No Regrets, Only Memories

Russian Blues and Japanese Cherry Blossoms

A/N: Hello again! A timely update? Who is she?! All jokes aside, things are starting to pick up and I'm very excited to show y'all what we have planned. Thank you as always for reading and hopefully we have an eventful race week! 💚💚💚 

Maeve

The disappointment of Russia qualifying was simply forgotten when Daniel and I managed to make it into 5th and 6th in the race. That was where our good fortune for the week ended. As soon as the race was over, Daniel was swept away straight to the next track in Suzuka. He had some press to do before press day. I was much more lucky, having a preview of my thesis that I needed to work on for a few days before I didn't see my work until the end of the season.

My full presentation, due to be given on December 16th, was nearly completed. Pieces of it had been done as I went, making notes and gathering visual aides throughout my entire research project to ensure that I would have what I needed by the time we reached this point. My professor needed to check in and make sure that I was on track to give that presentation. That meant clearing nearly three days out of my schedule to work non stop on my thesis.

Given the tight turn around, I skipped my debrief to grab Max's plane to fly straight to MK. I was going to be sleeping at my flat, but driving to school every day. They didn't know this, but I was also going to be packing up my home. Daniel was very serious about me moving in with him, and I was very serious when I agreed. It was as simple as selling off my furniture and moving all of my belongings into his London home for now. That was what took up my nighttime routine. Given the time difference, it was hard to get the moment to even speak with Daniel.

He was still trying to reach out and make sure I was ok as the minutes ticked down. We both knew that once we left Japan on Sunday night after debrief things would change. We would be walking back into a warzone in Austin and there would be a lot of really mean and unfun texts and calls to respond to. We didn't care though. There was only one more race that we had to get through.

The very one I was descending into now. There was a car waiting for me as soon as the jet hit the ground, bringing me to the track after an overnight flight plan to make it into Suzuka just before midday on Thursday. Press conferences were scheduled for just an hour after I landed, making time a huge issue. My press officer sat across from me in the car, Steve sat next to me as he came to the airport to brief me on some issues with my press officer.

"They're going to ask the longer we wait." Steve said simply, not looking up from the iPad he was currently using as his notebook.

"Well, what do I say?" That made me look at my press officer.

"That you are confident in your position for next year and everyone will know soon." She smiled at me.

She had no idea what was going to go down this week. I almost felt bad when I nodded back to her. Steve looked up from his iPad.

"I promise we will have this all wrapped up soon. We have some other things to focus on," He handed me the iPad, "Japan has a very passionate fan base and we have plenty of marketing events this week. As a reward for doing everything, you are excused as soon as debrief is done. I know Max and Daniel had some plans that we don't want to know about in Monaco..." I smirked as I took the iPad from my sassy manager.

Steve was our coconspirator in this. Our plan was to tell everyone that I needed to get my project in order before the last races of the year. Max wasn't needed at any of the prerace things that lead up to America. Daniel 'had plans' to see some family in between the races. We were all individually lying to our teams, letting them know that we would all be flying out together so Max could return us to Monaco or MK before we had to continue on to where we would be spending our week break. They didn't need to know that we would actually be flying straight to LA. Max, Daniel, and I would get three days before our four day adventure in Vegas to celebrate Max officially being cleared to race. If he was cleared to race.