𝕄𝕆𝕋𝕀𝕍𝔼. || Lando Norris

✨Part-66✨

"Akira, please don't hate me." Claire scrunched her face.

"What happened?"

"I recorded a whole voice message telling him how I felt about him..."

"That's good!"

"And then I deleted it."

"And that made you feel?"

"Momentarily relieved. But now I'm back to feeling all heavy and guilty."

"Why guilty?"

"I feel like I'm toying with his emotions!"

"Then you should tell him you're not ready for anything right now."

"But at the same time, I feel like I'd die of jealousy if he started seeing someone else." Claire sighed, "you must be thinking I'm messed up in so many ways."

"You're not!" Akira reassured her, "it's attachment, he's someone you've spent an important milestone of your life with, of course you're going to feel that possessiveness. How we cope with it is what's going to be healthy and unhealthy."

"That's food for thought." Claire smiled.

"It is! And that marks the end of this session, I'll see you next week." Akira said, "for homework, I want you to sit down and really asses your coping mechanisms."

"Yes ma'am!" Claire saluted her, heading out of the room. Today's session had been good, this office was becoming a place her mind associated with being free rather than a sensation of terror.

She walked out of the building with a smile on her face, everything was looking good. She walked by a man, who seemed to be studying her face.

"Martin! Is that you?" He turned around.

Claire looked back at the person, she looked at his face for a bit and then instantly laughed "Bouchard!" She walked up to him. "Hey! How have you been Yannick?"

"I've been good! You're back? How was Dubai?" He asked.

"It's...been an adventure. How did UCLA treat you?"

"It's a long story! If you're free, we could grab some coffee right now."

"You know I never say no to good ideas!" She exclaimed, "just a minute I'll text my mom I'll be back a little later."

"You moved back here?"

"Something like that, let's get coffee first."

Claire and Yannick used to be academic rivals back in high school, always competing for the highest rank and scholarship opportunities. This rivalry blossomed into a healthy friendship over the last year of high school, but as life had it, they headed their own ways and lost contact.

They sat down at coffee shop and spent hours recollecting memories and sharing what they had been up to, Yannick was surprised with the developments in Claire's life while she was surprised with what he had been up to.

"I'm home!" Claire announced.

"Hello sweetie! What held you up so long?"

"I ran into Yannick from school, it was nice seeing him after so long." She smiled. "We decided to grab some coffee."

"Oh that's nice!" Grace beamed.

There was a skip in Claire's steps, she wasn't sure what to make of it. Has she made a mistake by intervening in her daughter's life? What if she was finally happy and moving on? What if Lando confessing his feelings would only put her in a dilemma? Grace wanted to fix this fast.

***

The third practice session was done and dusted, Lando lay on the couch in his motorhome. He decided what better to do than ring up Claire and see what the two of the were up to.

"Hey!" She answered his call with a big smile.

"Hey! What's Ophelia up to?" He asked.

"She's a busy little girl, she's got a visitor!" Claire flipped the camera. He could see Ophelia playing with a man, he couldn't quite figure out who he was. But he looked good enough to make Lando feel a bit insecure. He was smiling big and making Ophelia laugh, that too hurt him a little.

"Who's that?" He asked frowning.

"That's my friend Yannick from high school, we reconnected a few days ago." Claire explained, "He wanted to see Ophelia so I invited him over, I wasn't expecting you to call..."

"Oh." He sighed, trying to hide the envy in his eyes.

"Ophelia!" Claire called her little girl, "will you look here? Say hi to dad!"

Ophelia couldn't be bothered, she was far more interested in the new visitor and the silly faces he was making. This, was in fact like a blow to Lando's heart. His brain was already coming up with possibilities and what things could lead to.

"Lando! Your little baby loves you, she's just occupied right now." Claire tried reassuring him. "I'll call you after you're done with the day."

"Yeah, I have to go now." He ended the call.

He heard knocks on the door, Jon was at the door asking him if he needed something. Lando called him in, he said that he needed emotional support.

Jon plopped down on the chair and asked him what was the matter. Lando grit his teeth, he didn't know how to explain what he felt. He just wanted to see what his daughter was up to, and now felt like he had just seen the man that was potentially going to fill his spot in Claire's life.

Jon chuckled, telling him that he was overthinking the situation, he was going to meet her on Monday and could just work out the whole thing then. But we all know that when jealousy enters your mind, any sort of rationality left in you leaves, and that's exactly what happened.

He left for his garage, annoyed. Unable to understand why Claire had told him she still loved him if she was actually trying to move on?

But once the visor goes down, he preferred to leave thoughts that weren't about racing behind. He was determined to go out there and set the best lap he could.

A good qualifying session later, he threw himself into work. He didn't want to think about Claire and the man even if his mind was preoccupied with it. At the end of the day, he got a call from her.

He tried to remain indifferent, but it came off uninterested. In the nicest way possible he tried to extract information about that guy, but Claire had picked up what he was up to.

She realised pretty quickly it was envy, that Yannick, in his blissful unawareness had given Claire a leverage over Lando. And she was here to see how long she could use it to mess with him, little did she realise it was effecting her much more than she had anticipated.