The Limit (Sebastian Vettel)

10. Cielo en la Tierra

The club was already packed when when Lily arrived late Sunday night.    Revellers were crammed onto the dancefloor like sardines in a tin, throwing their arms around to some modern techno hit.

Already half drunk from celebratory drinks back at the hotel with her crew, Lily had been dragged to Cielo en la Tierra, a well known Barcelona nightclub, by Joel, Poppy and some of their friends.  She'd tried to refuse, but they'd argued that they needed to celebrate her feature race win from the day before.

Five weeks had passed since her season had started in Bahrain, and after a second place and a fifth place in Baku, she'd won the feature race here in Barcelona and finished sixth in the sprint after a coming together with Lando Norris had robbed her of another podium finish.   She'd been mad at first, but had calmed down after realising she was still leading the championship after George Russell had dnf'ed.

"What are you drinking Lils?" Joel asked as they finally reached the front of the queue for the bar.

"I'll get them," she told him. "I have a nice fat bonus coming my way after yesterday."

Joel tried to argue but Lily was having none of it. She smiled at the handsome barman and ordered a couple of large bottles of champagne.

Letting Joel carry them and one of his Haas colleagues, Tyler, carry the tray of glasses, Lily and Poppy led the way through the crowded room, linking arms as they searched for somewhere to sit.  

"I knew we should have come out earlier!" Joel shouted into Lily's ear.  

"I couldn't get away from my crew!"

Lily was exaggerating. The truth was she hadn't wanted to come out as she had overheard a conversation between her press officer, Maria, and a blonde woman in Ferrari teamwear earlier at the track.   They had been talking about this place and how Seb and Kimi were going to be there. 

In the five weeks since Bahrain Lily had managed to avoid Seb.   He'd been away racing in China, and then in Baku she'd only seen him about a couple of times, and she'd managed to hide before he'd spotted her. 

She glanced around, seeing if she could see him but he wasn't around.  Perhaps he'd changed his mind about coming out.  Maybe he's in bed with Sofia, she thought bitterly. 

"We should try the rooftop bar," Poppy suggested, pointing to a sign.  Lily didn't have a clue what it said but there was an arrow pointing to a double door that was wide open. 

They headed over and through the door, up a wide staircase, out another double door at the top and found themselves on the roof. It was still pretty warm and humid for gone eleven o'clock at night. It had been a hot weekend in general, and Lily was looking forward to heading back home to Italy where it was several degrees cooler.

Lily was delighted to see that it was less busy on the rooftop. Looking around her, she saw a bar on one side and a small square dancefloor in the centre. It was tiled black and white, giving the impression of a chequered flag. 

She was also pleased to see there were several free tables. 

She headed towards the largest and sat down.   Tyler put the tray of glasses down and Joel filled them all with a generous amount of champagne. He lifted one into the air. 

"Here's to a double points finish for Haas today!"   His three colleagues cheered loudly.  "Commiserations to Toro Rosso for not getting any points."  Poppy stuck her tongue out at her brother, and everyone laughed.  "And to Lily, for an amazing weekend.  What a start you've had to your Formula 2 season sis."

"To Lily!" the group cheered.

Lily took a long sip of her champagne, feeling a little embarrassed by the attention she was getting.