Woman in a man's world

Baku - Sixth race of the season

Norah had been called to a meeting with Adam and Christian, she had no idea what the meeting would be about. Adam insisted on having one before the weekend. Norah had just been with Lando and Mick for a while but was now making her way to the Red Bull motorhome, feeling a bit anxious about the meeting. She just hoped it wasn't anything bad.

She entered the room where the meeting was held, both Christian and Adam looked at the girl, analysing her.

"What?" She said with a small laugh but a confused look on her face.

"Sit down please?" Adam said, the tension growing bigger.

"How are you doing Norah, really?" Christian asked, a small frown on his face.

"I'm fine, happy to be back racing and being with my friends." She was unsure what all of this was about.

"And besides racing? How are you?" Adam continued.

"What is this all about? I'm confused? You don't need to book a meeting just to check up on me" Norah said, getting a bit agitated.

"We're worried about you Norah" Adam said

"About what, I'm fine!"

"What have you eaten today?" Adam said quickly.

"Breakfast and and apple just before"

"And what did you have for breakfast?" Christian asked. Norah was quiet, with an open mouth trying to get something out of her mouth. She felt trapped, interrogated.

"Breakfast" she answered slowly and quietly.

"You don't have to tell us Norah, we know that you aren't eating enough. Look at this." A document on Adams' computer was shown for her. A chart showing a bunch of numbers. Norah didn't understand at first but then she saw the name of the document. "Size chart - Norah Wellington Knight, Red Bull Racing". It was her sizes for her race suit, they were handmade. Every small change was needed to bring the most comfort and swiftness to the drivers.

"You have been going down in size for almost every race this season, please be open to us. We need to know what is happening in your life." Adam said in a friendly tone. Norah looked up at him.

"I don't know.. I need to get rid of the extra weight, get back in shape. I want to race and I want to do it well."

"Norah you are the most trained person on the grid right now, It's marvellous how you could get back this quick." Christian comforted her. She was still shocked at the news, she just wanted to get back in shape so that she could race.

"But.. I don't know, I feel great you know. I'm back racing and I'm happy here, with you, my friends and having this life again." She was shocked, confused and freaked out. She never had this problem before,

"We know Norah, we know how much you love the sport. But you can't lose any more weight, it can be dangerous, really dangerous." Christan said.

"Okay, yeah I'll do my best."

"Great, we'll close this for now but if we see that you're losing more we have to do something." The three agreed and said goodbye. Norah left the motorhome, Still in shock from the meeting. Walking down the paddock she called Mick and asked if he wanted to go for dinner or just a walk around the city, he said yes and the pair spent a few hours discovering the city.

"Should we go get dinner? I'm hungry."

"Oh sorry Adam texted me and said that we had a team dinner planned so I can't, maybe next time." The pair said goodbye and Norah ran to her hotel room. Took a shower and got ready for bed. She opened her toilet bag, chose the different vitamins and minerals and got them down with a glass of water. She took an apple and layed down in her bed, she got a text from adam.

What did you have for dinner?

Had dinner with Mick at a little restaurant in the city, see you tomorrow!

Great, see you then :)

Norah kept taking small bites of her apple and checking her phone when Josh called.

"Hey Norah, how're you doing?"

"I'm good darling, it's getting late so i'm a bit tired. Had this weird meeting with the team today, they said they were worried because i've lost weight."

"What, that's crazy! You're just getting back in shape. Of course you will lose weight, how much was it?"

"Not that much, around ten kg"

"But that's great right, You've come a long way! Almost back."

"Thank you darling, I think I'll head to sleep, I need it for tomorrow."

"Yeah you do that, good luck this weekend!"

"Thank you, I love you. Good night"

"Night."

Norah closed her phone, threw away the half eaten apple and went to bed. She didn't think much of the situation but another person, her team principal did.

"Hello David! How are you my friend?"

"I'm doing just fine Christian, so what do I owe this pleasure to you calling?"

"I just wanted to see if you could help me with something, regarding Norah."

"Always, what is it?"

"Well her trainer showed me this chart of her sizes for her racing suit and they have been going down this whole season. I just want to know if she ever has had problems with that before, she was sort of hard to talk to today."

"No that is not like her at all, you know she loves to work out but not to that degree. "

"Well, do you think her accident could've changed that for her? Maybe she feels pressure on her racing, she needs to deliver better than she can?"

"No, Norah's always been confident about her racing. I wouldn't think that's the case."

"Because that is what she said to us. She is training harder so that she can deliver. "

"That doesn't really sound like her, she knows how good she is at racing. This is probably something else, she is not the most open person when it comes to hard and difficult things. Thanks to her father for shoving a camera in her face when she was six, she can have a thick facade when it comes to opening up. "

"Yeah I get that, we just need to be sure she won't lose more weight before it can get dangerous."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen, I'll talk to her tomorrow and check up on her. See what's wrong."

"Thank you David, I'll see you soon okay."

"See you Christian."