The other woman

Research

"Oscar, thank you so much for calling me and belated congratulations on your title last year." Britta softly closed the door to Seb's home office, making it shut with a quiet click. Even though he was out with Alex (she'd taken him to an indoor badminton centre to give them both something different to do), she was still wary of anyone overhearing her phone conversation.

"Thank you. If feels like such a long time ago already, I'm well into my prep for the F2 team now. Anyway, how can I help you? Heikki just said something about you wanting to talk about Aleksandra."

Walking over to the window that overlooked part of the yard, she noticed how the young Australian had used Alex's full name. So that was definitely something that she'd always insisted on. "Yes, I know you're busy so I'll get straight to the point. How did you and her get on?"

"How did we get on?" He sounded surprised and kind of suspicious at the same time.

"Yes, how did you two get on? What was she like to work with?"

"Ahhhh." He sounded quite melancholy for a moment which told Britta that he obviously still missed her. "She was awesome. She was strict, there was no messing around. She pushed me hard, she wasn't afraid to tell it like it is so if she thought I wasn't good at something or if my performance at the track was lacking then she was the first to say something. Everything was clear cut with her, we got on really well. I wouldn't say we were friends as such but we worked well together."

"You spent a year with her and wasn't friends?" She instantly pounced on that small but significant piece of information.

"Nah....." There was a pause and she knew he'd wondering what the point of their conversation was. "She's working with Sebastian now, right?"

"Yeah, that's why I wanted to speak to you, to see how you got on with her."

"Is she not getting on with Seb then?"

Britta moved from the window and perched herself on the edge of Seb's desk. She brushed some dust away from the dark wooden surface as she wondered how much to tell him. "Did you not find her....I don't know....distant?"

"Distant?" Again he sounded surprised and she began to think that maybe she was only like this with Seb.

"She's quite different from anyone he's worked with before."

"Britta, I didn't know her that well but to me, she wasn't distant."

"Sorry, I'm not making myself very clear am I. Seb's always forged good friendships with the people who work closest to him. He spends a lot of time away from his family during the season and so we kind of become his surrogate family in a way......"

"Ahh I get ya." Oscar cut her off and Britta decided to sit down in the chair, eager to hear what he had to say next. "I don't think Aleksandra does the friend thing. Like, we'd never hang out socially away from racing and she'd never talk about herself, we'd only see each other to train and for physio. You have to remember that she's older than me so hanging out with me wouldn't have been her thing anyway."

"Oh, I see." Her heart sunk, it seemed that Heikki really had made a mistake in putting Alex forward as Seb's new PT. She clearly wasn't suited to the role.

"She did once tell me that she keeps her life very organised, very separate. She has her work life, that to her is her passion. She lives and breathes what she does but she also keeps her personal life very personal. She likes boundaries, I knew nothing about her aside from work stuff and I was cool with that and while she doesn't ever mix the two things, she always made it clear to me that if I ever needed to talk or just someone to vent at then she was there. She might not have been my friend but she was kind of my protector. She supported me, motivated me and she played a big part when it came to me winning the championship and making the move up to F2."

"But this is what worries me." Britta confessed, tapping a key on the laptop to keep an eye on the emails. "Me, Heikki and Antti have always been Seb's friends as well as his support network away from home. We've always been a team."

"She will support Seb, she'll be there for him like she was for me. Seb will be the main priority in her life, she'll have his back. She just has a different way of showing it. You've got no worries with her."

"You think I'm worrying for no reason then?" She sat back in the chair, not liking the long list of unread emails on her screen.

"I definitely had no issues with her, I just think she's a bit different to the kind of people you usually work with."

"Did you not ever ask her about personal stuff? Like her family, a boyfriend?"

"I'd sometimes ask her what she'd got planned for a day off or something and I once tried asking her about her parents, that's when she said about keeping parts of her life separate. I knew then that I'd never get to know the real Aleksandra, only the woman who was my PT and it worked well for us, mainly because of our ages. She's about thirteen years older than me."

"I guess I'll just have to get used to things as they are then and just hope that Seb can too."

"Give her time, she might change or Seb might decide that he likes the way she works. At the end of the day, the less he knows about her personal life, the less drama there can be."

As another two emails appeared in her inbox, she knew she'd have to end the call. "I guess you're right there, though we never had any personal issues with Antti or Heikki to deal with, being in F1 you don't always get much time for a personal life anyway."

"I've gotta go Britta but honestly, you've got no worries with Aleksandra. She's awesome and I miss her, I'd work with her again tomorrow if I could. Tell her and Seb I said hi."

"Of course I will Oscar." She lied, she couldn't tell them that. She couldn't exactly tell Alex that she'd rung a former client to talk about her and Seb wouldn't be very happy that she'd done that either.

"See ya Britta!"

"Bye Oscar and thank you." She ended the call, put her phone down and scratched her forehead while staring at the laptop screen. She wasn't sure if she felt any better about things after speaking to him or not. At least he didn't have a problem with Alex being the way she was, it hadn't held him back in any way. After winning the F3 championship last year he'd been promoted straight up to his team's F2 car so she must have done something right. Sitting up straight in the chair, it looked like it was time to start tackling her inbox. Oscar was right, she'd have to give Alex time. Seb might value her opinion but ultimately working with Alex was his choice and if he was happy then that was the main thing. Maybe by the time the season started things would feel different and they'd have formed the close knit team around her driver that she'd always been used to.