Racing Hard

Chapter 10 - b*tch face

I fell asleep that night next to Lando. My head was rested on the bed but I was sat next to him in the chair. I woke up to him stroking my hair, I loved that feeling. I lifted my head up and smiled at him, "good morning darling" he said. Aw, he knows how to make my heart melt. "sorry, I was exhausted from traveling. How did you sleep?" "not great really, but having you here got me through the night. Maybe you can come up here and we can hug?" he asked. I smiled, "I would love that, if you want, you can try to fall asleep." I got up onto the bed and layed down next to him. He put his arm around me so that my head was resting on his chest. I could hear his heart beating and feel him breathing. He leant down and kissed my forehead. "Annalise, do you want to be my girlfriend? Everytime I'm with you I feel so exited, like anything could happen. I've never liked someone so much this quickly before." he said. Wow, I wasn't expecting him to say that. "I feel the same way Lando, I would love to be your girlfriend. He smiled the biggest smile that I've ever seen.

Lando managed to fall asleep for a bit. He looked so cute when he was asleep, with a small curl resting on his forehead. I got up to go to the toilet, being careful to not wake Lando up. I then walked outside to get some fresh air, I never liked being in hospitals ever since my brother had been there. He was diagnosed with brain cancer when I was 7 and he was 13. I had visited him everyday in hospital and looked after him when he was at home. After two years of fighting it, he finally went into remission only for it to come back 4 years later. He's now 24 and has been cancer free for 5 years which is great, I just wish I could seem him more. James is working for an organisation that helps younger children who have cancer get into sports, even if they're just watching it. He loves his job and it brings so much joy to those children, but he can never find any time off.

I started scrolling through instagram, looking at all the normal pictures of people on holiday in the sun or dogs running on beaches, when I came across a post with Pierre in it. He had is arm around a blonde girl, which I can only assume is Alice. I looked at the tag and sure enough, the username AliceDeBlanc popped up. I clicked on it. It looked like she was some kind of model or influencer. She didn't have any pictures of Pierre on her main feed but I saw some in her highlights. To be fair to her, she is very pretty. I was looking through her old photos when I accidentally liked one. Shit, what if she sees it. She probably won't right? It has 18,000 likes so one more won't stand out, even if it was from 3 years ago.

I went back inside where it was much warmer. Lando had woken up and told me to come lie next to him again. We started watching Brooklyn 99 on my phone because the hospital tv only has shows in German. We were halfway through an episode when I got a notification 'AliceDeBlanc has sent you a message'. Oh shit. "Annalise, why is bitchface messaging you?" Oops. "Umm, I don't know." Lando reached over and opened instagram messages. It read:

"It's ok to be jealous of me, whatever you do with Lando, I've already done with him. Stalker.💋"

What. A. Bitch. "I accidentally liked one of her Insta posts when I was looking through her feed, I was just interested." He nodded, "just stay away from her. They're both a piece of work and I would be happy to never see them again." "Well I'm going to reply to her, she can't just be a bitch like that and expect me not to do anything." "That's exactly what she wants Annalise, just leave it." I thought about it, maybe he was right. "So, has the doctor said when you can be discharged?" He nodded, "he said if all is good tonight then I can go tomorrow, I can't fly for 3 days after though." "Where are you staying? Do you want to fly back together?" He smiled, "I would love to, you will have to come on my jet though." "How fancy" I laughed, "so you think you will race in France next week?" He thought about this. "I want to, but it will depend on my fitness. I will need to try and work out while I'm here and then if we fly back on Friday, I will have 6 days to get ready. But if the smoke inhalation limits my oxygen levels, then I won't be allowed." "Do you want to?" I asked. I don't know about him, but the crash has made me slight nervous of him driving. "Of course, I can't wait to get back on the track. I need to beat Pierre and France is the best place to do that. Show him up in front of his home crowd." At least he's confident, maybe too confident.

