Scandal

P7 : Admiration

Irina arrived bright and early in the paddock. She wanted to arrive before the drivers did because that's when there are the most people. Of course, Mercedes already revealed her comeback to the racing world after the rumours started to spread a couple of days ago.

Yet, she isn't ready for it all to come storming back to her but is one truly ever ready for the past to come back and replace the present? We all expect the past to actually stay behind us, and usually, that's the case, so Irina will have to figure this thing out herself.

She looks calm but is stressed as she makes her way towards the Mercedes residence on the Melbourne Grand Prix circuit. 

There are a lot of roles that come with being an executive chairman. One of those things is proposing a plan with all possible techniques they can use to achieve all the goals they possibly want.

Irina greets Toto once she is let into his office. "I can see you came prepared." He laughs as he wises at her lap. Irina grins with proudness as she lays the binder on the table. "Can I?" He asks and receives a nod back.

Toto reads every word attentively as he flies through the pages. It's only after almost twenty minutes that he looks up at Irina who's now fidgeting with her beige pants. "How did you do weeks of work in a week and a half?" Toto questions whilst he looks at her.

The man is hard to read so Irina explains very carefully and with question, "I'm just very passionate about all of this. I worked many hours to get all of this together, but maybe I rushed into it too fast?"

He smiles, "It's fantastique to see how seriously you take this opportunity. It's normal to feel stressed, but it looks pretty good. Just leave it here, and I'll take an even better look at it. I'll give it back to you after the meeting of this evening. Just enjoy the practice session of today."

Irina thanks him and goes out into the hallway. Even though it felt like he was taking forever when he was reading all the reports and documents she only spent about half an hour in there. She takes her phone out and starts walking towards the exit.

She clicks on her chat with Aïsha and types, "Hi Ash, I'm sorry that I haven't kept you up to date, but I just had a meeting with Toto, and I think that I might love it here."

She reads her chat over and goes to click on the send button. When her phone is suddenly knocked out of her hands. She regains her balance from her collision with somebody else.

Her first reaction is to pick up her phone and look for damage. "I'm sorry." Angela excuses. Irina looks up with a smile and assures, "It's not a problem. I wasn't looking where I was going." 

The blond woman goes to say something back, but is cut short by someone asking, "Are you coming, Ang?"

Irina turns around and sees an inpatient Lewis looking anywhere, but at them. Angela puts her hand on Irina's shoulder and whispers, "I'm sure he didn't mean to drop your phone." Irina looks dumbfounded at the woman, "But I bumped into you."

Angela goes to answer but is cut short again when Lewis informs her, "I have to go get ready, Ang." 

The blond woman looks at the brunette and whispers, "I'm sorry." Lewis doesn't waste any second longer being in Irina's presence and turns around a corner with Angela following not far behind him.

Irina keeps looking at the corner they disappeared behind as if Lewis is going to come back and say that he was only joking. Last night he seemed drunk but okay with her being here. Now, it seems like he can't be in the same room as her.

She shakes her head and looks back at her phone. She erases the last sentence and replaces it with "I hope everything will be okay."

Irina looks back up and looks around. There are three hallways around her, and she doesn't quite remember which one is for the exit. "You look lost." Susie laughs as she comes out of one hallway. "You have no idea." Irina answers with a soft smile.