No Regrets, Only Memories

A New Challenger Approaches

Daniel

As anticipated, Maeve did find a way to back out of coming to my flat after I dropped her off at Cambridge. She had to get a draft on her thesis started for the steps of her experiments and research. Over text, she apologized profusely, but promised that it was a good thing and she had some great news for next time she saw me.

I was disappointed, but her school was the most important thing in her life right now. The sooner she was done, the sooner she would have the degree she had been working towards and could go off and work on the future of the sport. That's all she wanted and I would never stand in her way. That just left us with a lot less time together as Christian was purposely keeping us in separate parts of the factory when we were there.

He seemed to have worries that we in fact were fighting constantly. The fact that everyone had said that we both were in great spirits and didn't seem to have any anger towards each other didn't seem to matter. So I would have to wait until we were flying to Barcelona before I really saw her again.

I was already on the plane when she arrived, a huge smile on her face as she entered with Angela and her new Performance coach Pyrita in tow. They sat down in the grouping of four across from Michael, Blake, Simon and I, talking about something seemingly extremely exciting in her schedule. I only smiled as Simon and Michael were engaged in a spectacular conversation about some food place they wanted to try while we were in Barcelona. Blake was next to me on his computer, typing away at an email that I knew all too well was about my future.

"Daniel," I looked up at Simon," Are you going to join us tonight? We were going to go to that wine tasting we talked about last time." I smiled.

"Sure. What time?" Simon rattled off a time that would get us back before the team dinner tonight, something Maeve and I were paying for as a thank you for getting the cars back in working order.

"Did you want to invite Maeve and her team?" I looked up at Michael, scowling at the suggestion because he was smirking. He was messing with me.

"Her team sure. She's not going to be able to. She has to submit a rough draft on her laid out process for her experimentation in her research." I glared at Michael, not wanting to get into all of this again right now with my team in front of me.

"We can talk about how you fit so many big words into that sentence later. I didn't realize she was really going through with that still. On top of working on the car and driving... She must be exhausted..." Simon looked over at her as he spoke in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, she's been struggling a bit I think, but she's doing a great job." Michael looked at Simon.

"Struggling? She hasn't said anything to the team about that." Simon seemed genuinely shocked to hear that one of our key players wasn't doing as hot as everyone thought they were.

"I'll ask them." I cut in before anyone could say anything in response to Simon. I didn't want anyone to start some rumor that she was having a hard time. She wasn't, she was just tired and justifiably so.

"Excuse me." I unbuckled my belt and stood up so that I could move across the aisle to the seats next to us. I sat down facing the back of the plane next to Angela and across from Pyrita. Maeve was in the seat diagonal from me.

"Good morning ladies. Do we have plans for the gorgeous Spanish afternoon we are landing in?" I flash a dazzling smile to the two closest from me before turning to Maeve. She looked genuinely excited at my words.

"Afternoon? Nothing. We do have a team dinner in the evening. Maeve, weren't you going to the beach for a run?" Angela looked at Pyrita, since she was now in charge of those things.