Dance Me To The Moon [Sebastian Vettel]

11. Red Light Spells Danger

Two weeks had gone by since Stella had returned from Switzerland.

She wasn't certain that she had fully recovered from the high speed train that had hit her that weekend yet. As amazing as her stay had been, her very last memory of Sebastian at the airport had transformed the experience into something more bittersweet.

The scene she witnessed, which she wasn't supposed to have seen, was imprinted in her mind and irrevocably linked to the rest of the weekend, no matter how hard she tried to diminish it. There was nothing shocking about it - and yet it was like a punch to the gut. To accidentally stumble into a part of his life that would forever be there, watching it unfold in front of her eyes...while she was nothing more than a mere spectator. It shouldn't matter. It shouldn't be upsetting for her on any level, not really.

Yet, it was.

No matter how she spun it or attempted to lie to herself, there was no avoiding it: it hurt that Sebastian hadn't told her.

It was tempting to believe that she was simply disappointed in him for not moving on; at her pettiest, Stella deemed it a betrayal. Betrayal to the progress he had made, of steps taken forward that in the end were for nothing. But of course that didn't make any sense and she didn't believe it herself... It was healthy to have a positive relationship with the mother of his daughters, it was the best way to deal with their responsibilities after the path their lives had taken. What good could come out of divorced parents not getting along with each other? Didn't Stella know how painful it was, from her own experience, to have estranged parents? She couldn't possibly wish that on anyone, least of all the two adorable little girls that Sebastian would surely love more than anything in the world.

But in the mirror of her own self, when she looked herself in it, what she saw was inadequacy.

Why hadn't he ever shared any of that with her? Was it because it was so precious and sacred that he couldn't allow himself to let her in? Behind the cheeky, infectious smile and the sweet kisses, the German had a whole other side of his life that she knew nothing about. She shouldn't be so hung up on it, it wasn't as if he knew everything about her own life either. The problem was, he did know all the important parts.

Vibrant London welcomed her with open arms and she was hopeful that once away from the dreamy Swiss landscape she would be able to gain some perspective. And for the duration of a few days, she even thought she might be successful. Until the following Sunday, when she was working her shift at the café.

Her phone beeped with the notification of a new message from Sebastian - it was just a picture of a shiny trophy. Through the reflection on the metal, she could tell that he was holding it in his hand while snapping the photo. Intrigued, she instantly checked the results of the race in Singapore, that she figured had just finished. Then and there her resolve crashed and burnt completely. Only summoning the presence of mind to warn one of her colleagues that she needed a break, she strode outside with the phone pressed to her ear, calling insistently. Sebastian did pick up, words difficult to make out with the noise in the background, and they screamed on the phone together, celebrating his first win since the year before. Maybe it was just PMS but her eyes filled with tears and his voice was a little tight and she wished she could jump on a plane and fly to him.

As days went by and everything began to settle, Stella understood the impact of what she saw that morning at the airport and how it spoke to her in a way that a thousand words wouldn't. Perhaps more than the rest of that wonderful weekend, too. It was a blunt wake-up call, it was finding that it gave away something which she was not ready to admit. Yes, she cared about this man, she always had on some level. But things had changed now there was no denying it.