DEEP BREATHS | lando norris

CHAPTER 29

ILMA

It has been a few weeks since Lando broke the news to the world and me. It's not like I am still over it. Sometimes I still don't understand his decision even though he has explained it to me so many times. For the first time, when we were in private and he told me what was the deal. He told Zak that if I would win the championship then he wants to leave Formula One and retire. If I wouldn't win, he would still be racing. I told him he was an idiot. He smirked, ignored me for a couple of seconds and then he asked me why I was thinking he was an idiot. I told him that only an idiot would do so.

He told me that maybe he is a one. Then he laughed and told me to stop worrying about him because I have just won the World Champion tittle. The first woman in Formula One that have accomplished to do so. 

It was four years ago.

Now I am a three times World Champion, retired from Formula One this season. 

idiot: where are you?

world champion: terrace

I hear his footsteps coming closer to me from inside of the house. I can hear him before seeing his face which is curved in a dumb smile. I can't help but also smile a bit but I look down at the sketching book of mine.

"Not scared of those snakes and spiders around here?" he asks me as he sits in front of me, his hands landing on my knees and stroking them with his thumbs.

"If one bit me, you would know, trust me." I answer with a smirk on my face, my joke causing Lando to laugh a bit. "What do you want?"

"Do I need an excuse to spend time with my beautiful woman?" 

I raise my eye brows slightly in an asking gaze. Lando rolled his eyes and smirked as he stood up and looked down at me. 

"What you're drawing?" he tries to look over at the page of my sketchbook but I hide it before he can see anything.

"I won't show you." I probably sounded like an offended 5-year-old but now it's too late to take anything back. So I just look up at Lando wondering what his next move might be.  

"Ilma."

"Lando."

He crouches down and took my hand into his, before lifting me up from the floor and pulling close to him. I breathe out loudly because no matter how long I'd be with him, he could still suprise me somehow. I feel his hand wrapping around my waist, the other one intervening our fingers together. He moves us to the side a bit, not breaking our contact.

"Hey, look up at me." he whispers to me and as I do so, I can see him staring at me already. "Nice drawing, love." he adds with a smile, making me think of how he could have seen the drawing. I was hiding it because I wanted him to see it when it's finished. 

I look at the floor on the terrace where I was just sitting and I notice the sketchbook lying open on the wood. I must have dropped it when Lando picked me up from the floor. I look back at him and all I can see for now is his arrogant but sassy smile. 

"My jaw looks like that? I must look at it more often then..." he says, making me blush a bit. The drawing is his side profile, his hair messy and his cheeks flushed after the race. I have found this photo of his one day and it was stuck in my mind since then, so I decided to draw it. 

"Okay, enough of this making fun of me..." I say and try to walk away from him, breaking our embrace but he pulled me in, back again. 

"First of all, you're not going anywhere. Second of all..." he puts a finger under my chin and makes me look at him. "I love your drawing. It looks like you've taken it out of the Louvre or something like that."