𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃𝐖𝐀𝐑 | 𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐋

C H A P T E R E I G H T E E N

ZIA sat on the sofa in George's driver's room, breathing heavily, holding her head in her hands.

What had she just done?

There was no way that's how she felt about George. She couldn't possible want that. He was arrogant and rude, and a fucking prick who ruined the most important races of her life.

But god, did she really want to kiss him in that moment.

She rubbed her eyes, in an attempt to wake herself up, getting rid of the emotions she was conflicted by. She stood up, and carefully sneaked out of his driver's room, and out of the garage into the paddock.

She was thankful no body saw her coming out of the William's garage, as so many questions would be raised.

She decided if anyone had seen her, her excuse would be that she was trying to find Alex and Alice after the race, and assumed they might be in the Williams garage, considering Alex was taking George's seat when he moved to Mercedes.

She ran a hand through her hair as she walked, trying to think of anything but George. But for some reason, she began to realise she couldn't really think of anything else.

"Zia hey! Z wait!"

She looked up startled, and saw that she nearly ran into Carlos. "Hey, sorry mate I wasn't looking-"

"No no don't worry. Look I was coming to find you anyways- Mattia wants a word." he said, gesturing over to the large bright red building behind them.

George completely vanished from Zia's mind. "Oh god. Okay, uh thanks Carlos." as she began to walk away towards the Ferrari building.

"No worries. Hey have you seen George at all?" Carlos asked as a second thought. "I need to find Lando, and he's not with Daniel so I'd assume they'd be together."

Zia turned around as she walked. "No. Why would I have seen G- Russell? I avoid him every chance I get. No I haven't, probably never will again." she blurted out before she jogged into the Ferrari hospitality.

Carlos frowned. "British people are weird." he said, before walking off to try and find Lando.

"ZIA please come in." Mattia said as Zia poked her head through his office door. Zia walked in, and sat in the chair opposite Mattia's desk, and began to play with her rings nervously.

"Listen, I'm sorry about your qualifying. That's not something you'd want on your last qualifying session with Red Bull." he started.

Zia chuckled sadly. "Yeah wasn't the best.Last quali session ever too." she joked feebly, looking down at her lap.

"Not quite." Mattia said, as he leant forward in his chair slightly.

Zia looked back up, shocked. "I'm sorry."

"This information is classified, so it stays in this office, is that clear?" Mattia told her, waiting for her to nod before he continued. "Carlos has decided to go back to McLaren with Ricciardo moving back to Red Bull, so there is a seat free here."

Zia widened her eyes like she had when George told her, not wanting to get him into trouble for knowing.

"We've assessed your entire career over the past few weeks, and despite your few outbursts, we've found you are the perfect candidate for the second seat."

Zia let out a noise of disbelief, and went to speak, before Mattia continued. "However... you're qualifying session today, and through no fault of your own, wasn't great. Of course, I believe you could have had pole if you wanted to later in the session, but the Gods haven't favoured you at all this year."