Respect and Memories

14 - RB7

Emrys decided to stop moping and get up from where she had been lying for the past 30 minutes.

She made her way to the garage where most of the engineers were working on fixing her car.

The driver talks to some of them and even offers advice. Soon, she was getting fidgety and ended up grabbing some tools and working on the car too.

As soon as they finished fixing up the car, she thanked everyone as they left to go get something to drink and eat.

Emrys strays behind and takes one last look at the car. After nitpicking every last inch of the car, she puts on her race suit and grabs more tools to fix whatever she sees is wrong with it.

After fixing everything she could fix on her own, she sets down the tools, wipes her hands on her suit, and walks off to grab a water bottle.

Emrys wasn't planning on talking to anyone, but she just so happened to bump into Max Verstappen.

Who she thought was just going to wave and leave, but instead walked over and started a conversation with her while they sat on some random chairs set up.

"I saw you tinkering with your car," he said, taking a sip from his water bottle, as they took a seat.

"Yeah, just some minor fixes," she said, picking at the grease under her nails.

Max nods and looks around awkwardly with pursed lips. "I have family problems too."

At his comment, Emrys stopped what she was doing and slowly turned to look at Max.

"Yeah?" She said, leaning against her knees. "Sucks huh."

He turns to look at her with a small smile. "Yeah. Maybe not as bad as yours though." Emrys sees him eye her arm that was hidden under her fireproof sleeve and gives him a small smile.

"Well, we can't define our problems based on others. It's what affects us."

Max laughs. "I was supposed to be comforting you, not the other way around."

Emrys matches his laugh and slumps down in her chair with her arms across her chest.

They sit in comfortable silence before she speaks up again. "How do you talk about it?"

"It's just—" She stares in front of her as Max turns his head to look at her. "It's hard you know? Talking about it with anyone else."

"Humor. It's complicated, but I learned to deal with it." He places a hand on her shoulder, making her turn her head at him.

"It helps a lot, but you should start with someone you feel comfortable with. It doesn't seem like you have close friends on the grid but you could always find someone you can connect with."

Emrys nods slowly. "You know—" she smiles at him as he removes his hand and takes another sip from his water bottle. "You would make one hell of a therapist."

Max laughs as he gets up from his seat. "I'll keep that in mind for whenever I retire."

"I'll see you around, Emrys."

"See you around, Max."

~~~~ 🏎️💨 ~~~~

"With all the practices done and over with, we move on to qualifying!"

The announcements create an astounding headache for Emrys, but she shakes it off and gets into her car.

They only had time to do the third practice, having to fix up some other parts during the second practice.