DEEP BREATHS | lando norris

CHAPTER 10

ILMA

Vic ( Seb's alter ego ): Where are you?

Ilma ( Bosnian queen ): somewhere between iconic and mental damaged

I sigh as I throw two dresses on my bed, totally unsure which one I should wear. I've been asked out today. By no one other than Oscar Piastry. I still haven't told Vic who is taking me for the dinner tonight and I'm not sure if I want to do this. First of all I would wanna see if anything between us could work out. Of course if we ignored the fact that probably FIA would rather kill us both than let date each other. Any kind of relationship between two drivers on the grid is probably strictly forbidden. That's why if anyone ask me or Oscar about our night out today we will both say that it was a friendly dinner.

Things like that happen on a daily basis so why would FIA try to consider that?

Vic ( Seb's alter ego ): may I finally know who is taking you out?

Ilma ( Bosnian queen ): no

Vic ( Seb's alter ego ): please pookie

Ilma ( Bosnian queen ): no, because you'd start fangirling

Vic ( Seb's alter ego ): if you won't tell me then Twitter will

I smirk at her text and put my phone down, looking once again at the two dresses. I hate making choices like that. It genuinely sucks.

Finally after at least five minutes I pick a tight, long and black one with my arms uncovered. I change into it, do my make up and pack my essentials and phone into a purse I'm taking with me. I also take a leather jacket with me and put it on just when I hear a knock on my door. I open up at the moment that Oscar is still holding up his fist. He smiles at me and then breathe out slowly.

"Hi." he says, holding our eye contact.

"Hi." I respond, unsure of what to do. It suddenly feels a little more uncomfortable than I expected it to be.

"Ready to go?" Oscar moves a bit to the side so I could come out of my apartment and join him outside.

"Yeah, sure." I answer him as I close the doors with a key and then start walking beside him down the corridor. There's a silence between us that feels totally wrong and out of place. I don't know what it is. The akwardness? Maybe I should give it a go and it'll dissapear in a few moments.

With that hope I also get to his car and survive the silence until we arrive at the restaurant he has picked earlier. It's a place stylised to look like it was built in ancient times with a water fountain in the middle of the parking lot which is representing a Greek goddess handling a seashell in her raised hand. The whole building is also full of oldschool ornaments and flags with the name of the restaurant contrasting with the marble stairs.

We both get out of the car and I come up to Oscar, smiling a bit, just to seem nice. But on the inside I feel totally uncomfortable and akward around him. Well, we could talk while being on the paddoc and talk only about Formula One related things but now, that we cleary don't have any topic to talk about as it's the middle of the summer break, we can't really talk. Nothing comes to our minds.

He opens up the doors for me and then tells me to follow him to the table that is reserved for us.

"So..." Oscar tries to start the conversation but I don't know if we can make the thing any longer. "How are you?"

"Great. How about you?" I ask him back just not to be rude but I feel like this whole thing is rather a total disaster than sonething that could last longer.