Lights Out

2 - Mama Lauda

She was making her way back to the dance floor when she spotted him. The boy she'd collided with earlier on the ski slope.

They made eye contact and she hoped he wouldn't remember her, although she figured her bright red ski trousers were probably giving her away as the culprit accident-causer danger-to-all-those-in-a-5km-radius-when-on-skis girl he'd had the misfortune of running into earlier that day.

He looked very familiar but she couldn't place where she knew his face from. Then it hit her. He looked almost identical to Oliver Taylor. Except there was no way Oliver Taylor would be gracing this grimy après ski bar and mere mortals with his presence.

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Taylor was F1's rising star, having just finished his second season on the grid with Alpha Tauri. The 23-year-old had produced some impressive results. Two third-place podiums his first season and an impressive second-place finish this season in the barely-competitive Alpha Tauri car had solidified his position as one-to-watch on the grid.

Thea told her drunk self to cop on. Even if Taylor was enjoying a ski trip in Verbier during F1's winter break, he'd be spending his downtime in the VIP area with bottle service and a slew of Instagram models, not shoving his way through the sweaty skiers down here.

Shoving his way towards her she suddenly realised, because regardless of who he was, the mystery man was currently pushing his way in her direction and Thea felt herself turning red at the prospect of facing the main witness and victim of her unfortunate attempt to be athletic.

She decided to be confident and play the incident off with a smile. That was all she could do because at this point it was laugh or cry.

"Hmmmm I think I might recognise you from somewhere," she said coyly, smiling up at the man before her.

What she didn't expect was the blind panic she saw flash through his eyes at that statement before he gruffly responded with an "I have no idea what you could mean."

"Alright then," she said with a reserved laugh, "I was referring to my unfortunate skiing accident earlier to which you were a victim. But maybe you're fed up of being 'recognised' everywhere you go since you seem to be an Oliver Taylor doppelganger."

Thea knew at that moment that she was definitely drunker than she realised. She would never have made the Oliver Taylor comparison sober. She tried to think about how many shots she'd done; 5? 6? And two vodka Red Bulls. She really was about to make a fool of herself.

Regardless, the man's brow unfurrowed and he laughed warmly.

"What makes you think that I'm not him?" The man retorted.

"Well for a start Oliver Taylor would never set foot in a grimy après ski bar like this. And if he did, he'd at least have splashed for a VIP table," she said laughing, "but in all honesty, you really do look like him. You could be brothers."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," he said. "I remember you now actually, you're the terrible skier I collided with earlier."

Sober Thea would have blushed and looked down at her feet. Dunk Thea however, was out in full force and wasn't about to let the handsome British skier offend her.

"Well, maybe you should have been looking where you're going before hurtling down a blue slope," she replied indignantly, "it's not my fault it's only my second day of skiing."

"Well then, maybe I owe you an apology," he said with a slight laugh. Thea could tell he knew she wasn't being serious and she liked that the handsome stranger seemed to understand her drunk humour.

"Why don't I buy you a drink to make up for it?"