𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐈𝐍𝐃 || 𝐹. 𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑜

.02

It is still as bitter cold in Woking as it was in London and as she shivers in her admittedly rather thin jacket and leggings, Eloise dreads how much longer she may be stuck out here. She had run into a small problem as soon as she had gotten out of her taxi to the McLaren headquarters as Ron had apparently forgotten- or simply just not considered at the moment- putting her name on the visors list and now she is stopped outside security gates as the poor security officer tries desperately to get a superior on the phone to find out what exactly he should do.

At first they had completely stopped her, and as she tried to explain that she was here for a meeting with Ron Dennis about contract negotiations, the man had surely thought she must have been a mad-woman. But, after she got the security officer to run it by the front desk about a meeting with Eloise Hamilton, the secretary had confirmed the girl was on the lists there. Still, the officer explained humbly that he simply wasn't allowed to let her pass without the proper security clearings, and though it was extremely annoying, Eloise had reluctantly obliged to wait outside the gate until one of his superiors could get her the proper security tags and such to let her pass.

Of course, Eloise had obliged to that before she knew just how long the damn wait was to get the tags and papers together. She had already been stuck out here for nearly twenty minutes with no end in sight, and though she had purposely arrived early just in case something like this happened, she is beginning to dread now that she might be made late for the meeting. She would hate to make a bad impression on her first day of the job.

That isn't even the worst of it, really, because aside from the anxiety of blowing this job she has to sit out in the freezing cold of the overcast English sky. She hadn't anticipated being late sitting outside, and so she was far from dressed for the bitter weather, gathering in her coat a bit closer to her frame as she leans against the gate posts and waits for the officer to get her security papers. She can barely stop herself from freezing already and as the darker clouds come rolling in she begins to wish she had brought an umbrella or something.

The experience is entirely miserable and the only thing she can do to keep herself occupied is scroll mindlessly on her phone and watch cars breeze by on the road. Even that is only interesting in the most vague sense, and the only really peculiar thing she has seen in her twenty minutes standing here is a very expensive looking Renault whipping it way too fast into into the McLaren parking lot. It made her laugh a bit, that a supposedly very high up McLaren employee would be driving a Renault, she hopes to God that is not a testament to the strength of the McLaren car.

And, she is still pondering it over a little when, down the sidewalk a bit, she sees a familiar face strolling casually up to the McLaren gates. Carrying a casual conversation over the phone in Spanish as she straightens up a bit and feels her heart beginning to pump within her chest.

Fernando Alonso.

A 2x F1 World Champion, the youngest to ever do it in current history, the man who had bested Schumacher on track to carve a place for himself among those of the champions in F1. Eloise can hardly believe it.

She had heard from the tabloids, of course, and from Ron personally that Alonso would be filling the other vacant drivers seat for 2007. That, after ending his championship winning stint at Renault he was hoping to bring his talents elsewhere and perhaps make McLaren a championship winning team once more. That he was hoping to do what Häkkinnen had done- become a champion with McLaren. And, truthfully, it makes Eloise worry a bit for her older brother. It wasn't particularly fair for a rookie out of GP2 to have to partner a 2 time champion. And she had heard nasty rumors before of how Alonso could get with his teammates. If she were a wiser woman, perhaps, she would try to stay clear of the man, but it seems that fate had other plans- already throwing the two together before the season even began.