the rush of loving you

just friends

*Marc*

Liv had traveled on to Austin and I would have loved to follow her right away, but I had to keep traveling myself. We had had far too little time.

But she had promised that she would come to my race. As a good friend, at least that's how we would sell it. We would say that she and I had talked at the hangar party and we were friends again. Not back together, but friends again.

That gave us time, because the press would tear us apart otherwise. And we could figure out what this was going to be between us.

I mean we were probably both sure that we wanted to be together again, but it wasn't that easy. She wasn't ready to trust me again and I could understand that. Whereby it was probably less a trust problem, but rather the fear that I would say something again that hurt her.

And I was afraid that I would say something again without meaning to, that might hurt her. I had done it last time too, without intending it and the fact made me very nervous.

What if I had another lapse like that? What if I hurt her again?

But when she came into my box as a matter of course, I forgot all these concerns. A smile inevitably slipped across my lips. Pablo dropped the wrench from his hand.

"Livy!" he laughed, lifting it up with a little more momentum than she expected.

She laughed and grinned good-humoredly at the mechanic.

He immediately glanced over at me "We've talked it out and we're friends again.", I said, she immediately started smiling and then nodded.

"But also only because I missed you guys so much. I didn't care about him, but you guys...", she laughed even harder and stuck her tongue out at me.

My heart beat a little faster as I stuck my tongue out at her as well. She was driving me crazy, but in the good way. Her outrageous grin. Her loud manner. Her big mouth. And the things she did to me when we were alone.

Pablo put her back down on the floor and she came over to me to give me a quick hug. My entire body immediately jumped back up at her.

"In my driver's compartment, now," I murmured to her.

She released the hug and nodded, barely noticeable, before letting Pablo pull her toward the rest of the crew.

Her eyes briefly slid over to me once more before she started laughing and turned away.

"What is she doing here again?", Leyla's voice made me cringe.

"She's a friend and she can come here whenever she wants to," I said plainly, my gaze fixed firmly on Liv, my arms crossed in front of my chest.

"She's just distracting you, I don't want her to..."

"How fortunate that you don't get to decide that," I cut her off.

"I have to go to the bathroom for a minute," Liv said, breaking away from Pablo, I knew exactly where she was going.

My heart started racing and all my blood was pumping to my loins as I watched her go.

"I'll make sure she flies out of the box," Leyla said.

"Go ahead and try that.", I said completely relaxed, because even if her dad was one of my sponsors, he didn't have that power and she certainly didn't. I patted her on the shoulder and wanted to disappear in the direction of my driver's compartment.

"What are you up to?" she asked, following me, grabbing my hand and holding it tight.

"I have to prepare for the Free Practice.", I said naturally and withdrew my hand from her "And you won't disturb me in my driver's room this time. I need to concentrate.", I said and then left her standing there.