For what it's worth

Chapter 36

Once me and Emily where both ready we head down to reception to where the rest of the team are waiting. Walking out of the elevator laughing with Emily as everyone looked our way made us feel powerful. Emily giggled looking at me.
"I feel important everyone's looking at us" she said in a whisper still giggling making sure no one could hear her.
"I feel powerful, like Beyoncé" I giggle back quietly so only she can hear.
As we walk closer to the group of people standing in an array of orange and black clothing we stop giggling but hold smiles on our faces. Steps away from the group I see both Lando and Marcus open there arms signaling us to hug them, Emily basically falls over herself as she runs into Marcus' arms but I take more of a slow approach to Lando as I just carry on walking, I didn't feel the need to run considering I was literally just steps away from him.
As I go to hug Lando I am stopped as Daniels arms wrap around my waist. I pull away from his hug and look at him confused.
"You look beautiful" he says while placing a piece of my hair behind my ear.
"Get away from me" I say rolling my eyes taking another step back from him making sure to create distance between us.
"Don't be like that, I was just being nice" he giggles.
I take a deep breath and walk behind him to Lando not making a scene in front of everyone. As I walk around him I feel his hand glide across my hip and onto my back until I'm far enough away to break the contact. Again feeling his hand on my body makes me roll my eyes and take a deep breath. If I wasn't stood in the middle of people I work with I would have gave out to him.
"I hate this" Lando says repeating his words from last night as I hug him tightly.
"Me too" I say letting out a sigh of relief as he hugs me back.
"What did he want anyways" Lando asks in an annoyed tone, I could tell he tried to hide the fact he was getting annoyed but I knew him too well so it was easy to see.
"Nothing important" I didn't want to tell him invade he got angry at me. I knew none of this was my fault, but I couldn't help feel like it was.
"Just tell me, I asked for a reason" I could tell me was now getting more annoyed.
"Just said I looked good" I wasn't lying, he did just complement the way I looked, I mean beautiful was more than just looking good but I didn't want to annoy Lando even more than he already was.
"Fucking dickhead mate" Lando said as he rolled his eyes and walked away from me. I turned to Emily and Marcus who had watched the whole thing, as I feel my eyes start to water Emily notices and runs over to me leaving Marcus left standing looking at us both confused.
"You look too sexy to cry" she whispers as she hugs me. I could tell by the worried tone in her voice she was trying to make me laugh. I let out a soft giggle as I tilted my head up making sure my tears didn't fall and ruin my makeup.
"Do you want to talk about it" she asked looking genuinely worried about me.
"Not much happened, Daniel complemented me and hugged me and lando got pissed off when he say, then he asked what he said so I told him and he stormed out annoyed" I say briefly explaining the situation with as little words as possible.
"You know none of this is your fault right, don't blame yourself" and as she says it the rest of the McLaren team that we had been waiting for arrived. Marcus walked over to us as everyone started to walk out of the hotel and to the restaurant, I was grateful for there support right now but I felt like the biggest third wheel ever. As we walked Marcus held Emily's left hand and with her right hand she held mine. I looked at her as she interlocked her fingers in mine.
"I don't want you to feel left out" she smiled and she saw my confused face. With that I tighten my grip on her hand to show her I was thankful for her being there for me.
"I feel like I'm third wheeling in my own relationship right now" Marcus said with a laugh as he saw Emily holding my hand.
"That's because you are" Emily laughed back pacing a kiss on his cheek.
As we walked in the middle of the group I saw Lando up ahead walking with some others, I didn't really know what there job was in McLaren but I've often seen them with Lando so I knew they where close friends of his. Once we got to the restaurant we sat at our assigned seats, I don't know why they did this but we always say at the seat with our name tag on it, personally it felt like a wedding but I guess that's just the way McLaren did things, all or nothing. As I walked to my seat which of course was next to Lando's I let out a sigh. I looked to my left and saw Emily's name which made me feel a little relieved. Next to Emily was Marcus so I knew if I needed support I would have them next to me. Once the three of us sat down I pulled my chair closer to Emily's side trying to keep my distance with Lando as much as possible, I felt like he needed space I could tell how annoyed and angry he was and as much as I wanted everything to go back to being fun and happy I knew it wasn't going to happen straight away. After a while a waiter came to take our orders and then I realized I wasn't even hungry, the events of the hotel had made me lose my appetite.
"I'm not even hungry anymore what do I get" I whispered to Emily as the people around us ordered.
I felt awkward asking her considering our first encounter was over my food choices.
"Just order anything, you don't have to eat it, don't worry it's not like your paying anyways" he smiles a reassuring smile. Once it's my turn to order I blurt out the first thing I see on the menu which was some sort of chicken dish, I didn't really read it knowing I wasn't even going to eat it. As we waited for the food there was two or three different conversations going on around the table, I was taking to Emily, Marcus and two other engineers. I felt my phone buzz on my lap but I chose to ignore it and continue the conversation, after a few minutes I felt my phone buzz again so I pull away from the group causing distance so they would know I wasn't part of the conversation anymore. As I opened my phone and went to cheek who texted me I saw it was Daniel. I look up at him across the table and I see him staring at me and smiling. I didn't even want to open the message but I did anyways knowing I wasn't going to reply either way.

*You left your hair down, I like your hair down:)
*Don't ignore my text beautiful x

I roll my eyes and put my phone on the table and let out a sigh before joining back into the conversation.
After a short time the food was brought out and I just moved it around on my plate for a while. Even looking at the food made me feel like vomiting.
"Eat" I heard Lando whisper. My head snapped to the right, it was the first thing he had said to me since he stormed off. I was surprised and I think my facial expression showed that. I soon shook the surprised look off my face and looked back at my plate not wanting to hold eye contact with him for too long.
"Not hungry" I mumbled back.
He moves his chair closer to mine and places some of the pasta from his plate onto mine knowing it's my favorite. I ignore his actions and continue messing around with the food on my plate.
"You really not going to eat anything?" He asks sounding a little worried.
"I told you, I'm not hungry" I say still not looking up from my plate. In that moment all I wanted to do was break down and cry. I felt so bad for having to put Lando in this situation, he deserved so much better and even though Daniel flirting wasn't my fault I still felt like it was and I felt so bad. I cleared my throat as I felt a lump growing in it. I didn't realize Emily had noticed the whole conversation with I had with Lando but I knew once I felt her hand on mine. I looked up at her and saw her smiling softly.
"It's ok" she whispered and I just smiled back.
Once again I heard my phone buzz but before I could pick it up this time Lando had already done it. I saw his face drop as he read the notification, straight away I knew it was Daniel again. He placed my phone in front of me so I could see the message.

*Looks like a really good relationship, ye don't even talk to each other!! I'd treat you better just saying ;)

I quickly turned off my phone and flipped it face down on the table shocked at the text. Did he not realize he was the reason Lando was barely even talking to me!?
"We're leaving" Lando said as he grabbed my hand in his, not as gently as usual but still making sure he didn't hurt me.
"Ok" I said in a whisper back not denying his request. I turned to Emily as I stood up and let her know we where leaving and that I would tell her everything tomorrow. I grabbed my phone off the table and walked out with my head down without saying goodbye to anyone else, I didn't want to be in that room any longer I needed fresh air. I was soon followed by Lando as he ran to catch up to me as I didn't wait for him and start walking back to the hotel already.
"Babe wait" he said as he got closer to me. I turned to look at him and I stopped walking.