adoration: part two

thirty

27th August 2024

"Melody! Just the person I wanted to speak to!" Fred exclaimed joyfully, I was a bit worried he'd be annoyed at me for being the reason Charles is ending his contract momentarily next season.

I stuck out my hand for him to shake "Fred nice to see you," he completely ignored it and hugged me "You're a hugger."

"Of course I am! How can I not be!" He beamed whilst ordering the Ferrari engineers around, I had managed my way up to the Dutch Grand Prix.

"So," he paused "Are you willing to do Ferrari media for half an hour or so, we can get Charles in the interviews also. The baby is really exciting people." Fred explained his hand gestures going crazy as he spoke.

Charles instantly stepped in "Fred I mean, it's been a long day Mel doesn't-

"No no it's fine, I can do some media for you guys if that's what you want." I smiled a little at him, if the main reason I was doing it was to piss of Christian Horner why not.

"Melody you don't have to if you don't want to, you've been on your feet all day you deserve a relax." Charles acknowledged as he held me closer to him protectively.

I chucked "No it will be fine, only if you'll do it with me though I'm too awkward for these things I swear."

Within ten minutes later we had done two YouTube challenge videos for Ferrari that were meant for Charles and Carlos but I took Carlos' place instead, thankfully the challenges weren't driving related.

As soon as they were over I headed to catering as Charles had to talk over the final strategy, "Melody? Is that you?" I heard a familiar voice from behind me.

"Oh my god Jess!" I squealed as I saw her in the distance, despite seeing her a few weeks back at the funeral it wasn't exactly a cheerful setting.

"Melody you're glowing! With Ferrari today I assume?" She wondered as we sat at a table her passing me a plate of red grapes.

"Hm kind of, so what's up how come you're here today?" I asked her as I drank from the glass of water already on the table.

She sighed "My brother is a fan of formula one so we got like VIP tickets and now here I am, I'm missing dancing terribly."

"You're an incredible dancer so that makes sense, I watched your Instagram video of the contemporary dance that was amazing." I assured her as we continued to chat away.

"What are you doing tonight we should go out and have some fun! You can invite Isa even Kelly if you want too." Jess suggested as she propped her elbows up on the table.

"I'm flying back home tonight, don't think Charles would want me out much anyway, so apologies but I can't do tonight. Definitely ask Isa and Kelly though I'm sure they're up for it." I replied smiling.

"How come Charles wouldn't want you to go out and have fun?" Jess asked.

I shook my head "He's protective of me and the baby which makes sense in light of recent events so it's okay."

I referred to the post it note incidents although Jess didn't know about the second time, but she could see the four security men who followed me around everywhere as they sat at the table with us.

Jess nodded understandingly "Do you know the gender yet?"

"Nope, I think we're keeping it a surprise." I added.

We continued chatting along until it got to race time and I headed down through the paddocks debating whether I would watch from the Ferrari one or the red bull one as Christian was waving me over to him.

"Melody! Nice to see you on the track again, I see your Ferrari boy is about to come a dad congratulations." Christian smiled fakely, he was a dickhead.

Drive to survive season 6 came out early February and it was the biggest wake up call for me ever, Christian was constantly slating me behind my back and my relationship with Charles.

"Yeah it's not as nice to see you. Thanks though." I replied harshly before heading over to the Ferrari paddock, honestly I kind of forget they're filming a Netflix series at the same time because the cameras are always there anyway.

There was a whole entire episode about the crash in Miami situation and watching that over was heart breaking to witness, I could finally understand how disheartening it was for Max.

"Melody how does it feel up be pregnant with a world champions baby?"

"Have you seen what Ellen degenerese said about you??"

"Melody! Is the baby actually Charles'?"

"Miss Verstappen how many months are you??"

"Melody what was your opinion on the drive to survive series?"

"Melody! Melody verstappen can we have an interview!" This man asked as he noticed me and pointed his cameras over at me, for god sake.

I nodded politely and walked over to the cameras "Melody Verstappen congratulations on your pregnancy, it was quite a shock to the world."

I chuckled "The response was crazy, I can imagine it was quite a surprise."

He asked another question "So Charles Leclerc is he your boyfriend, some people actually are wondering if you're married?"

I laughed "No definitely not married but um our relationship status is good I do love him very much, he's already such a good dad."

The interview continued "Melody you don't really have any parents so how do you think parenting will be for you without anyone to look up to?"

I quickly realised this interview had pretty much nothing to do with racing.

"Um I look up to Charles' mum a lot Pascale is practically my own mother, I love her to pieces and she's done an incredible job raising her sons. My friend Kelly is also a mother, my brother is about to be a step dad so I look up to them too." I replied kindly.

"That's wonderful news," the interviewer looked down at his question card "Drive to survive season six came out and what were your opinions on your edit?"

"To be honest I'm not bothered about how they made me look, I'm annoyed women only spoke for six minutes and seven seconds across ten episodes. Of course there are no female drivers or team principles so naturally we will see more men in the content but we do however have some amazing women in the teams in strategic and mechanical roles and then some amazing journalists too who deserve more screen time in my opinion." I replied my inner feminist coming out of me.

"And how come you weren't in attendance for this years Grammys? Or last years for that matter, you've won multiple awards?" The interviewer continued.

"Um for me music isn't about the awards, I don't make songs for a trophy I make them so people can feel something. As much as the Grammys is such an amazing event I don't really resonate with it." I replied and he nodded along before I was finally let go from the discussion.

I wandered slowly back to the Ferrari paddock, "If it isn't my beautiful friend Melody Verstappen." Isa joked as she greeted me.

The boys were on the starting grid ready to race as we stood watching in anticipation, "I'm under strict instructions to get you a chair for the race." Isa demanded grabbing a fold out chair from god knows where.

I laughed sitting in it, truthfully I was absolutely shattered "Oh really?"

"Yeah. Quite the boyfriend you've got there." She grinned widely as the race began.

"He's technically not my boyfriend." I replied shrugging, it was only a matter of time until he would be.

During the race I refused to stop talking to Isa to distract myself, watching the races my heart was always in my mouth but the nerves were even worse now that he was the father of my child.

"Are you coming out with us tonight?" Isa asked as the race was coming to a close, I shook my head keeping my eyes on the screen.

"I'm flying home tonight, I will try and come out next time though, I mean your birthdays soon we could do something then." I smiled at her as she nodded along.