COLLISION COURSE - Lando Norris [ff]

Eleven

The food in front of her looked delicious, yet it made her sick to the stomach. Leon next to her was cracking jokes with other team members while she just sat zoned out by the table at the hotel’s restaurant. Nyck had not told anyone about what had happened in her room in the motorhome that afternoon, otherwise there would have been much more havoc already. However, she had not seen him ever since either.

Christina grabbed her fork again, stabbing it into her greens which drowned in a puddle of beige sauce. Her performance coach usually took care of her diet while she was at home or travelling. However, Leon was somehow the person to enforce her to stick to it. Only every now and then- and more precisely every other weekend- she allowed herself one of the huge 'Cookie Dough'-flavored ice cream buckets. But not even the thought of those sounded appealing.

“Chris?” She faintly heard her manager address her. “Chris?”
Her body flinched when he put his hand on her shoulder to pull her out of her head. “Are you okay?”

She just nodded and stuffed the beans into her mouth before giving the others sitting by the table a quick smile, “Excuse me, please. It was a long day for me, and I will call it a night for now.”

Leon looked after her when she walked off and left a nearly full plate behind with food she had barely touched throughout the whole hour of dinner.
Christina hurried to the elevators in an elongated offshoot of the luxurious lobby. She had not seen Nyck ever since he had caught her with Lando after the race. She just could not forget about the look in his eyes and how eager he had been to protect her from any possible harm. Something about his reaction told her that her teammate had not been fully honest with her throughout the season.

She entered the elevator and pressed the button for her floor before looking at her reflection in the big wall mirrors of the cabin. Her fingers slid up her neck to where Lando’s had been earlier that day. For a second, she closed her eyes and recalled the warmth of his hand. A resigned pant left her slightly parted lips before opening her eyes again and watching the heavy doors of the elevator close shortly before an arm reached through the small slit and made the doors open again.

The British McLaren driver walked in, gifted her a stern, short glance and stood next to her after checking that she pressed the correct button for his level as well.

“What happened after the-“ He started after staying silent for a couple of floors, not taking his eyes off the display where the numbers rushed to the top.

“Don’t,” was all she added before Lando could finish his sentence.
The more she thought about what had happened between the two of them after the race, the more she started to question her feelings towards her colleague. Maybe, after all, she had not ever really disliked him which was what she had tried convincing herself of feeling for all the time she had known Norris for.

“I think we should talk about it, Chris.” He sounded more urgent now and turned around to face her.

“Why? So, we can get tangled up in this bullshit even more? I don’t have the time nor the nerves to think about this too much, okay? We were both frustrated and, in our heads, and that’s why we crossed a few lines there. Can’t we just agree on this and leave it at that? Please?” Christina refused to look at him. Imagining the way he looked at her right now was enough to almost make her lose her patience and self-discipline.
Her heart was beating so loud inside of her, she feared he might hear it.

“Aren’t we tangled up already?” His voice sounded like a distant whisper, but he had gotten closer to her. Immediately, she raised her hand, pressed it flat against his chest to keep him from approaching her further.

“Chris, could we please just have a chat about all of this?” Lando begged for her time. She had never heard him that desperate before, close to sobbing out of frustration.