Heikki was as gentle as ever as his incredibly soft lips brushed against hers. He lingered for a few more seconds before pulling away.
"I know you didn't mean what you just did." he said, smiling at her sadly, "You're a terrible actress."
Casey frowned at him silently before he continued.
"I can tell the difference between when you think you're kissing Seb and when you know you're kissing me." he continued, pushing a stand of hair behind her ear.
"The difference is obvious. But thank you for trying to spare my feelings anyway," he said with a faint, unhumoured laugh.
Casey didn't have anything to say, he was right. She'd felt nothing kissing him back, except a fresh wave of guilt and a nagging emptiness that it wasn't Seb next to her.
"I should really go... good luck Case, with everything, I mean it. I wish things were different, but they're not. Seb doesn't know how lucky he is." he murmured, running his thumb across her cheek one last time. "Though I will say one thing... if that idiot doesn't take you back, call me." he chuckled quietly, trying to lighten the atmosphere and finally tearing his eyes away and standing up.
Casey stood up too and watched him sadly, "I'm sorry you're leaving. It won't be the same without you."
"You're in love with him, I was stupid to ever even think of you in such a way," he replied blankly, running his fingers across her jaw once more before turning away and walking to the door.
"Goodbye Case." he said, shooting her a beautiful smile.
"I'll miss you." she smiled solemnly.
Heikki let himself out of the apartment and the door clicked shut. Casey wondered if that really was to be the last time she'd ever see him. That had been hard.
After the door closed, she looked around her apartment defeatedly. For lack of anything else to do, she decided to clean up the mess she'd progressively spread throughout the house since her arrival late last night.
She trudged around, putting her bowl in the sink and collecting her strewn shoes before there was a knock on the front door. Had Heikki forgotten something? She walked over and opened it slowly.
"Why was Heikki walking out of your apartment?" Evan demanded, pushing his way through the door and turning to stare at her expectantly.
"He was saying goodbye, he's resigning." Casey replied emotionlessly, clearing her throat.
"Did anything else happen?" He asked, "And you know I can tell when you're lying so..."
Casey sighed, "I wouldn't dare lie to you, Ev."
"Well?"
She threw her arms up in defeat, how could she possibly explain this to him in a way that would make any sense, "Yes. There was a kiss, a weird kiss."
Evan slipped on to one of the counter stools and watched her curiously, "Fuck my life. Alright. Do continue..."
She sighed, "He caught me off guard, kind of. I don't know. It just felt like a goodbye."
Evan stared at the bench-top, deep in thought.
"I care about him." Casey added.
"But not in the way that he'd like." Evan suggested.
"No." she replied, collecting her phone off the floor and plugging it into the charger on the bench.
"This is all actually... quite sad." he mused thoughtfully.
"I'm so done with all of it right now. The last 48 hours have been a complete mind-fuck," she replied bitterly.
"Lucky it wasn't a different kind of f-"
"EVAN!" Casey yelled across the room, holding her hand up. He bit his lip mischievously and looked back at her.
She walked back into the kitchen and poured herself some water, "So? Would you like to yell at me?"
Evan shook his head, "No, I kind of get it, sounded like you both needed some closure. Plus I'm just going to leave all the yelling up to Seb. Turns out he's pretty good at it."
Casey grimaced, "If he ever speaks to me again, you mean."
Evan snorted, "If he gave up that easily I wouldn't know who he was anymore."
"Can we take a moment to remember he let Hayley do pretty much the same thing?" she said, a vague hint of injustice seeping into her tone.
"He did push her away though." he commented.
"Yeah, after she'd already kissed him." she replied moodily.
"I don't think you'd better play that card in your 'I'm sorry I kissed your disgustingly hot trainer' speech," he laughed under his breath.
She grimaced faintly, "No, better not."
"So..." he began, trying to hide a look that Casey knew all too well.
"Forget it. I am not telling you what kissing him was like." she said, glaring at him.
"I wasn't going to ask that!" he exclaimed indignantly.
"What then?" she demanded, unconvinced.
"Nothing." he replied, a cheeky smile creeping across his features again. She rolled her eyes. She could read him like a book.
Evan left not long after he'd arrived, heading off to work and leaving Casey alone in her barren apartment. She wasn't scheduled for work until Thursday. At present, she was still supposed to be in Germany.
She glanced at her phone as it came back to life, but there were no new notifications to be seen.
---
Two days later, Sebastian jumped out of his Infiniti in the mostly-empty Milton Keynes parking lot. He'd landed back in the UK the night before and was about to walk into the factory for his first day of work since the German Grand Prix.
He was an hour early, thoroughly not in the mood to see or speak to anyone he didn't have to.
He proceeded through the reception area, breathing a sigh of relief at avoiding a squealing saga with Lora, the receptionist, who wasn't in yet either.
