The Red Bull Party Girl |ON HOLD|

36. Japan.

It was early Saturday morning in Japan, too early for me and the bubble who seemed to be taking great delight in making me feel like complete shite. I sat in hospitality with Seb by my side, his hand resting on my thigh as he read through the statement that Red Bull would be releasing once both himself and Christian had approved it. Today the news was being made public, Sebastian Vettel was to leave Red Bull at the end of the season to join Scuderia Ferrari. Opposite us sat Britta and Antti, the pair of them both looking annoyingly awake and fresh faced while I sat there looking what I'd assume to be a lovely shade of green. I put my hand on my stomach as my insides launched into another spin cycle, earning myself a knowing smile from Britta. We'd had to tell both her and Antti our little secret as my morning sickness was getting increasingly difficult to hide, this had made me feel guilty as I'd now reached eight weeks and we still hadn't told our parents. We'd decided between ourselves that today we'd also tell Christian and Emma but that was mainly for professional reasons more than personal ones, although I was hoping that our news might make Emma take the news, of me leaving the team along with Seb, a bit better. I checked my watch, as soon as Seb had finished reading the statement we had our meeting with Christian and Emma. I wasn't looking forward to it.
"You ok? Do you need to throw up?" Seb asked quietly, his voice full of concern.

"Not yet." I shook my head. "Is the statement ok?"

"Seems to be." He replied. His attention was suddenly taken by the vivid red uniforms of Ferrari crew members walking past outside. As crews were often bussed in from hotels a few miles from the circuit and started work a bit later than the drivers, there was now a busy period outside as they all started to arrive. A slight smile appeared on his face, he was looking forward immensely to starting a new chapter in his successful career and was counting down the weeks until he got his first taste of a Ferrari formula one car. I joined him in watching the team members walk past with purposeful strides, it was like something out of an old Virgin Atlantic Airways tv advert as they all walked together in groups, some of them even in stride with each other.

"Soon." I put my hand on his knee, he looked at me and his smile got bigger. "Do you think they know yet? Obviously they know that Fernando is leaving so do you think they've been told about you joining them yet?"

"They're being told during their team briefing this morning." He turned his attention back to the statement but I noticed how the smile remained on his face. "It's fine." He stated after a few minutes of quiet. He handed the piece of paper back to Britta.

"Nothing you want to add or change?" She asked with a hint of surprise in her voice. Seb was something of a perfectionist and usually there was always something he wanted changing whether it be to do with press releases or settings on his Formula One car.

"Nope. Let's get it out there." He replied with an air of finality. "I just want to get this part over with, I don't want it on my mind when it comes to qualifying later and once we've spoken to Christian and Emma I'll be straight into meetings before P3 starts." He stood up and I took this as my cue to stand also, it was time to deliver the news to Emma.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We all sat down in the small room that Christian was using as his office; he sat perched on his desk, facing us, while I sat on a chair with Seb one side of me and Emma the other. Christian looked downcast while Emma looked somewhat puzzled, as yet she had no idea of what was going on, that was about to change.
"Right, I won't beat about the bush, I know everyone is busy and has got other things to be doing so we'll keep this brief." Christian began as he checked his watch, no doubt trying to synchronise his announcement with the rest of the team being told. "I have an announcement to make and Seb and Harper also have something they want to say."