***

I went to my hotel that evening to get some sleep and let Lando have some alone time. The plan was for me to go back in the morning and then we can go out to lunch. His doctor said he was happy with how he was doing and should be ok to race in a week and a bits time. He was obviously very exited about that prospect, but I'm kinda terrified. Pierre didn't give off great vibes and Alice just seems to be out to get everyone. What if Alice convinces Pierre to do something? Or worse, what if Lando try's to do something back? I guess there's not really much I can do, maybe I could try to talk to Pierre. But would he listen, or would that spur him on further. I decided to call him, he can't be so unreasonable that he would try hurt Lando again. I found his number from Charles and called him:

"This is Pierre speaking"

"Pierre, it's Annalise. Could we talk about the next race? I know you're denying that the crash was intentional and I'm sure some people believe you, but I really don't want Lando to get hurt. Whether it was your idea or Alice's, I don't care, just don't do it again."

"Calm down darling." Ugh, why?? "You don't have to believe me, but if you don't want me hurting your dear Lando then I guess I can restrain myself."

"Great, thanks" I said sarcastically.

"Also, if you ever feel like moving on to a man, I'm always here." Ugh I think I just threw up in my mouth.

"Ugh, it's hilarious that you think I would leave Lando for someone like you."

"Just give it time Annalise" and then he hung up.

Well, I think that went well. He is so full of himself but not in a cute Lando way, even if it is quite hot.

I woke up the next morning ready to go see Lando. I checked my phone and saw that I had a text from him,

"Good morning. Sorry, but there's been a change of plan. I'm getting the plane home today, the doctor has cleared me. Do you want to join me? You will need to get here by 11"

Shit, that's in half an hour. It's a 15 minute walk from my hotel so I only have 15 minutes to pack! I sprinted around my room, stuffing everything in my suitcase. I ran into the elevator, grabbing a pastry from the room service tray. I had 12 minutes to get there, I needed to run. At the start it was really hard to run with my suitcase. It kept on hitting my legs and the wheels would get stuck on the pavement but eventually I worked out a way to keep moving. I got there and just caught Lando getting into a taxi. "Lando, Lando!" I shouted, running to him. He got out of the car again. "Hey, I was worried that you wouldn't make it." We hugged and then got in the car. He looked great, so much better than when he was lying in the hospital bed. "I had to get on this flight because Mclaren had already booked it, sorry for the rush." I smiled, "I'm just happy to be with you."

We sat in silence for a while. "Lando, I'm thinking about going to Belgium from France, well if you don't mind me watching you in France, to see my parents. Would you want to come with me?" This was a big question, we've only just started going out but it's never fun to be alone with my parents and he would be good company. I just hope he doesn't think too much of it. "I would love to, I haven't been in a while so it would be nice to go." I smiled and hugged him, he's so good. Should I tell him about the conversation with Pierre? Probably not, nothing good will come from it. It's not like Pierre said anything that Lando needs to know anyway.

We got to the airport and got to skip check in and security which was so fun. We walked out to the airplane with a few more of Lando's crew members. Everyone got on the plane while Lando and I were giving out luggage to the steward. They then left and it was just Lando and I standing outside the plane. He leant down and kissed me, putting his hand on my face. We pulled away and I said "what was that for?" "I'm just so happy to have you." Aww, that's so nice. We then walked up to get on the plane. Lando and I sat next to each other but he sat by the window. That's okay, I'm sure private planes never crash, right? I could feel the engines fire up as the plane for ready for take off. It started moving and I gripped the seat so hard that my knuckles turned white. Lando looked over at me, "nervous flyer?" He asked. I nodded, "I've never really liked it." He took my hand in his, squeezing it tightly. "Well if we do crash, at least it's together." "Not helping Lando!" He chuckled. "Statistically speaking, there's only a 0.001% chance of us crashing." I decided to stop listening to him. Just enjoy the relaxing journey back to England, plus free food and drink so it's not all bad.