Deals with Daisy // LN4

16 ~ Take off

Lando's POV

"You did it?" Max asks me after we finish his stream and I nod as I kick back on his bed and put my hands behind my head and look around the familiar room with a wry smile.

"I'm looking forward to you being in Monaco... it'll be good to have you there," I tell him as I largely ignore the question he's been dying to ask me since I arrived at his house. I'd stayed in a hotel in London last night before dropping by Max's today after visiting the MTC. Although when I say I stayed in a hotel, what I mean was I sat in my room, ordered room service Jon would kill me over and stalked both Daisy's and Luke's Instagrams back about four years after I finally found them.

"Did you get her to say yes because she hasn't actually replied to me yet?" He pushes again and I just shrug and nod, I think she said yes... she definitely seemed to.

"Yep but I said I wouldn't sign until after Australia, well I said that I couldn't because of my current contract with ADD," I say simply as I eat the crisps that are between us and he just looks at me blankly. "Lawyers checked it today though and said it's good to go so I've signed already... I just want to see if she can make it more than two days without walking out on me and leaving the continent I'm on but that's more personal curiosity," I admit when he still doesn't stop staring before hearing him groan with frustration, dragging his hands across his face to signify to me he's trying not to throttle me.

"Mate! Stop doing this! Please stop playing games with her... you've signed it so send it in! Please! For everyone's sake," he urges, looking for all intents and purposes as though he's about to rip his hair out. Or my throat... one of the two.

"You gutted you're missing Australia?" I ask him after a couple of minutes of stubborn silence between the two of us and he just shakes his head at me, staying in the silence as a challenge to me. I can't stand it and he knows that... I narrow my eyes at him before letting out a heavy sigh and sitting up. "Oh for Pete's sake... I have sent it in, I signed it before I came over. I just haven't told her that and technically she can't start working until after the weekend so it just makes sense to not tell her anyway?" I try to excuse my actions but clearly Max isn't convinced as he just leans forward, hands pressed together as though ready to pray.

"You could let her spend the next ten days with her boyfriend?" Max challenges me again. On this one I do unfortunately know that he is right. I could and I probably should make it clear it's non-urgent given their relationship struggles. Honestly I thought she would try to say no but she'd been so quick to agree I wasn't about to stop her... it seemed like she was desperate to agree or maybe that was just in my head. Either way... I wanted her away from Luke, something about that guy was just so... off. "Lando..."

"Max... you should have seen where she lives. It was weird!" I go back to distracting him from the question at hand with information I knew he wanted. This was our favourite pastime at the moment, exchanging old stories or new information about Daisy - so much so that Pietra, Max's girlfriend, now had Daisy's full life story burnt into her brain. I stay there chatting with him for a while, procrastinating as tomorrow was my packing day and I also needed to try and get to Glastonbury to visit my parents before I headed to Australia.

So that's how I spend the next couple of days, stealing some of Max's clothes, largely packing ones from the new Quadrant collection and visiting my mum who is thrilled when I confirm that I've signed with Daisy, albeit confused when I ask her not to say that to anyone else. It was nice to leave her with a smile on her face rather than the frustration that clouded it last time.

It felt like all of a sudden it was Sunday and I was stood with Jon and Ash in the airport, looking around for the last person that was meant to be here in our small group. While we were getting the same flight as a lot of folk from McLaren, it was always safer for me to not stand right next to all of them. The sea of orange tended to get noticed and so we were already through security but pausing before we head to the business lounge where we could get some food and stay away from the masses.