the man- f1

eleven

once

the man

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friday/ practice day/ jeddah

tali had just arrived at her garage in her fireproofs. she was quite relaxed since she wouldn't really get in the car until another 20 to 25 minutes so she would just be with toto watching the screens that showed some data.

the camera crew was going to be invested in her though. she knew that and she had prepared herself for that.

toto was sitting like normal and she stood with a pair of headphones by his side. elias was behind them, kind of in between them.

the cameras were currently focusing on them, she could see from the screens on her peripheral vision, but she chose to ignore it.

the commentators were gossiping like schoolgirls though.

"would you look at that? laser focused on the data that is being processed in front of her and he is laser focused on her."

had tali paid actual attention she'd notice him.

"rumors went crazy yesterday, poor girl had to make a statement on social media." the other commentator said with a bit of humor.

"she had an amazing debut and everyone focused on the most irrelevant thing. that's a shame." the first commentator said.

"definitely. she finished ahead of her teammate in practices and scored points during her debut. she even had to defend thoroughly for the last ten laps against valteri bottas, who we know is not the easiest to defend against. i like to think valteri had her too busy or else she would have overtaken lance." the second one replied analyzing last week's results.

as she covered her mouth to speak with toto she felt elias come closer to listen too.

"when are they going to leave?" she asked moving her mouth as little as possible despite having her mouth covered, making both men laugh a little.

"young tali is joking with them but she's smart enough to cover her mouth." the commentator chuckled.

"i think she doesn't like the camera so close. and young elias wolff seems comfortable with her. i think he needed someone his age around to loosen up a little." the other one mentioned.

"we're very used to the serious boy. good for him." they agreed.

elias was lucky she couldn't listen to them. unlike his father and her, he hadn't been wearing headphones, listening to the speakers from the bleachers. he was acting as natural as he could but he was aware of his slip up on camera.

"we need you to start getting ready, tali." tania said, approaching her.

"ok, walk with me. i wanna tell you something." she said, going to her helmet.

"what's up?" tania asked curiously as she held the helmet with the gloves and balaclava inside.

"remember when you told me last week before the tommy dinner how you know who might like me?" she said as she tucked her hair inside her suit once she zipped it, once again moving her lips as little as possible.