Seb glanced at his wife as he drove, she was looking the other way, staring out of the window, cranky and sulking. After spending two days in Italy, he was happy to be home and after staying in all week tied up with long phone calls to Mattia, hours going over data sheets from last years Abu Dhabi Grand Prix while on conference calls with his engineers and watching the last race back he'd decided that they really needed to start doing some Christmas shopping and the day out, for him, was most welcome. Chloe, on the other hand, hadn't been particularly happy with this idea. In fact she hadn't been herself since the whole Stephen incident and all the shit that had been online and in some of the press and despite his best efforts to cheer her up and him pleading with her to forget everything and move on, this week she'd done nothing except laze around on the sofa and sleep. He'd never known her to sleep so much and he was seriously considering getting Antti to look at her diet again to see if he could boost her energy levels. As they entered the outskirts of Zurich he glanced at her again, predictably she'd fallen asleep. He rolled his eyes and turned the car stereo on, letting his phone connect to it and his music begin to play. He turned it up and heard her groan as she woke up.
"Aw Seb, come on, seriously?" She whined and turned her head to look at him.
"I need you awake, we're nearly there." He reached across and took her hand. "You'll love how these places look this time of year. You want to do the mall first or the Christkindlimarkt in the main station?"
"The Christ-what?" She giggled, there were certain words that he said in German that made him sound so damn adorable and she'd just heard a new one.
"I hope you're not taking the piss again Mrs Vettel." He smiled, he could count on one hand the number of times he'd heard her giggle or laugh this week and it was a wonderful sound.
"I can't pronounce it, you need to repeat it."
"Christkindlimarkt, it's a big Christmas market in the main station."
"Oh my god that's a better word than kindergarten!" She giggled again.
"Well at least it's made you laugh."
"Yeah, sorry about that, I know I've been a bit shit this week." She raised his hand to her lips.
"Let's forget Stephen now, let's forget all the shit that went on last week and focus on us and the all the good things we've got coming up. It's time to move on." He reluctantly took his hand back from her hold as he started to navigate his way towards the city centre. He knew she was still hung up over not being able to speak to Michael but for him, with the F1 season about to finish, the winter break about to start and Christmas coming up along with their blessing ceremonies in Heppenheim and Southampton, it was time to move on. They had more important, and happier, things to focus on now.
"You're right." She replied breathily as she remembered telling herself on their wedding day that once she'd dealt with Stephen she'd devote herself to taking care of her husband and his two daughters. Now, it was time to start doing that. If only she could tell her mood swinging, energy zapping hormones that.
"Have you decided where you'd like to go first?" Seb asked after a few minutes of quiet between them.
"What was the market called again?" She grinned as they entered a multi storey car park.
"It's a big Christmas market." He replied as he drove along slowly, looking for a space. "It sells food, drink, handcrafted goods such as jewellery, clothing and traditional toys and the majority of it is all locally made."
"And what was it called?"
"I'm not saying it." He chuckled.
"Oh please! You sound so adorable when you say it!"
"Adorable?" He turned the car and went up a steep ramp. "Now I'm definitely not saying it."
"Ok, you sounded hot."
"No, you said I sounded adorable first."
"Oh come on! You know I love hearing you say stuff in German."
"Uh uh, no." He pulled into a space.
"What if I said it was knicker soakingly hot?" She reached across to stroke his thigh and he bit down on his bottom lip and shook his head. She knew exactly how to get what she wanted, and he loved it.
"You can't say things like that to me when we're somewhere that I can't react to it how I want to." He switched the engine off and leant across to her.
"And how would you want to react?" She leant in and eagerly accepted his kiss.
"If we were elsewhere, I'd be bending you over the front of this car liebe."
"Maybe we should head elsewhere then." She slowly trailed her fingers towards his groin and then moaned when he stopped her.
"I know of somewhere we could do that, but later, I promise." He kissed her again and then got out of the car. "Come on, hop hop!" He clapped his hands before closing the door. Sighing happily as she realised that all of a sudden she actually felt quite chirpy, she reached behind her and grabbed her coat and bag. As she got out of the car Seb had already got his coat on, complete with a black beanie hat.
"Is that your disguise?" She asked as she put her black coat on.
