Flores :: Carlos Sainz

Veintidós

"Veel plezier," the girl, who was scanning the tickets, said, wishing Eleanor a lot of fun.

"Thanks," Eleanor replied and walked to Mees, who was already waiting for her.

Mees smiled widely, put his Max Verstappen cap backwards, and held his hand up. "We made it!"

She gave him a high-five. "Let's go watch cars go vroom vroom."

Everywhere you looked, there was orange. Or the blue shirts from Red Bull. There were a few people who would wear other colours from the other teams, but that was not a lot. Even Eleanor was wearing an orange Red Bull t-shirt to support Max Verstappen. She didn't want to stand out by wearing a Ferrari t-shirt. Besides, it didn't feel right. She would connect Carlos to the t-shirt. And she wasn't here for him.

Suddenly, people started to shout a name or scream.

Eleanor looked behind her and saw how the people behind her got divided by something. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her away. She kept looking behind her, suddenly seeing a car approaching her. Her eyes kept following the car. The smile on her face slowly disappeared when she saw who was sitting in the car.

A pair of brown eyes made eye contact with Eleanor. The smile of Carlos also faded away. Yes, he knew Eleanor was Dutch and that this race was in the Netherlands. But no, he didn't expect to see her. Because 1: what were the chances that he would see her in a crowd of 300.000 people? 2: Eleanor said that she disliked Zandvoort. And 3: why was she supporting Max? Carlos' eyes fell on the hand that was holding Eleanor's arm. They travelled up to the man next to her. She was here with a man?

Eleanor froze. It felt like everything happened in slow-motion. What were the odds that she would see him? She never saw a driver when she would visit a Grand Prix. And now, at the Dutch GP, after they 'broke up', she would see the driver she fell for. Eleanor broke the eye contact and looked away, chewing on her lip.

"This is the closest that we will ever be to Carlos Sainz," Mees said, almost too stunned to speak.

That you will ever get, probably. I've been closer, much closer. Eleanor looked over her shoulder to look at Mees. "Cherish that moment," she said, pushing away her own feelings.

"I absolutely will," he smirked. He scanned her face. "Why are you not stunned to speak? This is a driver from your favourite team."

Because this is not the first time that I've seen him. "I don't want to look like a crazy fangirl," she teasingly said. "He's late, though."

"I'm still wondering what the drivers do on Sunday. Some arrive so early. For what?"

The road was cleared from the car again and everybody could move again.

"Make a switch to F1 and be a journalist and find it out yourself," Eleanor replied.

"Ha, ha. You're in a sarcastic mood, noted. Anyway, shall we get a beer?"

She looked at her watch, pretending to act like it was too early for a beer. "It's half past ten. And I will pass today."

"It's five o'clock somewhere."

❁

Eleanor looked at Mees. They were sitting on their spots, watching the last round of the Porsche Super Cup. Mees was amazed to see it all happening, it was his first time at a Grand Prix. Eleanor never thought that she would be here with him, with a colleague. She and Mees were work friends, and sometimes would have a drink after a long day, they had spent a lot of time together, but it was never more than that. And that was okay. Eleanor didn't want it to be more. It was grateful to see friends happy.