Love Always Wins

89

Monday September 28th. Switzerland.

It was blessed relief to be home for everyone after a point-less Russian Grand Prix for Sebastian. Britta was able to spend time with her husband, Heikki had his girlfriend, Liisa, over from Finland with their daughter Eeva and Seb had some time off before the next race in Germany. Not that Chloe had seen much of her husband on his day off. The problems with the car was obviously still distracting him; he'd tossed and turned in bed for most of the night, keeping her awake too and then this morning he'd got up early (despite their late arrival home last night) and had disappeared off on a cycle ride to god-knows-where and hadn't come back until lunch time. Then he'd disappeared into his gym. It was as if he was avoiding her and he'd barely taken notice of Luis too; avoiding herself she could just about stomach, his problems with the SF1000 were weighing him down but avoiding their son she wouldn't stand for. Luis had been particularly clingy all morning and she'd barely been able to put him down which meant she'd struggled to eat her breakfast and hadn't even had a minute to herself to shower and get dressed. It was time for her husband to do his bit with the childcare. She walked determinedly into the gym where Seb was on the treadmill, his ear buds in, staring solidly ahead as he ran at a steady pace.

Their eyes met as she stopped in front of him and he could see that she wasn't happy with him. Knowing that he'd only piss her off if he kept going, he slowed down to a stop, pressing buttons on the treadmill until he'd turned it off. "You alright?" He asked, breathing heavily and grabbing the towel he'd slung over the handrail.

"I was going to ask you the same question. Have we done something wrong?" She asked cooly.

"I'm just training." He breathed before rubbing his face with the towel.

"It's your day off, not that either me or your son have seen you all day so far. Anyway....." She paused to pass Luis over to him, giving him no choice but to drop the towel and take their son in his arms. ".....he's a bit clingy this morning and I haven't even been able to shower and get dressed so you can take care of him now."

He watched as she spun around and walked away, could she not see that he was soaked in sweat? "Chloe, I'm hardly in a position....." He began to protest, he needed to shower too and was expecting to hear from Maranello soon and didn't want any distractions.

"His nappy needs changing and he could really do with a bath!" She called back, cutting him off just before she left the room.

He looked at the door she'd just left through and then down at his son who was starting to smell. Great timing. Where was Britta when he needed her? Oh yeah, he'd given her today off too.

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

Maranello, Italy.

Sat inside the large meeting room. Viviana bit the inside of her mouth to stop herself from saying something she'd regret. Across the large, black table, Mattia leant back in seat, his face half hidden by his mask but his eyes, framed by his usual round spectacles, focused on her as Alessa concluded reading her notes and Seb's statement containing his allegations to her. This was not good. Her eyes darted around the room, looking at the white walls, the red doors of the cabinets and cupboards and the framed images of previous title challengers that the lined the wall behind Mattia. She gave a cursory shake of her head while beneath the table her well heeled foot tapped the charcoal grey, carpeted floor impatiently. The bastard! Seb had filed an official complaint, he was determined to get her removed from the team. Well screw him! He could get fucked! And she well and truly intended for that to happen.

"Viviana, what are your thoughts on these allegations? We'd like to hear your side of things too." Alessa asked.

She hated the patronising tone to Alessa's voice and the way she'd smile sympathetically. Was it worth it trying to give her side? She plastered on her best fake smile. "I'm a very friendly and tactile person, what else can I say?"