"What? This?" He pointed to his head. "Nah it's just because it's cold. I don't need to disguise myself here, you can go pretty much anywhere in Switzerland and people leave you alone, it's great." He watched her button up her coat, hiding the black and white patterned jumper dress she was wearing underneath. Her coat cinched in at the waist giving her an hourglass figure and the opaque black tights and heeled ankle boots that she was wearing elongated her legs, making him remember how he'd noticed her legs the very first time he'd taken her out, nearly a year ago. Now she was no longer his employee, but his wife and he wanted to pinch himself again to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
"When you're ready Vettel." She gave him a playful shove and he locked the car, smiling sheepishly because she'd caught him eyeing her up.
"Tell me the name of that place again?" She asked as she took his hand and they began walking. "I'd like to see that first."
"You're not going to give up until I say it, are you?"
"Nope, so come on, out with it."
"Can I just say how beautiful you look today?" He stopped as they reached some steps to go down to exit the car park.
"You can, after you've said what the name of the market is." She linked her hands at the back of his neck and pressed herself against him, with her heels on she was nearly as tall as he was and so didn't need to stand on tip toes to teasingly brush her lips against his. "Say it and I'll kiss you."
"Christkindlimarkt." He murmured, feeling like a love sick teen as she pressed her lips to his. "And you look amazingly beautiful today."
"Definitely pantie soaking hot." She mumbled against his lips and then pulled away. "Right let's go and look at this Christkind-market." She took his hand again and led him down the steps.
"Christkindlimarkt." He repeated to correct her. They walked together for about fifteen minutes before they reached Zurich's main train station, during which time Chloe marvelled at how Seb could walk around here, totally un-noticed. Not once was he stopped by anyone and she hadn't seen one single person trying to take a picture on their phone. It was another reason why he loved this country so much and chose to live here instead of Germany or somewhere like Monaco.
"Oh my god, is it in there? It's huge!" She asked as they approached a large historic building. With its arched main entrance, ornately carved statues and pillars, it looked more like a royal palace or a museum than Zürich's main train station.
"Yeah, it's what makes it unique. People can get off the train and they're straight into the market." He smiled, loving her reaction already as they waited to cross the tramlines. As they got to the entrance he heard her gasp loudly as she stopped to take in the view in front of her. She couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. Stretched out before her, what should just be a large, but busy, open area was jam packed with stalls. There were fairy lights everywhere that filled the large space with a warm glow and a projected light show either side of her illuminated the walls but what really took her breath away was the biggest Christmas tree she'd ever seen dominating the middle. It sparkled from top to bottom and looked as though it was covered with ice. She could hear a band playing carols, the smell of cinnamon and spices filled her nose along with the scent of mulled wine and the whole place was bustling with people. Seb stood patiently, watching her reaction, she looked almost child like with her expression of awe and wonder.
"Oh my god." She murmured.
"What do you think?" He asked, leaning in to kiss her cheek.
"It's amazing." She breathed. "I've never seen so many stalls in one place and that tree....."
"It's decorated every year with thousands of Swarovski crystals, from top to bottom." He tugged gently on her hand. "Let's go and take a look around." As they started to make their way in to the packed area she noticed some stairs and escalators going down to another level.
"There's more down there?" She pointed to the stairs.
"There's a mall and underground platforms, nothing as spectacular as this." He led her further in and they soon came across stalls selling traditional Christmas food. He was quick to dive in, wanting to buy them both some cookies, as per usual he was hungry and Chloe listened to him talking as he paid. It was always a treat to hear him speaking his own language, usually she only got to hear it when he told her he loved her or when they were having sex. "Here you go. Lebkuchen." He handed her a white paper bag. She opened the bag and sniffed it's contents, she immediately got a hit of ginger and spices, they smelt delicious. "Gingerbread." He added as stuffed a whole cookie into his mouth.
"Hungry?" She giggled as he looked at her with his cheeks bulging, he simply nodded. Feeling tempted to try one she took a bite, the cookie was warm and tasted as good as it had smelled and the hit of ginger was more than welcome as she'd been feeling a nauseous on and off all day so far, something she'd failed to tell Seb. After an hour, with her nausea seemingly cured by the Lebkuchen and more food bought and consumed by her ever hungry husband, she found stalls selling mulled wine and hot chocolate. Before she'd even blinked he was straight over to it and a few minutes later came back with two cups of hot chocolate. "Thank you." She smiled gratefully as he handed her a cup. "Are you going to eat and drink your way around here?"
