Chase You -1- Formula 1

91. Bet on it

If I said I didn't feel the tiniest bit of guilt concerning Lando's shoulder, I'd be a liar. Maybe it was partly my fault, but as a peace offering, I did take care of his whining ass the entire time. He managed to get almost everything he wanted by simply asking. Though he suddenly got better when I brought up it was race week by now. Or he pretended to be better.

The original quartet as we used to call it, chipped in to rent a private plane. It was always fun to be on the same plane as my best friends, even better when the plane was only accessible to the four of us (and some of the staff). The distance from London to Singapore was quite long, so we needed to be as relaxed as possible and come on, that wasn't an option if you travelled economy class. I've travelled economy class for a huge part of my life, but ever since I tried private I didn't really want to go back. It was an unnecessary luxury, but in some cases, very appreciated. Especially when it came to long distances. When we raced in Europe, we usually went on commercial flights. In those cases, I was accompanied by either Beth, Joey or anyone else from my team, saving me from potentially awkward conversations.

Luckily I didn't need to worry about that now, since I was surrounded by my closest friends. About eight hours in the air, Lando started whining about his shoulder again, George had fallen asleep, and Alex had ripped out a page of my puzzle booklet. He struggled with a sudoku game for a while now. In the meantime, I attempted to write a convincing letter for Mattia. If this went unsuccessful too, I'd call it quits with the Scuderia. All the guys in this plane, other than Alex, got their seats confirmed already, it was only a matter of time before Alex would get his assurance as well. I got ghosted by Ferrari at the moment.

"You can pull a Lance and get your daddy to buy you a team," Lando suggested. My pen hovered above the lined paper, I didn't get much more words out than 'Buona sera, Mattia'.

"I'm not pulling Lance," I said, Alex suddenly looked up from his puzzle. "I love his eyes but he's not my type at all."

"I said a Lance, as in copy what he did and stay with us in F1," Lando sighed, slightly frustrated it seemed.

"Have you forgotten that my 'daddy' died and his 'wife' left with all of his money?" I asked, "I am not rich enough to buy a whole team, to add, I have some dignity." I lifted my chin and stroked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, it must've fallen out of my ponytail.

"Since when?" Both guys asked in unison. Defending my statement would be pointless.

"Well, if I'm not getting that seat because of my incredible driving, then what is the point?" I asked. "Regardless of how I'm getting that seat, I'm going to be the second driver. Let me at least be a second driver who is appreciated."

"You're a second driver now," Lando said, turning his head to me, leaning in my direction, and being so close I could feel his breath against my face. He was lucky he smelled fresh. "-and I appreciate you." Alex looked at us with wide eyes. He darted his gaze from Lando to me, and back to Lando again. He even gestured between the two of us.

"Are you fucking again?" Alex asked. Straight to the point, I admired that. I immediately shook my head as a response, which made my friend chuckle.

"Definitely not," I added, to make things even more clear. Lando stayed silent for too long. "I can guarantee you, I haven't seen anyone naked since the summer break."

"Congratulations, that's less than a month!" Lando exclaimed sarcastically. Alex didn't get much wiser from this conversation. "Do we need to have a party? This seems like a new record for you."

"Don't pretend you didn't have any booty calls after your breakup," I answered back. Sometimes the gossip pages on Instagram provided me with a bit of relevant information, and lately, the news about Lando almost overdosed me.