Meet you in Monaco [F1 - Pierre Gasly / Charles Leclerc / George Russell]

Chapter 13

The moment she stepped out of the motor home she had a couple photographers following her and snapping photos and yelling "Great job out there Isla!" Isla smiled a little and continued to follow Heather through the confusing layout of the motorhomes.

She walked into the room where there was a stage. Charles was already sitting there. He almost raised his hand to wave. But he remembered what he had to do. He just looked away as Isla came up to the stage and took the seat next to him.

A F1 staff member came onto the stage and started having the media ask questions.

The first reporter asked "How do you feel about your track time being beaten by a first time F1 driver?"

Charles inhaled and side-eyed Isla "Beginners Luck" he said simply and without emotion

Islas' eyes went wide for a split second and she glared at Charles "That is something, someone whose fastest lap time was broken on the first day of testing" . Isla snapped back.

The reporter chuckled "You got him there" he said and the F1 Staff moved onto the next reporter

"How is it being the first female driver in F1" the reporter asked

"Actually you are incorrect, Maria Teresa de Filippis in 1958 and Lella Lombardi in both 1975 and 1976. They were the first female drivers that drove in Grand Prixs." Isla smirked "I am just the only female currently. " She finished

The other reporters let aut a laugh and the reporter who asked the question sank down in his seat

"Okay, Charles, how do you feel competing against a female this season?" asked the next reporter

"Should be interesting, I have no problem with it" He said plainly with no emotion and staring straight ahead

"Have you felt welcome in Paddock Isla?" Another reporter asked

"I have, actually, most everyone has been has been welcoming, some more than others" She shot a look at Charles. The reporters noticed and some clicks of cameras went off.

This was going perfectly , Isla thought. The F1 staff said thank you to the reporters and the press conference was over. Isla stood up faced away from the reporters and looked over to Charles who was still sitting in his chair in sort of a stunned silence. Isla gave him a quick wink and walked off the stage towards Heather.

"Everything okay between you and Charles" Heather asked immediately

"Yes, we just don't get along. That's fine" Isla said reassuringly to Heather.

They had one more meeting back in the motorhome so they set off down the paddock. Heather entered the motorhome first, George was walking down the paddock coming towards Isla. Once he saw her, he immediately walked up grabbed her arm and pulled her between two of the teams motorhomes.

They were pretty close to each other in the cramped space, face to face almost nose to nose. However, it was the only place they could have a private conversation in the paddock.

"What happened between you and charles?" He asked urgently

"Nothing, why?" She asked playing dumb

"That press conference was super weird" he said

"Was it?" She asked still playing dumb

"You two are clearly mad at each other, it doesn't make sense. You two talked at Duke's the other night in Monaco right?" He asked

"We did, we just don't get along" She said plainly

"That's not the impression I got" He said

"Well I think I know how I feel" She smirked

"True" He said "I just wanted to make sure nothing happened between you"

"Why would it matter to you?" Isla asked

George looked down to the ground, then back up to Isla "I realized how much of an idiot I was to hurt you when we were dating. I really hate how I treated you and honestly I still have feelings for you."

Isla was shocked "Wow George, I never thought you would admit that, but honestly I still need time. What you did, and who you did that with, really hurt me. Faye was one of my best friends. However, I do miss having you as my friend. Can we work on that first?" She said back

"That works for me" He smiled and squeezed her hand

"I have to get going to my last team meeting of the day" Isla said and started to scoot out of the cramped space.

George grabbed her arm and turned her around "Pierre said you were coming out with some of us tonight, is that true?" He asked quickly

"It's true, see you later" She said

"Wait, Charles will be there, will that be okay for you?" he asked looking concerned

"It will be fine, I can talk to you or anyone else. I'll survive." She said with a small smile and turned and walked out of the space between the motorhomes.

She noticed a fan waiting close to where they were talking, she smiled quickly and headed into the AlphaTauri meeting.

Isla sat down in the meeting across the table from Pierre who smiled when she took her seat. Heather gave her a small smile as well as Pierre's manager. The only other person in the meeting was a woman who was dressed in an alpha tauri polo shirt and very short black and blue hair.

She smiled back and turned her attention to the person standing at the front.

"Hi, for those of you who don't know me my name is Sarah, I am the new social media manager for AlphaTauri. I was going to talk about our future plans as a team for social media but I have to talk about this" She said as she pointed to the TV screen on the wall.

She looked down on her phone and started scrolling causing the tv screen to show an instagram feed, the posts all had Isla's name or Isla's picture. Isla blushed and sank a bit in her seat, she didn't know what was coming next.

"People are loving you Isla! You are all anyone is talking about" She smiled "The interview with Charles was interesting, it is sure getting a lot of coverage and speculation on social media" She said

"Speculation?" Isla asked

"People want to know why you two don't get along" She said

Pierre looked at Isla "Didn't you tell me you had a good time getting to know him?" he half whispered across the table looking at her intently.

"Uh, ya I did" She said "Things can change" she added quickly to try to cover up her story.

Pierre gave her a puzzled look then focused back on Sarah.

Sarah continued "Well whatever happened between you two, that press conference is trending on twitter." Just then Sarah got a notification and opened it, showing a video of Isla and George emerging from between the motorhomes. With the caption 'Secret Lovers or a Lovers Quarrel?'