The Red Bull Party Girl |ON HOLD|

9. Home.

It was the 11th May and spring was in full bloom in my home village. After spending the first week of my enforced leave refusing to leave the house, speak to anyone or see anyone (apart from the Tesco delivery driver!) my mum had stepped in, using the key I'd given her for emergencies and while I was away to let herself in. She had forced me to go out, we went to the stables together and spent an afternoon talking through what had happened while out for a long ride. Of course, mum had to give me the 'told you so' speech and that I 'should have listened' and 'stayed away from those bloody drivers.' But she seemed to get that I had genuine feelings for Seb and just said that if it was meant to be, then I should be patient and let Seb come to me, grovelling! After that I'd gone to the stables daily and spent a lot of time with Dakota, my horse. Riding helped to clear my mind and made me happy, I felt a lot better about things already. I also spent a lot of time with friends, either just hanging out at my place, shopping or having nights out in Norwich getting drunk. I'd had numerous texts and missed calls from both Seb and Daniel and I'd ignored them all apart from letting them know I was at home and was ok. I was missing being involved with formula one greatly and was missing Seb like crazy. Six and a half weeks was a long time to be away from the fast moving sport, for all I knew he could have met someone else by the time I got back. Today I was popping out for Sunday lunch with an old friend, Darren. I had known Darren for a few years now and he had been there to support me when I'd caught my ex husband cheating. He'd also kind of supported me, sexually, I guess you could say he was a friend with benefits. He was a tall man with light brown hair and blue eyes, quite well built and quite handsome. He was the one person who I told everything to and he did the same with me, the sex seemed to add to the trust between us.
"Hi Harper." He hugged me warmly in the car park outside the pub. "It's so good to see you, I've missed you!" He pulled back and looked me up and down. "Looking as sexy as always I see." He grinned.
"Hi Darren, good to see you too you sexy beast!" I laughed. "Shall we head in, I'm fucking starving!"
"Sure." He took my hand, as he always did when we were together, and we went inside. We found a table tucked away in a corner and sat down. After ordering our drinks and food we relaxed, I noticed the tv was on above the old fireplace. The Spanish grand prix had just started.
"So what's new with you then?" I asked him, his eyes lit up and he smiled.
"I've started my own security business, well it's a partnership really. We're offering store guards and detectives to retailers, it's going quite well already." He glanced at the screen and saw the race was on. "I thought you'd be in Spain?"
"They've put me on leave." I looked glumly at the table.
"Why, has something happened?" He looked at me, concerned.
"I've basically made a right fuck up of things. I've fucked Sebastian Vettel."
"Wow! The world champ hey, so did the boss not like that?" He sat forward in his seat, interested.
"He probably would have been fine with it if Seb hadn't got back with his ex days later and I hadn't shagged his team mate." I looked back at the screen to see Seb's car staring back at me.
"Oh so you're the reason they don't seem to like each other? I've read about a rift in the news but they said it was because Daniel was beating Seb. You naughty girl!" He grinned.
"The thing is Darren, I really like Seb. I haven't had feelings for anyone since my divorce and then he came along and at first I thought he liked me too. Then his ex arrived and he dropped me for her, said he still had feelings for her, now he's split with her again already."
"Well, by the sounds of things you're better off without him if he's going to keep running back to his ex." He paused as our drinks arrived. "Maybe give Daniel a go?" He added.
"I don't feel anything for Daniel, not like I do Seb." I replied.
"Would you take Seb back if he asked?"
"I don't know, like you said, if he's going to keep running back to his ex than maybe I'm better off without him." I looked to the screen again, only another week and a half and I'd be back amongst it all.
"You know what you need?" He asked, looking straight in to my eyes.
"What?" I asked back.
"Me to give you a good seeing to when we've had lunch." He gave me a cocky grin. "And don't tell me you don't fancy it, cos' I know you do." I couldn't help but smile at his somewhat arrogant, cocky reply.