The Blackout ⤖ George Russell

F O U R T Y F I V E

"Nora, what lovely to see you! How are you?" Alison, the mum of George, happily said and gave Nora a hug.

Nora smiled. "I'm doing fine, thank you. How are you?"

"I'm good," Alison replied and studied Nora's face. "You look amazing, love." She turned to her son. "Hello, darling."

"Hi mum," George said and gave her a short hug. They all walked to the living room, facing the rest of the family. Nora was standing next to him, wrapping her arm around his arm, placing her hand on the inside of his arm. All the eyes were focussed on the familiar, yet so unfamiliar girl. "Good afternoon," he smiled. "This is Nora, my girlfriend."

A woman got up. "Ah, you are the girl George has been telling us about" Nora looked at George and softly smiled. "I'm Cara, the big sister of this man."

"Hey," Nora said and accepted the hug of Cara.

"I've seen you a few times before," the brother of George said and looked at Nora. "I'm Benjy."

The wife and husband introduced themselves as well, just like his nan. George's nephew and niece were playing with lego on the ground but stopped playing around when they saw George and a girl next to him. Their eyes shot from George to Nora and back to George.

"Who is that?" The little boy looked back at Nora.

George squatted and smiled proudly. "That is my girlfriend: Nora."

Nora squatted down as well and looked at the two kids. "Hello, I'm Nora," she smiled.

"I'm Finn," the small boy introduced himself. He immediately looked at his mum, who nodded proudly. Nora could tell he was a shy boy.

"And I'm Emily," the girl said. She was less shy,  mostly because she was older than Finn.

"Nice to meet you, Emily and Finn." George got up and looked satisfied at his girlfriend and the two children. Nora had a short interaction with the two kids. After a minute, Nora got up as well. She grabbed George's hand and pushed herself up, it was difficult to get up; the muscles in her legs were burning. It felt like you had leg day but still had to squat for some reason. "That wasn't the greatest idea," she muttered.

"You alright?" George softly asked. Nora nodded. "If it all gets too much, just let me know, and we will go home."

"Don't worry about me," she said. He raised his eyebrow. "But I will."

They took place on the sofa next to each other. On that moment, the father of George entered the living room.

"Ah, Nora, good to see you!" Steve said and smiled. "How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks," she said while he was greeting his family. "How are you?"

"I'm good," he replied and smiled widely. "And your recovery? How is that going? I've heard some things from George, but that was a while ago."

She nodded. "It's going good for so far, of course, there are ups and downs, but it's going all positive."

"What happened to you?" The nan of George looked curiously at Nora, she looked fine on the outside, you barely could tell about the things what happened to her.

"I used to be George's teammate in GP3 and F2," Nora said. George placed his hand on her knee, giving it a soft squeeze to let her know he was there to support her and that she didn't need to tell it if she didn't want to. "We were battling for the title in F2 at the last race in Abu Dhabi, but unfortunately I crashed during the race, and I was in a coma for a month. But things are getting better now, and I'm taking it slowly. I enjoy watching George race in F1 as well," she smiled.