one more race// l. norris

Chapter 43

By 5:30, most of the guests had arrived. All of the drivers accept Antonio and Nikita had managed to come. Plus, my friends Chloe and Ava had also managed to show up. The drinks were being poured in the kitchen, as well as food on the dining table. There was enough food to feed a whole race paddock of people. Pizza, salad, sandwiches, tacos, curry, chow mien, everything you could think of.

Outside in the garden, the music was loud, the lights were bright and the dance floor was full. We had hired an official DJ for this party, because then Lando could come and dance with everyone. Daniel was on the dance floor with Max, Esteban and Charles. Carlos and Isa were talking to Checo and Carola by the fire pit.

I walked back towards the house to find Lando. He was sat at the kitchen island with George and Alex. "Hiya boys. How are you?"

Alex smiled, "I am fine. Completely fine."

George chuckled, "You are pissed.", Lando nodded too. I giggled and pressed a kiss to Alex' cheek.

"No no no. I am fine." Alex persisted on. He continued to drink his glass of what I am presuming is a beer. Lando pulled my waist into him and leaned up to give me a kiss. I leant down and pressed mine to his.

Only half an hour later, Daniel had me joining him on the dance floor after a few shots of vodka. Max was there too, I eventually coerced Lando into joining us as well. Eventually, Daniel was slow dancing with Max and I was slow dancing with Lando. Ed Sheeran's 'Perfect' was played by the DJ. My hands were wrapped around Lan's neck, and his my waist. We didn't talk, just enjoyed each others company. It was lovely. Calming. Until the song ended and Daniel began to breakdance again.

By 9pm everyone was on the dance floor, Carlos, Charles, even Pierre. They had all brought their partners so us sophisticated women were sat around the fire pit talking amongst ourselves. Until Max approached, "Ladies. Us boys have done enough dancing for a while. It's your turn to dance."

I raised my brows, and then turned to face the girls, "Girls? Fancy showing them how its done?"

Charlotte stood up, "Oh yes please. They are awful dancers."

"I agree." muttered Kelly, Isa and Katerina both agreed too. All 12 of us girls stood up, left our drinks at the table and headed towards the light up dance floor. The boys soon moved off and the DJ began to play some more fitting music. We all began to sing, "Shorty got them Applebottom jeans, boots with the fur.".

On the part of the song that goes, "Low low low low." we all got lower and lower. All the boys could do was stare, it was amazing. The song finished, but another song came on and we continued to dance and sung our hearts out till easily an hour later. After a while, it was just me and Kelly dancing, it was weird. Because there is ten years between us, but yet it doesn't feel like it.

'S&M' by Rihanna began to play. I noticed Max walk over to Lando and begin to talk to him as they stared at us. My guess is they were talking about Kelly and I, however, half the time their mouths were gaped open staring at us. Me and Kelly just smirked at them, adding a little wave. Just to tease them. But that didn't last long. The two men joined us on the floor.

Lando pressed himself up against my back, put his hands on my waist and whispered into my ear, "You have no idea what you do to me, Morgan."

"Ohh, is that how it is." I muttered, turning to face him. Max and Kelly, Lando and I all swayed to the music, dancing around like a bunch of drunk idiots. But it was amazing.

A few hours later, most people had left and headed to their hotels. We had offered George, Carmen, Charles, Charlotte, Carlos and Isa, Alex, Lily and Max and Kelly rooms to stay. Luckily for us, Lando lived in a very large house. Seven bed. But not all the rooms have beds in, there is a sim room, gym, office, and his streaming room. But we had put blow up beds in the rooms that don't have double beds. Danny was sleeping on the sofa. Carlos and Isa had headed to bed around 12am. But the rest of us stayed up and we sat in the living room drinking wine, we definitely didn't need it.

"So, George, staying at Merc next season?" Max asked, "Or do you fancy coming over the to RB?"

George chuckled, "Ahh I am almost secured in for next year. I want to sign a multi year contract. Toto is cooking something up for me at the moment."

Max scoffed, "Well I tried."

"Hey! If George comes to RB then where do I go Mr Verstappen?" Sky burst out.

Max went bright red, "Oh yeah. Sorry Sky. At least I'm signed for next year. Has Horner said anything to you?"

"Uhh." I paused, Christian had spoken to me. Before Russia. But I hadn't told anyone what happened. Not even Lando. "Yes he has spoken to me."

The room fell silent again, all eyes were on me, at that moment, I completely forgot that tonight was meant to be a fun evening, and now I had to bring my contract up. "Well, before Sochi, Christian spoke to me about next year. He was open to signing me for next season, but he knows about al the media pressure I have been receiving, and wanted to see what my thoughts on it were. He has options if I do not want to resign. He has given me until Mexico to decide what I would like to do."

Lando looked at me, sad, "You never told me this, why?"

"I didn't tell anyone. Because you don't need to be worrying about me, you do it too much. I needed you to focus on your career, not mine."

He looked sympathetically at me, he leaned forward and kissed my temple. "I know I know. I'm sorry."

I smiled at him, and then Alex spoke up, "So, what are you going to do?"

I sighed, "I'm not sure, I mean I love Formula One. You guys are my family, and the paddock and my car is my home. But as a female, there is just so much pressure its unreal. And don't say you know how it feels, because you don't. You are not a woman. You are not the first woman in F1. You don't have fake fans screaming 'bitch' when you walk down the street. It, its just too much sometimes."

Charlotte, who was sat next to me, pulled me in for a hug. Then Charles joined in, and George and Carmen. And then all of them were hugging me. I could feel a lump in the back of my throat, but I couldn't keep it down.

"God, you guys are the best. I'll let you guys know when I've made my decision."

Everyone pulled back from the hug and we finished the wine, and all went off to bed.

so, what did we all think of this chapter? hope it wasn't too bad :)
— exciting things coming soon, hold your breath!

STAY SAFE AND LUV U ALL xx