Rise Up

Chapter 35: Birthday and Tattoos

My birthday went by in a blur. I didn't want a big party or whatever as I'm not the biggest fan of being in the middle of the attention. Now that I was in Formula 1 I had enough eyes pointed on me everyday, I didn't need this kind of stress even more.

Regardless it, Lando insisted and basically forced me to celebrate it at least a little, so we did, just the two of us. We flew to Jeddah early in the morning and we spent the day walking through the city, finally enjoying the beautiful country we were flying to every week not just for the track. We acted like tourists, like a normal couple and not the two rival drivers that should hate each other just because of their different teams- as the media kept saying.

The city was huge and amazing too, with lots of attractions to visit. Luckily we had a look on the map the night before, so we already knew where to go in our few hours trip.

He treated me better than a princess, paying for my lunch, taking photos of me to send to my parents, staying always by my side and grabbing my hand every now and then, when we weren't too exposed to the people around us.

Being in the shadow to finally be ourselves wasn't that easy. We couldn't kiss or interact as lovers, as we wanted to. We were too scared of paparazzi or simply being recognized by fans, even though Suz and Charlotte weren't too hard on it. Some gossips were already spreading on Instagram and Twitter, I also saw a few TikTok's where some fans made edits of our ship- Land-ara or Kia-ndo, both pretty bad to be honest.

It was good having a bit of quality time together, away from our work or anything related to it. We had the chance to plan better the meeting with my parents, a day Lando was looking forward to, maybe a bit too much. But not just this: with him was easy to have small talks about all the little things that made us like we are.

Eating an ice-cream at the port, we watched the sunset. As soon as I realized what I was doing, what I was living in that exact moment, I was surprised of myself. Sat on a bench with a handsome boy who made my heart beat a bit faster every time I think about him, in front a beautiful red and pink sunset, exchanging little glares and caresses.

Before going back to our hotel for the week, I asked him to take a photo of me with the sun going down in the background to post it on socials, just to thank everyone for the birthday wishes.

Back in my room, I took a quick and fresh shower, to pull away all the sweat from the day as it was so hot. My whole family called me after that, making me blow a little candle on a cupcake virtually. It was weird but I found it cute nevertheless.

Of course Lando didn't leave me. He decided to sleep in my room, again, as he had to keep an eye on me and my painful knee- these were his words, basically just a pretest to sleep in my bed once again. It was true though, in these last days my knee was hurting more than usual. It was strange but not that much. During the day I was fine almost always, but in the night it was a nightmare. Being in the same position in bed was the worst feeling ever. Although the brace, the soft pillow under it and the ice on, it was sore. I knew I had to talk about it with Mike, above all to tell him what the doctor back in Florence told me, but I decided that I could enjoy my last good days with my amazing boyfriend. I would see my trainer tomorrow, so why should I do it now?

We were now laying in bed, under the soft duvet of the double-sized bed. His head was on my stomach, his arms on my hips, as if he was hugging me. I had to keep the knee on the cushion with the ice, otherwise it would hurt even more, so this was the only good position we found to be able to cuddle a bit.

His hands were drawing little patterns on my left leg. I appreciated his caring and gentle ways. He never tried to touch the broken leg, to not make me uncomfortable. I didn't tell him how much I was ashamed of showing it because of all the scars and dark marks down the thigh but somehow he seemed to understand it.