Pole position // Charles Leclerc

2

Mias POV:
'Surprise!'

The lights turned on in the booth, and balloons and cakes sat along the long table, with congratulations written along them all. I turned to look at my brother in shock.

'It's lucky I got the job, Daniel. You're sometimes a little too optimistic.' I laughed, allowing my brother to pull me into a side hug whilst I looked around the room.

My family were all there, along with a few home friends, and the boys I knew to be f1 drivers. I couldn't believe they'd come out to a meal for someone they didn't even know. They seemed nicer than Daniel made out already.

My mother rushed towards me and pulled me into a hug, not giving my brother chance to respond to my sarcastic comment.

'I'm so proud of you! I'm so happy you get to travel the world with your brother. He's going to take such good care of you whilst you get to spread your wings.' She smiled, wiping away a few tears.

Daniel was leaning against the doorway to the booth, looking at our mum in amusement.

'I don't need looking after mum, I'm an adult now.' I chuckled, letting my dad wrap his arms around me too.

'You know I'll take care of her, mum.' Daniel interrupted, leaning forwards to give our mum a squeeze on the shoulder.

'Now, come on, I've got some boys for you to meet.' Lando smiled interrupting our family hug and pulling me away, making sure to give my mum a squeeze before doing so.

'Lando I'm hungry.' I responded.

I wasn't starving, but I was really nervous and thought my excuse would be good enough for him. It wasn't. He rolled his eyes, walking me to the far end of the table, only letting me stop momentarily to say hello to my friends.

Of course I knew who they all were, they raced with my brother. Daniel made a big deal out of not bringing any f1 boys over when I was visiting, as he hated the fact that my first and only relationship was with a driver, and it ended messy.

It was weird meeting men I knew of, knowing half of them didn't even know I existed. That was the way I liked it, I hated being in Daniels shadow. When my YouTube channel took off I was excited that I was popular for content unrelated to driving, but I kind of screwed that over when I applied for a social media role in f1.

'Boys, meet Mia, Ricciardo, our new YouTube director and social media manager.' Lando introduced.

'It sounds a lot fancier when you say it like that.' I mumbled.

'If looks could kill, Daniel would've already murdered me. Please make this worth it.' Lando whispered.

'Hey! It's nice to meet you. I'm Lewis.' The man closest to me smiled, holding out his hand for me to take, allowing me to notice how good he looks in person.

When I did so, he lifted it up to his lips, planting a soft kiss on the edge of my knuckles. I tried to move my eyes from Lewis, but when I did, they met the one man I didn't want to see.

Pierre Gasly

Fuck, this was going to be harder than I thought.

'It's so great to finally meet you.' I smiled, allowing Lewis to pull me into a friendly hug.

'Daniel doesn't stop talking about you.' He teased, nudging my brother and watching as he rolled his eyes in response.

'Lando mentions her more than I do.' Daniel insisted, looking over at his friend, who was making conversation with our parents.

He was family, Lando had always been,  and he lived in our family home more than I did, and I visited every weekend.

'Lewis, introduce Mia to the rest of the boys.' My brother insisted, wishing to change the subject.

Lewis saluted him, leading me further down the table, and closer to my ex boyfriend. Daniel hadn't mentioned that he'd be there, but he knew that idve hesitated to come.

Me and Pierre only dated for 6 months or so, but it ended awfully. He'd just joined f1 back in 2017 and was all for the clubbing. I didn't mind, but the headlines and reports drove me crazy, our trust between each-other shattered almost immediately, and I broke things off before I could read one more misleading article about him.

Still, to this day, I did not know if he had cheated or not. I didn't hang around to find out. My brother was at the top of his game and I didn't want to ruin his season by moping about a short term boyfriend.

Nobody else knew that we had dated, and I liked it that way. When Pierre joined his first team, rumours were circulating of him having a secret girlfriend, but my name was never released. Thank god. I wanted to protect my brothers reputation as much as I did my own, and that the best secret we'd ever kept.

'Max, George, this is Mia, our new media manager.' Lewis introduced me, stepping to the side and allowing both boys to pull me into hugs.

'I'm so excited to have a new face around this season.' George smiled, leaning down and picking up a small box from the table, handing it to me.

'What is this?' I asked, my cheeks reddening at the idea of opening presents.

'Me and Max both chipped in, thought you deserved something special, you'll be putting up with us, of course.' He smiled.

'No pressure to open it now, but we wanted to welcome you to f1 the proper way.' Max smiled.

'Thank you both, really, it means a lot.'

'Lewis!' A man I recognised to be Carlos shouted, heading towards us, with another driver.

I watched the races, of course I did, but I'd be telling the truth if I told you I only watched for my brother and Lando, the rest of the grid was almost invisible to me.

But I knew him. I knew Charles.