Out Of The Blue (Sebastian Vettel)

33. Her Confession

The morning after the Belgian Grand Prix they had travelled straight on to the Netherlands for the race at Zandvoort. They spent a few days exploring the area before work started again. They arrived at the track bright and early on media day.

Melissa was lagging behind the others as she had stopped to chat to Laura, Lance's new girlfriend. As she was entering the motorhome she collided with a hard body. She quickly offered her apologies before realising it was Seb that she'd collided with.

"I am so sorry," she said, looking up and freezing when she realised it was him. He stared at her, his beautiful blue eyes narrowing as he looked unsure whether to talk to her or not.

"It's ok," he finally said. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Me neither so I guess it's both our faults."

"I guess so." He hesitated. Melissa was just about to carry on walking when he spoke again. "Did your house move go ok?"

"Yeah, all good thanks. It's a much bigger place, a bigger garden, and best of all, it's got a dishwasher!" Seb gave a small laugh.

"I'm glad it all went well." Melissa smiled and carried on into hospitality. "Melissa!" he called after her. She turned and looked at him.

"Yes?" He looked at her for several seconds, then he shook his head.

"Nothing," he said eventually and walked away.

***

The next time Melissa saw Seb was on the Friday night at the team dinner. Sophie had persuaded her to come along. She hadn't really wanted to but had given in for a quiet life.

Seb had been sat with Lance and Antti. They'd been laughing and joking about. She wished she could get over him as quickly as he seemed to have gotten over her. She'd noticed him chatting with Annaliese a lot too. Now she just couldn't sit and watch that. She ate quickly and made her excuses, heading back to her room as soon as she could.

***

Saturday was a dull, dreary day. Thankfully the rain had held off for qualifying. Seb had qualified second yet again, and once again shared the front row with Daniel. Lance had qualified fourth, sharing the second row with  home hero,  Max Verstappen. Just after qualifying had finished the heavens opened, and it was still raining the next day for the start of the race.

When the lights went out Melissa headed to rhe motorhome with the others to watch. Seb managed to maintain second place going into the first corner but Lance lost a place to Lando Norris.

Things stayed as they were until Lap 9 when Verstappen span and put his car into the barrier, bringing out the safety car. The home crowd groaned in disappointment.

On lap 15 Van der Loew retired with mechanical failure. Daniel was pulling away upfront,and  Seb was having a close battle with Lando for second.

However after they had pitted things changed. All of a sudden Daniel started going slowly, he pulled to the side of the track, retiring from the race with gear box trouble. Now Seb was in the lead. The Safety Car was deployed while the marshals cleared Daniel's car out of the way. They followed it around for five laps, then it was time for the restart.

In the motorhome Melissa turned and walked over to the counter to get another coffee. Then all of a sudden she heard everyone gasp and the commentator started shouting "Oh gosh that's a big smash. That's one, two, three, four cars. Norris has hit Vettel. Stroll has somehow managed to avoid them but Hamilton and Perez have hit them. That's a big one. Vettel is upside down!" She quickly turned around. Joel was at her side immediately.