a mischievous expression as he finished his fruit and set the bowl down behind him.
After she'd got as much of the dust off as was possible, she stepped towards Seb and reached around him for a pair of gloves, "You know how to be exactly in the way don't you," she muttered with a grin. He watched her slyly as he folded his arms.
"Sebastian, you have to stick to the nutrition plan. It's not in your contract just for fun," Heikki scolded.
The German groaned in annoyance and held out his hand, in which Heikki stuffed a wad of papers, "That's your next 7 days worth. Are you ready to go for a run now?"
Seb huffed, "So ready."
Casey watched the exchange, totally entertained. Seb's petulance was clearly irritating the hell out of Heikki.
The tall, blonde Finn sighed in exasperation, "Is there an alternative you'd prefer?"
"Nooooo," Seb drawled. He was only trying to wind Heikki up after all - he really enjoyed the track runs.
"Come on then." Heikki said, trying to shoo him out the door.
"We're heading out for a track run for those who want to join," Heikki called out to the rest of the team.
A few of the guys nodded and set their tools down. It was kind of a ritual for some of them to run the track together on the Wednesday morning before each Grand Prix. Seb caught Casey's eye and raised his eyebrow, wordlessly asking if she would come too.
She shrugged and nodded, taking her gloves back off.
"Let's go, let's go!" Heikki called.
Seb and Casey followed him out the garage door and into the pit lane. Kyle, Brand and a few of the others had all followed behind.
They started up a jog and Heikki pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket, throwing it to Seb.
He sighed and began to bounce it in front of himself as he jogged, catching it and throwing it again with alternating hands. Heikki insisted that it was a helpful hand-eye coordination exercise. Seb complained that he felt more like a Golden Retriever than a Formula 1 driver.
The pace was quite gentle and Casey had no trouble keeping up. As they rounded the first corner Seb suddenly bounced the ball in front of her instead, which she caught in surprise. She bounced it back to him and he caught it easily. This continued all around the track, though he began to get more creative with his throws. Soon the ball was being bounced so high that she had to slow up to wait for it to come back down enough before she could catch it.
Eventually, Seb bounced it far too close to her and she had to jump out of the way to avoid it hitting her. He laughed loudly as she grabbed it and threw it directly at him, hitting him in the shoulder as he held up his hands in defence. Heikki looked around and barked at them to quit messing around.
"Oh! So it's okay to dump someone in a pool, someone who was asleep, might I add. But throwing a tennis ball is a sinister offence?" Casey exclaimed between breaths.
"That was ...different," Heikki tried to dismiss.
"Mhmm!" Casey replied as she and Seb grinned at each other.
---
As lunch time came around, Evan sat at the cafeteria with his chin resting in his clasped hands. He keenly observed the two fascinating creatures before him. On the left, there was Casey, and on the right, there was Seb.
A lot of things seemed to have changed about them since China. Yet mysteriously, Casey was not forthcoming with any details anytime he broached the subject.
He decided in that moment that he would intensify his interrogation later on.
That evening, Jacob, Evan and Casey decided to go out for dinner, which eventually ended up including half the team as word spread. Casey found herself sitting between Kyle and Evan. Further down the table, Seb was sitting with his engineer and a few of his tacticians. They all seemed to be in deep conversation.
Isla, who was sitting opposite her, suddenly giggled at something on her phone. Casey watched her as she looked up and their eyes met. She bit her lip and slid her phone over. Curious, Casey picked it up and watched the little animated picture that was open on the screen. It was a GIF of herself throwing a tennis ball at a laughing Seb earlier that day. She applauded herself internally as she watched herself nail him right in the shoulder. Good shot.
She felt a little queasy as she scrolled through the comments.
> Okay, this is fucking adorable.
>> Aww, he looks so happy!
>>> Has it been confirmed yet or are we all still supposed to believe this is not a thing?
>>>> She's about a year younger than him and (ironically) originally from Australia.
She hissed air in through her teeth as she read her own life description before handing the phone back to Isla with a grimace.
"I don't think I want to read anymore," she laughed awkwardly.
---
Friday finally arrived and the team were adding their last minute adjustments to the car. Seb was sitting on a work bench watching them all as he waited for the first practice session to start in about thirty minutes time.
Casey swiped some hair out of her face and headed out the garage door. She walked down the pit lane, and into the bathroom block at the end. There seemed to be a line up so she kept walking through the building and out into the grounds. The public still weren't allowed in the area she was in and she knew less people would be at the other block, the only problem would be any lurking media personnel.
She made it to the bathroom without being spotted, or so she thought.
As she walked back out she was suddenly surrounded by at least 3 cameramen and 3 reporters with microphones. They were taking it in turns to fire questions at her about her role in the team and her relationship with Seb. These particular journalists were less reserved than the ones who had privileged access into the pit lane. Horrified, she shook her head and kept walking quickly. They were calling after her, becoming more abrasive as she ignored them.
"Do you think you're distracting Sebastian from performing well this season?" one of them shouted. She knew they were just trying to provoke her into speaking.
"There have been reports you moved in together earlier this year, can you comment on that?"
"Casey, some are calling this a PR stunt, what do you say to that?"
The questions became more and more insulting as she finally pushed through the doors of the more restricted access area and took a deep breath. Her eyes watered as she tried to push their horrible questions from her mind. Frustrated with herself for letting them get to her so easily, she quickly wiped away the one tear that had made it down her cheek.
She finally got back to the garage and found Seb still sitting against the work bench near her station. He smiled at her brightly as she walked in and she smiled back.
She was quickly stopped in her tracks though as Evan appeared in front of her. He held her face in his hands and looked at her intensely, lifting her chin up to inspect her.
"What happened?" he demanded.
She tried to wiggle away from him but he didn't let go.
"Nothing Ev, please, I'm fine," she hissed, not wanting a scene. Seb listened closely, wondering what Evan had noticed.
Evan's thumb wiped her cheek and he released her, giving her a knowing look.
Casey frowned and rubbed her cheek. She was sure Evan was the real life embodiment of Sherlock Holmes sometimes.
Seb looked between them in concern as they both went back to their work. Had she been crying? What about?
He felt kind of useless, knowing he couldn't just ask her or really talk to her at all while they were at work. He sighed, keeping an eye on her as she worked silently, though at the same time, trying to avoid being caught out by any nearby cameras. If something was wrong, she didn't give anything away and eventually it was time for him to get in the car.
---
"What happened to you today?"
Casey sighed as she read the message from Seb.
"Nothing really, I just got frustrated by some journalists. Evan is a drama queen."
She put the phone back down and hoped he would drop it. She'd already forgotten about it and didn't want to be reminded.
She slipped under the covers of the hotel bed, careful not to disturb an already-asleep Evan.
"Night Jake," she called softly to the brunette who was laying on a pull-out bed in front of the television, watching an old episode of The Big Bang Theory with bizarre Spanish audio.
"Night Case," he called back cheerfully.