Unexpected

Part 66

A week later we're in Italy, and the fiasco of a Q3 session has me glad that I was out in Q2. All cars were going slow, hoping for a tow from the car in front, and in the end only Carlo Sainz was able to put in a timed lap. I was watching from the garage and laughed so hard that I almost fell off my seat. The pinnacle of motorsport, indeed. Alex Albon's answer when asked what that was summed it up beautifully: a shambles. Nico's reply of "Rush hour traffic at its finest" was also gold.

Sangho joins us along with Miyahara Satoko. She's an ice skater who competes internationally. Sangho wanted someone small and cute, and at 152 centimeters (thirty shorter than Sangho) she fits the bill perfectly.

"Who came on the track like an idiot?" asks Sangho after the race.

"They both did," I reply. "First Seb rejoined in an unsafe manner, forcing Lance off, then Lance did the same. Neither did it intentionally, but the results are the same."

"Watching and listening from the garage is unlike watching on TV."

"Different channels will air different on track action as well."

We go to Rome and see all the famous sites, like the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and the Pantheon. We have a couples' competition in a garden maze, to see who gets through it first. The hedges are tall, preventing us from seeing anything, but I know that if you have one hand on a "wall" the whole time, eventually you'll come out. The crew filmed us at the beginning and a bit from the air with a drone, but they gave us our own cameras on sticks to take with us into the maze. At one point Sangil and I put it down on the ground facing away from us (plus turn it off) and kiss.

We go ice skating during the hottest part of the day, and ask Satoko to "show off" for us, which she does after some coaxing. She skates backwards as she holds Sangho's hands and coaches him on his technique. I am so busy stealing glances at them that I trip over Sangil's feet and go sprawling on the ice.

"Are you okay?" He sounds alarmed, and holds out his hand to help me get up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I stand up to show him that all is good.

"When I think about how you won't be able to race if you injure yourself, I panic and overreact."

"Aw, thanks. But I'm not such a weakling. And you should see the charity soccer games that the F1 drivers participate in. They're not worried about an injury or two."

"But you're my F1 driver," he says, hugging me. "And I care."

At the restaurant as we're eating spaghetti Satoko urges us to recreate the scene from Lady & the Tramp. It turns out difficult to do, because spaghetti isn't that long. Sangil and I laugh so much and so hard that he snorts, which sets me off in gales of laughter. But we're finally able to do it properly, with the kiss at the end.

"That was perfect, right down to the blush." Satoko is pleased. 

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