Battle of The Gods

Ventidue

The weekend in Spa was a tough one for Alessandra and the prancing horse, with the free practice sessions and qualifying showing how tight the top three battle is, with Charles, Max and Lewis's time barely a tenth separating them.

She also spent time working in her office, wanting to make sure that everything should go as planned during the race, and read through data reports about an important upgrade package that was coming into fruition during Monza, which was in two weeks. She was excited for her second home grand prix, the activities planned, the atmosphere of the track, the temple of speed itself. Honestly, if she could, she would just time travel to the Italian grand prix weekend.

But she couldn't, so she focused on the race, and because of that, she barely had time for her friends, who started to worry about her and how she was drowning herself in work. She hadn't seen Toto much either, only a couple of times at the paddock, exchanging a quick smile before she disappeared into the garage or the motor home, and he worried too, but he promised her about Lake Warfaaz, so he couldn't say anything to her about it.

After the race, which had finished with Max winning the race, Charles getting second place, and Lewis closing the podium, Alessandra and Toto stood side by side under the podium as they watched their drivers, they did not say a word, their arms were rubbed against each other, the contact sending shockwaves through their bodies, but they didn't say anything, not even after when the podium celebrations, just gave each other a small smile and parted ways.

When she headed back to the hotel after doing some last minute work before heading to the Netherlands, Alessandra found her four friends behind the door, holding wine bottles and snacks, and she couldn't leave them out, especially with the pleading eyes they gave her, so she took them inside.

"Max, shouldn't you be celebrating your win?" Alessandra asked as they made themselves comfortable on her bed and the small sofa across from it, "and Charles, I know the win didn't come home, but you drove amazingly, you should be celebrating too!"

"Ale, you've been distraught emotionally all weekend, and you didn't say a word to us," Charles replied, squeezing her hand when she sat down on the edge of the bed next to him, "and I know that you didn't say anything because you didn't want us to worry about you whilst we needed to focus on the race."

"And as much as we did focus, we also worried," Max said, "we can celebrate whenever we want, but you'll always be a priority to us, no matter what."

"We gave you your space, we know that if you really needed us, you'd come to us," Mick said, giving her a small smile, "but four days in Spa, we had to make sure that you're doing okay."

"Are you doing okay?" Carlos asked, "did you have any mental breakdowns or bad waves of sadness? If so, did you handle them well?"

"I'm truly the luckiest person alive to have my group of people care so much about me, but I promise you I'm doing better now," she said, giving them a genuine smile, "I was not doing okay when we arrived, but then I took some time for myself, and I've slowly done better, but now I just want to leave Spa and get to Zandvoort and have an amazing time there."

"And we will!" Max exclaimed, his smile wide at the mention of his home grand prix, "I've got a little something planned for us whilst we're there."

After spending a couple of hours eating snacks the drivers would have gotten their ass kicked by their trainers if they saw them eating them, and drinking a bottle of wine each which got Max and Mick drunk , because they were absolute lightweights and then ended up needing help getting back into their rooms by Charles and Carlos, Alessandra was laying in her bed, sipping on a glass of wine whilst watching a movie that was playing on the hotel tv. She glanced to the side, at her bedside table when the hotel room phone started ringing. Confused as she never got a call on the hotel line before, she picked it up, putting the received against the side of her face.