Heart of Gold | L.N. - Part One

XXV

Leah had her meeting with Christian this morning. She was concerned that the media would catch a glimpse of her with the principal of Redbull. But she didn't care. If the media found out, she could just say he was offering her a position, there wasn't anything wrong with that. Drivers always had their options open unless your name was Charles Leclerc or Lando Norris. They were loyal to their teams as of right now.

Leah met up with him at a public coffee shop in Spa since that's where he lived. She had to take a train earlier that morning. Lando was hanging out with Max for most of the day. Cassidy and Isabella wanted a phone call after she came to a decision with him. She walked in and as him sipping his latte already.

"Ah, Leah," He stood up and shook her hand.

"Thank you for meeting with me," She told him as she sat down. A woman came up to the table setting down another cup of coffee. "For you?" She asked, but he shook his head and moved it toward her.

"Try it," He offered. "It's my favorite when I come here." He smiled at her and then pulled out his paperwork. Leah pulled out hers as well as she put her back across the back of the chair. She set her papers down and took a sip of the latte.

"Mm," She nodded and Christian smiled at her.

"See," He opened his binder and pulled out his portion of the contract. "We gotta talk numbers."

"Alright," She flipped through the papers he gave her. She stared at the numbers. "Wait, you are willing to pay me 25 mil," She looked around as she whispered. It was like some kind of secret. Christian smiled at her as he slowly nodded.

"You show a lot of promise and if you keep getting results like you did last season it would be perfect for the upcoming one. You would gain a lot of points for Redbull," He reasoned as he leaned further onto the table and shuffled through his papers.

"I have to ask this," Leah sighed as she looked up at him. It had been bugging her since she wanted to join Redbull.

"If you're going to ask about you and Max's competitiveness, it has already been discussed," Christian assured her. "We were going to offer you a position in F1, but Mercedes had gotten to you first."

"What what?" Leah repeated as he leaned forward.  "You were going to offer me a spot? Or were you going to offer it to Gabby?" She was shocked. She didn't think anyone from F1 had noticed her. They only saw Gabby while they both were competing in F2.

"Oh no, we were going to offer you a position in F1, it was discussed in an interview before last season started, just before your race actually and then suddenly Toto said he was going to bring in the first female F1 driver, so naturally we let him take the heat," Christian explained. "But we've wanted you on the Red Bulls team from the beginning." Leah sat back.

"You wanted Toto to take all the hate for bringing a female onto the grid," She muttered and Christian nodded.

"We weren't going to offer you another position already because you were settled and I wanted to see how you would drive in F1," He explained. Leah understood it was business, if she was in his position she would do the exact same thing, she just didn't know that other teams were looking to take her.

"Did you know I would be looking for another position?" Leah asked. She wanted to know how well Christian had planned out this offer. He pulled out a stack of papers.

"I mean have you met Toto and toward a female driver, yeah I assumed you would be looking for somewhere else to drive, and what better place than Mercedes's competition? They cost you several poles and I am going to be transparent with you," Leah took the papers and looked at him. "There may be times in racing that we could ask you not to risk passing Max or Max passing you, but that is what happens on a team. You have a lot of potential Leah, we won't waste that here, you will be our second driver, but you will still have priority since you are younger and at the high of your talent. You just offer Max a little more competition as well." Christian chuckled which made Leah smile.

"I was worried about that, I had originally wanted to switch almost mid-season last year, but the competition between Me and Max was already there and I didn't know if a team would want to take that on. I would never intentionally try and knock him off or cost the team points, but you know how it is on the track, anything could happen in a second," She explained. Christian understood he had that with Daniel and Max. Daniel wanted to prove that he was still good enough for the position and Max was trying to prove himself since he was brought in at such a young age.

"Yeah, no with both of your talents, we are willing to lose a few points for the double podiums all season, Max also would like some competition and since you both are skilled drivers I would hope you both make minimal contact," Christian explained as he tapped the papers in her hand. She instead grabbed the latte and took another sip.

"This is very good," She added and flipped through the first pages of the contract. She would have to look it over thoroughly. "Oh another thing-."

"Yes, you can bring Isabella and Cassidy, if Toto will let them go. Isabella is the best engineer he's had in a while, your team together is a formidable pair, it was causing us some issues at Redbull," Christian chuckled as he too drank some of his lattes. He sat back and watched her quickly look over the first few pages of the contract.

"Is there anything you want to ask me?" Leah asked as she closed the contract and slid it back into her folder. Cassidy and Isabella will want pictures and contracts of their own, but they will have to discuss that with Red Bull before she can sign this.

"Oh," He snapped his fingers and pulled out two more things. "Engineer," He told her and set the papers down. "And for Cassidy, I know they will be going on maternity leave eventually probably nearing the beginning of the next season so they should look over these if you want to transfer. And yes," He sat back again. Leah gathered the papers together and situated them in her folders. "I need to know about your family medical history, you have checkups every week?" Leah nodded.

"Yes, it's to check anything that I may have or catch it early, as of right now there is nothing, but I am at risk," She explained and he paused for a moment. "This one is kind of a given, but you can't get pregnant under my contract. I know that sounds bad, but it would cost us a drive since we are moving Perez onto a spare driver." Christian explained which made Leah laugh a little.

"Understood sir and I wasn't planning on it," She told him.

"I was just making sure," He chuckled. "I mean both of your closest friends are having kids and I just thought baby fever would be setting in soon." Leah shook her head.

"No, I don't really want kids just yet, also I would be terrified they would end up with one of the cancers in my family," She turned the up on the saucer and then picked it up and drank the last of the coffee.

"Well then, we will be in touch," Christian explained as he stood up grabbing his coat and bag off the back of the chair.

"Pleasure speaking with you Christian and I look forward to working with you," She told him as she too stood up.

"You can stay around if you want, I know you have to travel here, Spa is a cute little place, my family is just waiting for me," Christian explained as he fixed the collar to his coat. Leah nodded and put her bag back onto her shoulder.

"My family is waiting for me too, but have a good rest of your day," Leah explained as she offered her hand.

"Oh of course," Christian smiled and shook her hand as he walked to eh side door and left with his car. Leah texted Cassidy saying she was on her way back and then sent Lando a similar text.