Don't Be Afraid To Ask

*28* Pierre

— Annie, could you come over to me?! —  I shouted, waving my hand and summoning her to the table where my manager was adding new batches of posters every now and then with my picture in front of our AlphaTauri car parked on the Monza track, over which the planes flew, sending trails of smoke behind them that together formed a  colors of the flag of Italy.  Signing autographs was probably one of the easiest parts of my job, although not always as pleasant as you might think.

— Oh hi Pierre, nice to see you again.  Something happened? — She smiled gently at me.  That smile, that look, all as unsettlingly familiar as coming home, as if she were someone I had known long ago and lost, and yet I had only known her for a very short time.  And outside of Bangkok, it's only our first meeting, we've never even talked before, ba!  I wasn't even aware she existed!  And once she came into my life, she turned it upside down.  And it's not because I fell in love with her or anything.  No.  In fact, my heart was already occupied by someone else, someone who was sitting not more than a meter away from me and was also signing his share of posters.

— Annie, come to my room in half an hour, okay?— I'm about to finish signing these posters — I said as she came closer.  Perth gave me a scowl, forcing me to raise an eyebrow.  He shrugged, though I was sure he didn't like my proposal for some reason.  — And take Perth with you.

—  What?  Perth?  What for?

— You'll find out later — I replied.  I had my reasons for it.  Among the information we were able to gather about Annie was that she liked one of the Thai actors, specifically Perth Nakhun looking at me from under the bull.  I gave him a triumphant smile only to annoy him even more.  Jealous people can be really funny!  I knew from the start that Perth and Annie had a thing for each other, but I wasn't going to help them, whatever happens between them is their business.  I didn't like being forced to do anything and I didn't want to do it to anyone else.  Why would anyone else go through what I did?

Annie, meanwhile, had approached Perth, and with just a few words her face returned to a serene, almost happy expression.  I almost forgot he's a great actor.  I sighed and started putting my name on more posters.

What I had to say to Annie, I was free to say in Perth's company, and perhaps it was better that he should come to me with her, so that I would have a witness.  Except for my personal manager, of course.

I couldn't wait to share with Annie what I had been planning for so long.

— That is all? — I asked hopefully, looking pleadingly at Miranda.

— Yes, that's all for now.

— Does that mean we can go see Annie now?

— Sure, let's go.  Yuki, when you're done, go to your room, get your things and go out to the parking lot, someone should be waiting for you there, they'll take you to the track. —  Miranda addressed my "teammate". He winked at me, smirking slyly.

— Yuki!  — I slapped his hand feeling slightly embarrassed.  We were sitting in the open space in the hotel lobby, where apart from us with their things to sign, such as miniature helmets, the RedBull team was also spread out.

— Guys, don't flirt with each other now, you'll have time later after the race — Miranda admonished us.  Of course she knew about us, but she was one of the few people who accepted it without question.  Miranda wasn't one of those skinny, almost bony beauties that usually showed up in the paddock, she was more ordinary, almost common, she didn't even like makeup, but she didn't need it either.  If you met her in a crowd of people, you wouldn't notice her presence, from a distance she seemed gray or colorless, devoid of fantasy and austere, but when you got to know her closer, it turned out that those about 80 kilos with a height of 160 cm hid a really good heart,  crazy imagination and the soul of an artist.  Miranda was very creative, resourceful and able to deal with any situation, there was no problem she couldn't solve, which is why she was quickly promoted to the role of my general manager.