ZIA was furious. Another DNF one at COTA and now one at Mexico, not her fault, but Honda's. Horner had promised her that Honda would deliver for this season.
They certainly had with Max.
She couldn't understand how Max was able to cruise the RB into a championship fight, whilst she was down in 8th, barely scraping any points.
Now she was being kicked out of her seat, leaving her with no where to go. With only five races left, she found it incredibly difficult to believe she could find another seat.
As she was walking towards her hotel, she heard the horn of a car, and turned to see Jake Bryant stepping out of his Alfa, walking towards her.
"Great. Just what I need right now." she muttered to herself, as she dipped her hand into her pocket, finding the pen she had placed in there. She began to click the pen in an attempt to keep herself from slapping Jake across the face, whatever he had to say for himself.
"Hey Z. Sorry about the race, hard blow. But guess I gotta' thank you. P8." he said, a smug smile dawning on his already smug face.
Zia stared at him with a black expression, clicking the pen more frequently. "Congratulations. Did you want something?" she asked, her voice harsh.
"Yeah, uh I just thought maybe I'd pick you up later, go get food and maybe I'd take the tension off of your day." he said, his tone employing that she had agreed to go out with him ages ago, and was just clearing up some details.
Zia raised a brow, her mouth slightly open in shock at his attitude. "Excuse me? When did I agree to this?"
"I mean you haven't yet, but you're stressed and you need to relieve it." he said bumping her arm with his elbow.
Zia stepped back from him, rubbing her arm as if she was dusting off a bit of mud that had gotten on her coat. "Look, you're very lucky the government hasn't classed you as a legal punching bag right now, so I would appreciate it if you would just give me some space?"
Jake rolled his eyes at her harsh tone. "Z you need to chill out babe. It's one DNF, season's not over yet." he brushed off.
"Actually it's five DNF's one of which is you're fault, and according to me, the season can go fuck itself." she deadpanned. "And you can stop calling me "Z" and "Babe". We aren't dating anymore. Okay?" she finished, putting on the voice of someone trying to explain to an emotional toddler that two plus two is four.
Jake narrowed his eyes at Zia. "What the hell has gotten into you? You know what you're spending to much time with Russell. I knew it, he's a bad influence." he decided.
"I'm sorry- I haven't spoken to George in months, and what do you mean he's a 'bad influence', he's a better driver than you ever were." she snapped back.
Jake raised his eyebrows at her. "First name? What's with that? You friends with him or something?" he questioned her slip of the tongue.
"Fuck off, I said his name big deal. Doesn't mean anything. Oh look, I can say peoples names! Antonio! Carlos! Lewis! Oh my god I'm insane!" she mocked.
Jake rolled his eyes again. "Look whatever okay, I just don't think you should be hanging around with him because he's obviously affecting you."
Zia stared at him for a few seconds before she scoffed. "Y'know what forget the season, Jake go fuck yourself."
With that, she walked away, not wanting to hear another word from his mouth. She walked into the hotel building, head spinning.
She aggressively hit the elevator button multiple times before the doors opened as she was able to step inside. Much to her dismay, the other person she wasn't excited to see was already stood inside.
"Powman?"
Zia sighed. "God Russell are you stalking me or something?" she wondered aloud.
George furrowed his eyebrows. "Uh- no? We're staying on the same floor. We ran into each other yesterday?"
Zia stepped inside the elevator stranding next to him as she frowned, remembering their interaction from a few days ago. Apparently, it had disappeared from her mind.
"Guess I lied to you Jake." she thought to herself. "I have talked to him. Huh. Weird."
She shook her head, realising she still hadn't answered him. "Oh yeah right." she said simply.
George looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. "You okay Powman? Well actually that's a stupid question, I saw the announcement." he said, correcting himself.
Zia let out a sigh at the mention of her seat loss. George looked at her, almost sympathetically. "Apart from that, why am do you look like you want to punch a wall?"
Zia ran a hand down her face. "Oh I just ran into Bryant."
She felt George shudder beside her at the mention of the narcissistic boy. "Oh I feel bad for you."
"Yeah well he just added to my heaping pile of things to stress about. I've lost my seat, I've had more DNF's than anyone this season, I've not proved myself to anyone 'cause I thought my RB seat was safe, reminder to never trust Christian Horner, and now my fucking ex want a to fucking sleep with me after I've had a fucked up weekend." she explained, in one breath, and rather quickly.
George said nothing, but just listened to her ramble. Zia took a deep breath. "Sorry, that was a lot of information you didn't need-"
"It's okay." he interrupted her. "You needed to let that out.
There was a comfortable silence between the two drivers. Since their little talk last year in Zia's hotel room, the pair had become a lot more civil towards each other. Zia still wouldn't exactly call him a friend, but she didn't have the edge to smash his head against a wall every time he opened his mouth anymore.
Once the elevator door opened again, the pair stepped out and turned to face each other. George cleared his throat and rocked back and forth. "Well, I hope you're next race goes better."
Zia gave him a small half hearted smile. "Yeah, thanks Russell."
The two walked passed one another, their rooms on opposite ends of the corridor, George peering behind his head as he watched Zia walk away, feeling slightly sorry for her. He knew what it was like to have bad luck attack you, and he knew exactly what she was going through.
He only hoped she wouldn't have any more serious crashes.
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