Love Always Wins

49

Tuesday May 12th.

"Morning beautiful." Smelling not so fresh from an early morning stint in his gym, Seb stopped at his wife's side to kiss her cheek where she sat at the breakfast bar, immediately he noticed her half eaten bowl of cornflakes and then he noticed what she was looking at on the iPad. News of his upcoming departure from Ferrari in December had broken early this morning, causing headlines worldwide. He rolled his eyes but chose to say nothing and instead went over to the coffee machine where he proceeded to select a pod from the rack next to it and then pop it into the top of the machine before reaching for a mug from the nearby mug tree and sliding it onto the drip tray. He pushed a button on the top to set the Nespresso machine going and turned to lean back on the counter, folding his arms across his chest to watch her as she scrolled through the page she was reading.

Hearing the machine come to life and hum as it dispensed her favourite drink, she looked up from the webpage she'd been reading. Seb was having a coffee? No way....he hated coffee.....didn't he? He was looking at her, his expression unreadable, so she looked back down at the iPad and at the article that was already raking over the possible reasons for him leaving Ferrari. The news had broken at around six am this morning with Ferrari issuing statements both from themselves and Seb after he'd written his together with Britta before they'd emailed it over late last night to their head of media communications. The headlines had appeared and multiplied fast and everyone had their own opinions on why Seb's relationship with the famous red team was coming to an end, all of them pointed out his failure to realise his dream of winning a world championship with them and some of them pointed the finger equally at Ferrari for failing to give him a car that was capable of winning. As much as she knew pouring over the seemingly endless stories and articles wasn't doing herself any favours, she couldn't stop herself from looking at them. That was until the iPad swiftly disappeared from in front of her and was replaced by a mug of coffee, she looked up as he put the iPad down on a counter across the kitchen with a pointed thud and then went to the fridge to put the milk away and grab a carton of orange juice. It was her turn to roll her eyes, they'd barely spoken yet this morning and it already felt like they were going to argue. She cast her eyes down to the coffee he'd made her, her first (and only) one of the day as he came back and took a seat on the stool beside her.

"Hey." He said softly as he gently grasped her chin with his fingers to turn her head and make her look at him. "You're my wife, not my press officer. Stop reading all that shit. The news is out there now and there's nothing to be done about it."

"I'm not reading anything now you've taken my iPad away." She grumbled as he held her gaze, searching her eyes with his own. It's like he's trying to read my mind....

"I thought you was ok with it. I thought you said you supported my decision." He said pointedly, sounding a bit put out.

....looks like he can. "I'm just struggling to get my head around it, it feels weird."

"So you don't support me?" He drew his hand away sharply, looking annoyed.

"It's not that I don't support you! I do!" She insisted as he unscrewed the cap on the carton of orange juice and started to drink from it. "It's just going to take time for me to get used to the idea. Your fans are all devastated, they're worried they're going to lose you from F1....."

"You've been on social media too?" He slammed the carton down a little harder than he meant to, making her flinch and a little of it spill out onto the surface.

"Yeah." She answered slowly, grimacing at her own answer and his sudden thunderous expression.

"How much time have you spent looking at all that stuff?" He shot back, getting wound up.