Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

XXIX

It was half-past four in the afternoon, meaning Juliette already had made a long day. But the day wasn't over yet. There was a break, the last one of the day. Juliette didn't fancy having people around her, so she decided to take a walk, exploring the track for a bit while it still could. There were barely people in the paddock or around the track itself, only people from the transport and the engineers. The others from the teams were already finished for the day.

She entered the pit lane and walked through it. The last time she was at Monza was seven years ago, when her dad worked for Mercedes on Schumacher's team. It was an odd moment of realisation; seven years later and I am part of Mercedes on Hamilton's team. A soft smile curved on her lips, she didn't know if it was a satisfied or a compassionate smile.

Someone was sitting next to the pit wall of Toro Rosso. Juliette's eyes fell on the person; it was Pierre. Her heart skipped a beat, and she stopped walking. Panic flashed through her body. Before she could turn around and walk away, Pierre's eyes met hers.

"Hey," Juliette said and smiled. She walked towards him, making herself more nervous with her thoughts.

Pierre moved his stuff, making space for Juliette. "Hey," he said. "Ça va?

She sat down next to him, placing her bottle of lemonade on the ground. "Ça va," she replied and looked at him. "You?"

"Fine." He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Exploring," was her answer. "I'm on a break, wanted to go away from the others."

Pierre nodded. "Same," he replied and opened his eyes. "How do you look so good and fresh? I'm feeling like shit." Juliette looked good. That grey jumper looked good on her, it was simple, but it looked good; she looked effortlessly beautiful. He barely noticed signs of a hangover.

"Painkillers," Juliette mumbled. "I'm feeling like shit too." She looked at the bottle, it became suddenly interesting.

"Did you get on time for work?" Pierre looked away from her.

Juliette yawned. "Sort of. Everybody was late this morning, which made me arrive on time." She bit on her lip; a guilty feeling entered her body. It wasn't her attention to run away and made it like it was a one-nightstand. "I'm sorry if I offended you."

"Why should you have offended me?"

"I ran away this morning, and I made it look like a one-nightstand."

His eyes fell on Juliette's hands, she was snapping her knuckles again, meaning this was really bothering her. Pierre stopped it by grabbing her hand, waving their fingers together, so it was impossible for Juliette to snap her knuckles. "Don't do that," he whispered.

Juliette looked down, was I snapping my knuckles again? It was an unconsciously tick. The fact Pierre had to stop her from doing that, gave Juliette blushes on her cheeks.

"You didn't offend me, you had to go to work. Unless you wanted to make it to look like a one-nightstand."

"No, no. If I didn't had to go, I wouldn't have left," she blurted without thinking about it twice.

"Same."

A butterfly explosion in the stomach. Juliette never thought it would happen to her, not this extreme. Did Pierre just confirm he feels more as well? A shy smile grew on Juliette's face, and she felt her heart race in her chest. She softly squeezed in his hand, and he softly squeezed back.

"Give me your phone," Pierre whispered. She did what he said. "Here, do you have my phone number. Call, text, FaceTime me when you need someone to talk to. You can always call or text me, even in the middle of the night," he softly said and entered his phone number in Juliette's phone before he called himself, so he could save her phone number in his phone. "You can try it when I'm racing, but the chances are big I won't answer."