Mystery in Red

Chapter XXII - Asking for forgiveness

The journey on the way back home was a real adventure. Especially when the company consisted of both Alpine drivers and the British "duke" George Russell. I finally had the opportunity to have a conversation with him and was impressed of his high level of communication. He was behaving as if he is on a royal tea event and his fine British humor even made me smile for a couple of seconds.

But seeing my sullen face, from the moment we got out of the car in front of the airport, my companions began to mock the situation in which we found ourselves. Pierre tried to cheer me up, urging me not to be sad, because sadness is only for the losers. But Charlie, ironic as usual, added that we were worse than that. Well, I admit his sense of humor. He could compare with George, but Leclerc always manages to lighten things up and make people around him feel at least a little bit better. But the situation was so rough that it was evident on all of our faces that no matter if we were laughing, we were doing it through the pain.

"The losers club" as we started calling our group, got up on the plane and after the taking off and couple of shots by Pierre's idea, all of the members fell asleep. Expect me. I was looking at them, sober and disappointed. Charles' head was resting peacefully in my lap, and I was watching his regular calm breathing. Caressing his soft wavy hair, I began to feel sorry for him, for me, for the whole team. The performance of the Scuderia last year was much better than the current one, and I was starting to wonder if I was the cause of their problems. What if I wasn't Leclerc's lucky charm but the black cat for the team.

I was already feeling exhausted when I was thinking about the tough conversation with the team leaders on the first day of work after the race weekend. Then I was expecting to find out my future here. Now I could only guess what was going to happen and pray that I wouldn't get fired. If I remain in the team, what happened during this weekend wouldn't stop me from continuing to fight to prove that they need me as an employee and to prove to myself that the negative thoughts running through my head right now are unfounded.

After spending hours overthinking, caressing Charles' hair, I finally got exhausted enough to fall asleep.

#

On the next day I arrived at Maranello early in the morning. Fortunately, Vasseur was still in Australia, trying to dispute the penalty of Carlos, so Mekies as a deputy team principal was the person, who I had to meet with. Neither Charles nor Carlos was at work this day, only a few engineers, mechanics, and several people from the factory, who were responsible for the construction of the cars. The day would have been wonderful if I hadn't had a tough conversation ahead of me. The sun was shining brightly, birds were singing from every tree, Nature was in its prime. Happy and unbothered.

But I wasn't feeling the same. My heart was heavy, and I could hardly breathe while walking to the main administrative building. I didn't know what to expect – that's why I was so anxious.

I entered Mekies' office. He greeted me with soft smile and the words:

- Sit wherever you want to!

I smiled in response and took the chair in front of his desk. Then crossed my legs and leaned back. I was nervous but tried to hide it, giving him a serious gaze.

- Miss Bernardi, I wanted to speak with you before Vasseur's return – Laurent started in a serious voice. – There is no point to hide it. The truth is that Fred didn't agree with what you did this weekend. He is seriously thinking about terminating your contract, for several reasons that you already know, and I will not list again.

I swallowed hard and opened my mouth to speak, but the man raised his hand to stop me.

- I haven't finished yet... – he crossed his arms in front of his chest. – I know how much you want to be part of our team, ha, I was your interviewer after all. I saw the zest in your eyes, the power you stood up in front of me stating that you wouldn't leave until I did the interview. Then I realized that you are not an ordinary girl, who flutters her eyelashes and smiles sweetly. You can be a house cat and a lion at the same time and suddenly I started to like that in you. The confidence with which you go into every battle is extremely impressive...