No Regrets, Only Memories

Promotional Diversion

Maeve

I couldn't help flowing through our arrival to Bahrain mindlessly and unaware of what the team was handing or saying to me. There were so many questions that I needed answered before I could give Christian his answers that my head hurt. Luckily, it was only Monday and we had two days before Daniel or I were expected to be available for work. Yet, it seemed that I had an endless amount to take care of before the race started.

The team had given me my own room and someone had flown back to Milton Keynes to get me clothes to wear while we were patient waiting for Max to be woken from his coma. They also retrieved my school computer and all of the work I needed for my degree, as well as the computer given to me by the team that synced to our systems. I opened both to see that I had several work emails and multiple assignments that needed my attention this week. Except my mind was on the week ahead and what has transpired in Melbourne. I had finally raced in Formula 1, a feat that I should be extremely proud of. Yet, It was only due to someone else's unfortunate series of events. Christian was more than happy to accommodate my arrival, as the flight's conversation made it extremely obvious. His accommodations were on the forefront of my mind, to the tune of millions of pounds. It was something I never had before. Even one year would give me a life I had always wanted. It was no surprise to anyone that happiness was all I wanted in life and with a salary like that, I could never work again and do everything I ever wanted. It left me staring out the window with my school computer open on my left and my work computer open on my right, wondering what I should do first.

After a shower and leaving my long, brunette hair down to dry, I had dressed in leggings and the new team hoodie that I was given upon my arrival to sit down and write the email to my school as to the current situation. It hadn't been sent yet though as I was still trying to figure out exactly what I was going to do and my mind kept wandering back to the sudden pay raise I might be receiving. There was no reason to think that the school wouldn't agree to my sudden promotion. I had always been in good standing and a lot of the professors were fans of the sport I worked in. They were shocked when I came into the program with a job already in the field. It made scheduling my research easier than normal because they did play favorites despite the rules. I had taken full advantage of that to build myself a sense of stability back at home. The last two weeks had been a destructive storm to the calm life I had built in Britain over the last two years though. Never did I think I'd actually be in a car for points and never did I think Max of all people would be in a catastrophic accident. It was a lot to digest and I hadn't even had a moment to spend with my friends or really meet the other drivers other than our meetings to see Max over the last two weeks.

I realized that I would most likely be here at least until the end of the year and I had a lot of work to do with Daniel to get the cars in shape. In my professional opinion, Australia was a fluke with our current power unit. I had plenty of work to do with my studies, but moving down to part time would increase my time in studies three fold as I would not be able to devote time to my research despite continuing to apply the same principles to the work I was doing at Red Bull. Plus, I now ran a risk of having to do Media. I wasn't actually afraid of the camera as Daniel always seemed to think I was, but I don't like the sexist comments that I've been encountering since starting my career with racing. It was a main point of why I had decided that happiness came before all else in my life. That was why, as much as I loved racing, I had taken a backseat to all of this.

A knock on my door pulled me out of my thoughts. And man were they persistent to keep knocking on my door as I shuffled across the suite's living room to grab it.

"Daniel, I know that's you and I am working on it!" I growled as I came closer to the door, nearly tripping over the backpack the team gave me with my teamwear as he rapped on the door to the beat of 'What's My Age Again.'