"Probably." He grinned. "It's my day off, remember? Anyway, you'll love this. This is the third year running I've been here and every time I have to have their hot chocolate."
"So you've been before then?" She asked. She took a sip while she waited for him to answer, he was right, the hot chocolate was to die for; not too sweet, a slightly thicker consistency than what she was used to but gorgeously creamy. She closed her eyes as she savoured it.
"That good huh?" Seb's voice sounded softly in her ear.
"Oh yes." She gushed as she opened her eyes again. "That good. You know that chocolate is your fiercest rival when it comes to me, right?"
"You know I'll always win though liebe. There's parts chocolate can't touch that I can and does chocolate give you orgasms like I can? No, it doesn't." He grinned smugly. "One - nil to me."
"I should have known that you'd come out with something like that, fiend."
"I'll show you just how much of a fiend I can be later."
"I'll hold you to that." She replied, suddenly feeling a bit nauseous again. Maybe she should have saved a couple of those Lebkuchen. They stood for a while, enjoying their hot drinks and the atmosphere. Chloe couldn't tear her eyes away from the huge Christmas tree, now she was a lot closer to it she could see all the Swarovski crystals hanging on it, it was literally dripping in them and the way it was lit up from the bottom gave it an ethereal, icy kind of glow. She wondered what kind of decor Seb would have on his tree back home, she couldn't remember how it looked last year as she was so busy taking everything else in, including her hot new employer.
"Oh, you've been spotted." She nodded her head towards a family who were walking past. The boy with them, who looked to be no older than about nine or ten, was staring with wide eyes and an open mouth, his head turning as he passed them. Soon he was gone. "Wow, if you'd been anywhere else....."
"I told you, people tend to leave you alone here. They're much less intrusive, they're used to seeing well known people around, it's normal for them. Shall we move on?" He took her empty cup from her and threw it, along with his, into a nearby waste bin.
"Sure." She let him take her hand again and they began to walk.
"In answer to your question, yes, the previous two years I came here with Hannah and the girls. There's usually an area where they can decorate their own cookies, make things and meet Santa." He looked at her as she suddenly stopped, he could instantly sense her mood dip a little. "Next year we'll be bringing our child." He tried to avoid her slipping back into the low mood she'd been in all week, but as her gaze was fixed straight ahead he realised it wasn't what he'd said that had affected her mood, it was who she'd seen. Eva and Steef we're heading towards them. "Come on, let's go." Seb was keen to avoid a confrontation.
"No. There's no need." She replied, knowing that they'd inevitably bump into them some day.
"Hey, how are you? It's good to see you both." Steef stopped in front of them. To Chloe he looked quite confident whilst Eva looked sheepish, huddling into her husband's side and looking everywhere but at herself or Seb.
"We're great, thanks." Seb was hating the awkwardness already, he just wanted to go, he didn't want to be reminded of the stupid, selfish mistake he'd made. "You?" He asked, just to be polite.
"Yeah, we're doing good. Congratulations on the wedding, I'm glad you two got back together."
"Thanks." Seb could feel Chloe shifting from foot to foot awkwardly next to him.
"How's Isaak?" She asked, surprising him.
"He's great, loving school, he's already beyond excited for Christmas." Eva replied, her rich brown eyes lighting up at the mention of her son. "We're heading home to Denmark for the holidays so he's especially looking forward to that. He misses you Seb." She added, Chloe could hear the hopefulness in her voice and while she felt sorry for Isaak not being able to see Seb and knew that her husband would be missing seeing the little boy too, she also felt it was a bit of low blow, Eva coming out with that.
"Yeah, well it's just how things have worked out, isn't it." Chloe replied, making a point of looking Eva directly in her eyes while thinking that maybe if she hadn't been so quick to hop on to Seb's dick then things might have different. The woman was almost squirming uncomfortably under her gaze. But then Chloe noticed something else. It made her feel sick. Eva was pregnant. She tried not to think it, she tried not to think the worst, but it infiltrated her mind like a disease. With her coat open and a tight fitting top on, Eva's bump was only small but it was definitely there. She pulled her hand out of Seb's grasp, she could see him turn to look at her.
