«If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.»
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Irina slowly nodded, muttering a long ahh every now and then to show she was understanding and somehow paying attention, as though she was a student. Aurora, who had no problem with it and enough patience, was explaining to the blonde what all the numbers constantly displayed on the TV screen with graphics meant. Along with some terminology brought by the broadcasters in the middle of the race. Salma eyed them from where she was lying on the other sofa, then she drifted her attention to Sloane, who unlike the other two, occasionally checked the time on her phone and asked 'where's Max?' when the camera hadn't pinned on her boyfriend's car for a long while.
They were watching a race together. The four of them. Why? Because Sloane suddenly believed herself a group therapist and decided it would be the ideal bonding experience. It just so casually happened that Aurora was around in Milan that specific weekend. How convenient, she thought the moment the girl wandered inside Sloane's hotel room earlier that day.
Quite frankly, the only one who seemed to be having a good time while watching the race was Sloane. And Irina, who despite the lessons in racing she'd been receiving from the start, still didn't care enough to be afflicted over any possible results. In short: she was only there to distract herself.
"You know so much about this," Irina told Aurora. This one smiled politely and nodded. "Why are you even here? You should be there in person!" Her hand excitedly gestured circles at the screen. "Enjoy your privilege. It must be nice." And a cheeky nudge with her elbow.
Aurora, chuckling awkwardly, shifted on her seat and exchanged a quick glance with Sloane. Salma caught this interaction. All eyes were on the Italian, expecting an explanation on why she was there with them and not at the race.
Salma guessed the situation with Aurora wasn't so far different to why Sloane had decided to be less public that year in comparison with the past one. Because every time they showed up, there were jokes and snarky comments about their respective relationships and the situations that led to each of them. The consequences of one's actions and blah blah blah. If she dug deep — very, very, deep — she could find some pity for them, but well. Like the joke seemed funny as an inside thing, to jest with Sloane when the girl was being too annoying and whatnot, other people were just doing too much and making them uncomfortable.
"It's better to watch from home. Fewer distractions." It was the reply Irina got from Aurora, who accompanied it with a sympathetic smile. A lie obviously, but that sounded easier to explain.
"The camera guys are also a bunch of creeps. Always panning on the girls." Sloane joined in support, twisting her face into a grimace.
Irina, satisfied with both arguments, decided to drop it and only shrugged before leaning against the sofa to pay attention to the race. She kept asking things every once in a while, to Aurora of course, but other than that, there wasn't a lot of talking between the four of them. Salma felt Sloane's gaze on her sometimes, and she looked back because she didn't understand what was all the staring about. It wasn't like she had to be on surveillance to confirm she could behave.
As far as she was concerned, she'd been nice to Aurora ever since the girl arrived. Or as nice as Salma could get.
The race turned out to be fairly predictable. Nothing had changed. Pierre wasn't kidding when he said the car was awful though. She even felt bad about it, not completely afflicted, but there were some sentiments growing in the pit of her stomach as the final standings of the race were shown on television.
