Lost and Found

Chapter 5

The week had flown by and by the end of it, Sara felt a little hesitant to go back to France. She had spent several nights with Anthoine and had even – once again briefly – seen Julie, his girlfriend. They had decided Sara would go to Bahrain to watch both Anthoine and Pierre race. It would be at the end of March and until then, she would have to busy herself with work, work and even more work.

Luckily, a trip home was scheduled in between so it would feel less like an eternity before it would finally be time to get on the plane.

Still, it had felt like it when Sara finally arrived in the hot temperatures of the Bahrein air. She was happy she had put on a dress with tights, meaning she could easily go to a restroom to take them off, leaving her in a short-sleeved dress. She would just have to grab her suitcase to do so, no one would be waiting for her at the airport, so it wouldn't be a problem. She would just need to make sure she would be at the track in time for the formula two feature race. Anthoine would kill her if she'd miss it.

With her sunglasses perched on her nose, she left the airport about forty-five minutes later. Looking at her watch, she nodded satisfied. She would be on time for the race, even if she would get stuck in a bit of traffic. She would have to drag her luggage along to the track but she was sure Pierre would let her put it in his driver's room without much of a bother.

Sara: Hey Pierre, I have a bit of a favour to ask. I have brought a small suitcase with me for the weekend can I put that somewhere at Red Bull? I don't think I will have enough time to go to the hotel on my way to the track to leave myself enough space to not have to stress about making it on time.

Because of work, Marylinde could only fly to Bahrain on Saturday and would be forced to arrive back in France Sunday evening. It was a shame. It had been a while since Sara had seen either of them race. Back when they were still teenagers, she and Julie would always spend the whole weekend with both boys whenever they wouldn't have a competition of their own.

Pierre: Of course, let me know when you are at the track, I'll stand at the front of the motorhome.

Sara: Thank you, Pierre.

Finding a cab to take her to the track was easier than Sara had expected. With her earbuds in, she listened to a formula one podcast to get her into the right mood. It felt good to go and see Anthoine and Pierre race again after all those years. Something inside her also hoped she would be running into Carlos. They had had a lot of fun at the McLaren Technology Centre. He was a nice bloke.

She was in no way looking for a boyfriend or anything along those lines but she thought she and Carlos could become good friends over time. She liked his demeanour and his attitude and he had a sense of humour she shared. Sara saw potential there. She played with her phone in her hands. Her background was a picture of years ago with Anthoine and Pierre kissing her cheeks. She thought it was the perfect moment to put that one as her background.

For months Sara had been frequently changing her background. She didn't really know what photo to put there. For years it had been photos of her and Noah but since their divorce, she had no idea what picture she liked enough to keep as a background of her phone. This was the perfect weekend to sport the old photo of the three friends.

When she arrived at the track she scanned the paddock pass she had received a week before and smiled. Red Bull wasn't hard to find when she walked between the pit boxes and motorhomes. Pierre spotted her easily and walked up to her.

"Hi!" He hugged her tightly. Pierre was incredibly good at bearhugs and if Sara had to choose between hugs from Pierre or Anthoine, she would have to pick Pierre, or maybe Anthoine. She couldn't really choose. Anthoine's ones were always gentle and caring. He could put so much emotion in a hug it was insane. "How was your flight?"

"Longer than my usual flights but that's okay. I have the feeling it is going to be well worth it. It's a shame I have to go home tomorrow already." Pierre nodded. "And thank you for letting me drop my bags here. Dragging it with me all day is going to be a disaster."

"You are lucky I'm such a good friend to you." Pierre swung his arm around Sara and together they walked into the Red Bull facility. It was nicely decorated and Sara looked around, suddenly chuckling.

"I'm proud of you." She looked up at Pierre. "You did it. You made it to Red Bull. Now all you need to do is become a world champion and you'll have achieved your dreams." It was no secret that both Pierre and Anthoine had dreamed of driving for a top team in formula one to one day win the championship. Even though Pierre wasn't in the best team on the grid, Red Bull had the potential to surpass the Mercedes within a couple of years. They had the drive, the right team members and the right drivers to do so.

"That still means the world to me." Despite the lesser contact between them, it has sparked right back up when Sara called him for the first time in months three days after returning from London. Since then the trio kept in touch daily through phone- and video calls and their newly made group chat. "I've missed having you around on the track." Sara chuckled again and reached for her phone, making a quick selfie of the two of them, not showing how good those few words made her feel. Why did they ever let their contact die down as much as it had?

"Do you still make scrapbooks?" Sara shook her head. "That's a shame. I still have the one you made for my birthday." Sara shrugged. Over the years, she had never really felt like making scrapbooks anymore. Work and Noah took up all of her time. Most of her hobbies had gotten lost somewhere, but she was slowly taking them up again.

"Don't be surprised if next year your birthday present will be another scrapbook."

"Why not this year?"

"Because smartass, your birthday was on the seventh of February, we kind of already passed that, didn't we? And for a belated birthday present, it won't work as well, because I don't have enough photos from this year seeing this is the first time in a long time I have seen you. Coming to think of it, I might just also make one for Anthoine. It saves me a lot of stress to try and figure out what on earth you boys would like to get."

"So that's why you made them!" Sara innocently smiled. "But we loved them, so don't worry, we'll love them this time as well." They got to the driver's room on which Pierre's name was and Sara quickly put her suitcase and holdall in a corner. "Now, let's go and see Anthoine. Prove you are on time before he'll kill you after the race." He winked and together they walked down the stairs again and towards the F2 paddock where Anthoine was already doing his warming up.

"You made it!" Anthoine stopped skipping over the rope to give his friend a hug.

"Wouldn't miss your debut in formula two for the world. I had to pull a few strings to make sure my cat would be taken care of but that's all fine." Sara greeted Anthoine's trainer and then stepped back. "I'll be watching the race from somewhere, but I'll leave you to it now."

"If you wait for a little, I can bring you to the pit box from where we'll be racing. You can sit with the engineers."

"That would be great if it won't distract you." Anthoine smiled.

"It is no trouble at all."

"I should head back. I will watch the start Tonio but I have a briefing in a bit." Pierre squeezed Sara's shoulder and patted Anthoine on his back and then left.

"It should be another ten minutes before I have to get into the car, so we'll head there in a bit." Sara nodded and grabbed her camera. "Oh no." Anthoine laughed and posed as Sara snapped a photo. It captured Anthoine perfectly. Athletic, a kind look in his eyes, a cheeky glint in them and when with friends, a bit of a doofus as he was sticking his tongue out.

"Oh my gosh, it is so cute!" She exclaimed, biting her lip in excitement. "Just keep going, I need to document this weekend to the best of my abilities."

"Should I be worried?"

"No?"

"Does that mean yes?"

"No?"

"Then I will be." Sara pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. Things hadn't changed much over time, all besides the fact they were missing their fourth member of the group.