I can do it with a broken heart (Lando Norris)

Chapter Seventeen

She'd spent a blissful couple of weeks in Monaco with Lando, before somewhat reluctantly boarding her flight back to Miami to catch up with Cassie. It was only a week, she'd see him again ahead of the next race but it had been surprisingly difficult to say goodbye.

Cassie had been in a weird mood when she picked her up from the airport, barely saying a word after she'd finished listing off the schedule she had planned for Hannah for the week. It didn't sound too bad, a photo shoot for the album cover, what would hopefully be the final recording session for the new album and an invite to a charity event.

"Can I see if Lando wants to come to the dinner?" She asked. It was a bit extreme to fly all the way over there for a couple of days admittedly but he probably would do it given the chance. She missed him.

"No." Cassie answered very sharply. "He's not invited."

"I'm not going on my own." Hannah protested.

"I'll come with you, just not Lando." Cassie sighed.

An awkward silence settled over the car for the remainder of the journey.

****

They were up bright and early the next day to head to the studio. Cassie's weird mood from the day before had carried over and Hannah found herself struggling not to lose her temper with her manager. She'd tried a couple of times to ask her if everything was okay and just been shut down. The subject had been changed to the remaining songs to be recorded.

They were midway through a long day in the studio when she finally got to stop for a break. Cassie seemed to have softened up a little bit and actually smiled at her as she handed Hannah her lunch.

She took it gratefully, sitting down on the sofa and chatting to a couple of members of the team about the songs as she pulled her phone out to text Lando and see what he was up to. He'd been out last night with some friends and she hadn't wanted to disturb his hangover earlier in the day but with the time difference between Miami and Monaco he surely had to be awake by now.

She was surprised by how many notifications there were on her phone, and several missed calls and texts from Lando.

Lando
I'm sorry, I can explain. Call me when you can.

She looked at the message in confusion, not having a clue what he was talking about, but her heart sank anyway. It obviously wasn't going to be something good.

"Um Hannah, have you seen this?" Cassie asked quietly, turning her phone screen around to show Hannah.

And there it was, the cause of his message. A photo of him, in a club in Monaco, wrapped around a girl that according to the article that accompanied it was his ex. The two of them had spent quite the night together by all accounts and she'd been seen leaving his apartment that morning according to the reports.

Hannah threw the phone back in Cassie's direction unable to look at it anymore. How could he do this to her?

Her phone vibrated again, signalling another incoming call from Lando. Cassie held it up and Hannah looked at it like it was a bomb that was about to go off, both of them watching it ring until it cut off again. He was relentless though. Just redialling and starting again.

Her head was spinning. He said he could explain. What kind of explanation could there possibly be for this? Joe had said the same too. He could explain, it wasn't his fault, it was an accident. How many times had she believed him and gone crawling back? Let him convince her that it was somehow inadvertently her own fault.