"Chloe, don't." He whispered, just as his wife had noticed Eva's rounded tummy, he had too and he knew that Chloe was about to make a run for it. He was desperate for her stick around and listen to what Eva was about to say as she looked as though she was about to explain herself. Chloe's heart was hammering in her chest, feeling as though it was about to break out and then shatter on the floor. Her chest felt tight as her breathing became heavier, she knew she'd have to get out. She made a bolt for it. "Chloe! Wait!" She heard Seb call after her. He was about to run after her when Steef grabbed his arm.
"It's not yours. I swear to god, it's not yours!"
"Let go of me! I need to go after my wife!" Seb tore himself from Steef's grip.
"We didn't know it at the time but Eva was already pregnant that night. There's absolutely no way it can be yours. I need you to know that before you go after her!" Steef explained with urgency.
"Ok, thanks." Seb softened his stance towards the man who was once his friend, relief swamped him that he wasn't the father of Eva's baby. It made him realise just how reckless he'd been that night, usually he always used condoms with her, but not that night. Saying nothing more he turned away and broke out into a sprint as he started to look for his wife. Outside and away from the main arched entrance, Chloe leant against the wall. Her head was spinning, she felt sick and her legs felt like they were going to collapse from under her. She was gasping for breath and hot tears were burning her eyes. Seb had done it again. Just as she'd started to suspect and dared to hope that she was pregnant herself, her heart had been ripped out. She tried to walk a bit further away and leant on the wall once more, she could barely move. She was paralysed with the fear that she was losing Seb all over again, because she couldn't stay with him knowing that he'd got another woman pregnant.
"Chloe!" She heard Seb's voice, he sounded desperate, she froze, she didn't want to speak to him right now, she didn't even want to look at him. She flinched as his hands landed on the tops of her arms and he spun her around to face him. "Oh thank god!" He breathed, a little out of breath. "It's not mine Chloe!" She stayed looking down at the floor. "Look at me!" He gave her a little shake. "Please look at me! That baby isn't mine." She still refused to look at him. It hit him how fragile her trust in him still was, despite the rings they both wore that bound them together. "Please believe me. It's not mine." Finally she lifted her head and looked at him.
"How can you be so sure?" She asked with a shaking voice.
"She was already pregnant that night, only they didn't know it. Steef told me. Liebe, if you'd stuck around for another minute you would have heard it for yourself. It's the truth, I wouldn't lie to you." He looked into her eyes, he could see it sinking in. She believed him. She threw herself into his arms, grabbing handfuls of his coat, holding onto him so tightly it was as if she'd fall if she let go.
"God Seb, I'm so sorry." She mumbled against his shoulder. "I thought the worst."
"I know, but I don't blame you. I understand why you thought like that."
"I should trust you more though, you're my husband now.....I shouldn't have jumped to the wrong conclusion." She lifted her head and pressed her lips to his, needing his kiss, his response was instinctive and instantaneous as he kissed her and felt her relax and calm in his arms.
"I'm sorry." She said again as their lips parted.
"It's fine, it's done, it's over. I get it, I really do."
"Did you think the same as me though, when you first noticed?"
"Yeah, for a split second I did, but Steef was quick to tell me otherwise and I believe him. He's always had my back, he wouldn't lie to me, especially over something like this."
"You have no idea how relieved I feel right now." She let go of him to lean back against the wall.
"Trust me, I do." He smiled and reached out to take her hand. "Because if that baby had been mine then I know I'd have lost you and I just can't bare the thought of losing you again. I don't think I'd even be able to live or function without you." They stood for a moment, just looking at each other until Seb leant in for another kiss, pressing his body against hers and at the same time pressing her against the wall as he felt her arms go around him again. "Ok now?" He asked as he pulled away, remembering that while he was kissing her and pressing her against the wall, they were in public.
"Yeah." She breathed, finally feeling calm again.
"Want to go home?" He wouldn't mind at all if she did, he just wanted to hold her and not let go.
"No, not yet." She smiled, detecting a hint of hopefulness in his voice.
"Let's move on then, the old town isn't far from here, why don't I take you for a walk around there." He took a step back, gently pulling her away from the wall. She nodded and let him lead the way. As she walked with him she let go of his hand to slip her arm around his waist and he kissed her cheek as he put an arm around her shoulders. They looked at each other and she smiled, thinking of how different and magical her Christmas was going to be this year with her gorgeous new husband and how she was probably going to give him the greatest gift that she could possibly give.