Lap 16

memories

When the middle of January rolled around, Devlin was back at Brackley. She had left for her winter training camp within the first week of January. Lewis hadn't seen any sign of her outburst she had days prior. She happened to be doing a training program in Switzerland. They did a lot of winter mountain climbing, which she enjoyed. She didn't enjoy cross country skiing as much. It was wake up, go for a run, go to the gym, get up on the mountain, back to the gym then to bed. She was exhausted after a week of this but her drive pushed her through. Her trainers said they were very happy with her current condition.

With a week between some winter testing and the end of her training camp, she hopped on a plane to travel to Canada. There she was able to spend some time snowboarding by herself. She was in the singles line for the lift when she was put on the chair with two guys. She was scrolling through instagram when she felt a nudge from the man seated next to her. The chairlift stopped as she turned to face him.

"So where are you from?"

She looked at him and his friend, who was laughing and shaking his head.

"Brackley, in England. But I travel a lot I suppose."

His friend chimed in,

"Lemme guess Monte Carlo?"

The sarcasm in his voice made her smile under her neck gater.

"Yes actually."

His friend leaned over to the outside guy.

"Lance, she's perfect for you."

She set her goggles on top of her helmet.

"Lance? As in Lance Stroll?"

The man on the outside of the chair took his goggles off as well.

"That's me."

She just chuckled to herself. Only she could have this luck.

"Devlin Hunt, I'm the second-"

His friend cut him off.

"Oh my god, you're the second driver for Mercedes. I'm surrounded by Formula 1 drivers."

Lance shoved into his friend, shutting him up.

"Its nice to meet you finally. The paddock was chatting quite a bit about you last year."

"Ah yeah, hopefully its good things this year."

"It was last year, you can't count what some of those assholes say."

"You're telling me."

The chair lift started to move again.

"Hey, do you wanna stick with us for the rest of the day?"

She looked at Lance, he was actually being genuinely nice to her.

"Yeah, why not."

She popped her goggles back on and they all got off the lift together.

By the end of the day she was exhausted. Lance and her had crammed in a last few runs, while his friend returned to the lodge. Lance and her were laughing as they walked into the lodge. She had absolutely blanketed Lance in snow on the last run. His friend, who's name was Kaden, was sitting at a table waiting for them. He handed them two cups of some sort of steaming drink.

"Apple cider with a dash of Fireball."

Kaden said to her as she held it in her hands to warm them up.

They all settled into the chairs around the table. She genuinely hadn't had that much fun with someone else in a long time. Well at least sober.

"So where are you staying?"