The second week of winter testing had started and Valeria felt extremely weird walking in the paddock with Fabian and not be in her uniform. Seb had left the hotel early, so Valeria had organised to have breakfast with his brother before going in.
'what a weird feeling' she uttered to herself, as she and Fab walked past the Ferrari motorohome. They weren't going to the garage as Valeria knew it would make it a bit awkward for everyone else.
'Have you spoken to Charles yet?' Fabian asked her, in his native language.
'No, not yet. I don't know why, but I'm scared of talking to him' she replied, thinking every word through and probably sounding a lot dumber than she wanted to be.
'your German is a lot more fluent when you're angry' he teased her.
'most of my languages are a lot more fluent when I'm angry' she replied, in English, watching the young German chuckle.
Valeria spotted Mattia walking through the crowd, towards them, and felt a sense of unease.
'Miss Proietti, a word, if possible?' he asked politely. Valeria's heart sunk, was he going to ban her from the paddock? She nodded and excused herself from her companion.
'Mister Binotto' she tried to hide her trembling voice.
'Valeria, I have decided not to tell the team about the situation as you were a beloved colleague to most of them and your abrupt departure would create some... dissent. I have decided to say you had a few days to take from last year and I let you use them now.'
'that's actually a nice thought' Valeria said, impressed. 'thank you. I won't be around the garage at all, anyways, so you have nothing to worry about. But I appreciate it.'
'no hard feelings' he smiled.
'Some, actually... many hard feelings' she corrected him 'one nice gesture won't make me forget what got me fired' she said, plainly. 'Good luck letting him follow any team orders this year' she added, just before leaving. If she was in Seb's shoes, she'd run 2020 as her own year. God knows if he'd do it, or if he still loved Ferrari too much to hurt it.
Valeria joined Fabian who was amicably chatting with Arthur.
'Arturo! What are you doing here? Ooh Ferrari academy?' she pointed at his hoodie.
'Val!' he kissed her cheek. 'yeah! Guess you'll see me around a lot this year' he replied.
'Guess so' Valeria tried to smile 'congratulations!'
'thank you! Sorry, Charles is waving from afar. I'll catch you around, alright?' Arthur dashed off.
Valeria was, again, feeling all kinds of emotion. She had never been fired before and the paddock was making her regret all of her decisions. She knew she was going to miss the action that year and she knew there were people she liked she would never see again. She took a deep breath, just as she felt Fabian put his arm around her shoulder.
'You'll be fine without them' he told her.
Was it a Vettel thing to be able to read her mind? Valeria didn't reply, but just gave him a smile. Seb's family were all the kindest people she had ever met. She was glad to be becoming closer and closer to them. They sat by the side of the circuit, waiting for the cars to start testing.
Few hours later
Valeria and Fabian were walking back through the paddock, waiting for Seb to finish whatever media bits he needed to.
YOU ARE READING
Reviewing priorities - Sebastian Vettel
RomanceIt had been 10 years since the last time Valeria had set foot in a kart, or a circuit for that matters. She had grown up watching Formula1 with her dad and he had tried so many times to get her involved in motorsports. Her quick wit and annoyance a...