Later in the day, he'd be meeting Antti, a strong potential to replace Heikki as his new personal trainer. Speaking of Heikki, Seb hadn't seen him since Germany. Britta had called to tell him a couple of days earlier that Heikki had sent her his resignation. It had been nothing short of a relief to cut that tie. Seb had no intention of ever seeing or speaking to him again.
He walked through the quiet hallways of the factory, towards the simulation room.
He still hadn't spoken to Casey since their last phone call when she'd been at the airport in Germany. Nor had he responded to her message. He'd been putting it off, over and over again. He knew it couldn't go on for much longer but the truth was, he couldn't face her yet. He knew if he saw her, standing within arms reach, he'd cave in instantly. Even hearing her voice on the phone would be a challenge now. He was still angry, he couldn't risk giving in just to be able to pull her into his arms again. He missed her, badly. And that made him too vulnerable.
Knowing that she'd be arriving at the factory in an hours time was bad enough. His only hope was to get into the simulator as quickly as possible and zone it all out.
---
Casey hauled herself out of her car and swung the door shut. She slung her bag over her shoulder and put her security pass in her teeth as she tied her hair into a high ponytail while she walked through the parking lot towards the factory entrance.
She idly wondered if anyone in the team had caught wind of the drama back in Germany. A shiny Infiniti to her left caught her attention and she cringed as she looked down through the window to the familiar, but very much empty interior. She could see his blue hoody in a heap on the passenger seat. The sight of it caused her eyes to prickle uncomfortably, though she wasn't sure she even had the ability to cry anymore. She'd surely already used up her quota for the next ten years. Regardless, it appeared that Seb was back at the factory today after all.
Her nerves shot up as she continued through the front doors and into the hallway leading to her area of the factory floor. The knowledge that he could literally step out in front of her at any moment was terrifyingly threatening. She didn't think she could take it if he ignored her in person too.
The morning Heikki had come over felt like a distant, almost insignificant memory now. As cruel as she felt for thinking such a thing. Especially as it had only been 2 days ago. She'd heard nothing more from him or about him. Evan and Jake had both been busy back at work and weren't much for company either.
She wandered into her factory sector and Brand hollered a greeting over to her.
"Hey." she replied, forcing a smile.
Kyle walked up to her with a grin plastered across his face, "Welcome back! This is for you." he said, handing her the brief for the day. She took it and nodded, shooting him a quick smile and looking around for Felix. She spotted him sitting on the floor surrounded by bits and pieces of RB10.
"Hey Felix." she said, hoping she sounded cheerful.
"Casey! Hi! Welcome back." he said happily, "Wasn't sure if you'd be here this week."
"Yep, I'm on all week, and next."
"Thank god." he breathed.
She laughed as she sat down on the garage floor next to him and flicked through the brief, reading what they had to complete that day.
"You did fine in Germany, stop fussing," she said idly, inspecting a diagram closely.
"Is Seb here today?" Felix asked casually.
"What?" Casey's eyes snapped up and darted around the room at the mention of Seb's name. She hadn't been paying attention.
"Seb, is he here?" Felix repeated.
Casey could feel her heart hammering, "Oh, sorry. Yeah, he's here." she mumbled, internally trying to calm herself down. She couldn't jump every time she heard his name, if she did, this was going to be a very long day.
She felt someone pick up a lock of her hair and fiddle with it.
"Hey Jake." Casey grinned, not lifting her eyes up from the page.
"You always know." he laughed down at her.
"Shit, shit, shit."
Casey looked up as she heard Evan's familiar cursing. She glanced at the clock on the wall and smirked, the hand showed that Evan was arriving 10 minutes late. He was pulling on a pair of gloves and looking around warily. He caught sight of Casey, Jacob & Felix and slunk over to them. "Is Brand here yet?" he hissed.
"Yeah, he's here somewhere." Casey answered, looking around the room for Brand.
"Has he noticed I'm late?" Evan said in a hushed tone.
"How could I not notice the biggest loud mouth in the garage was missing?" Brand called as he sauntered past them, smirking at Evan's shocked expression.
"Let me guess, car trouble?" he continued lazily, walking away again.
"Oh, he's in a good mood, I'm off the hook, thank fuck!" Evan whispered to them victoriously as he darted away before Brand could change his mind.
Felix laughed timidly, he still wasn't used to the bigger personalities in the garage. Casey could understand why Brand and Evan might seem scary at first. If only he knew the pushovers they really were under their boisterous exteriors.
She sighed, relaxing a little as she got into her work with Felix, surrounded by her familiar crew. None of them appeared to be aware of anything that had happened in Germany, unless they were all very good actors. The normality of it all felt amazing and the chances of Seb needing to come down to their area were slim to none. For now, she was both distracted and out of his way - a welcome change to sitting at home, alone, with nothing to do but think about the possibility that she'd just lost the best thing she'd ever had, or ever would have again.