The Limit (Sebastian Vettel)

83. The Solution

Seb was miserable.    He hadn't held Lily in his arms for two weeks and he missed her.   She hadn't spoke a single world to him either.

He kept telling himself that was because she didn't want Ferrari thinking something was still going on and withdrawing their contract offer, but in reality Lily hadn't spoken to him since their last night on Gladden island. 

After his bombshell telling her she should sign the contract she'd stormed off and locked herself in the spare room, and she'd rebuffed all his attempts to speak to her the morning after while they were packing, and on their boat trip back to the mainland.

He got it, he really did.  Lily thought he was just casting her aside because he'd tired of her, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

He wanted her to have her dream, and this was the only way. He just wished it didn't have to hurt so much.

He'd tried to talk to her a couple of times here in Belgium, but she wasn't having any of it. He just hoped that she'd be able to forgive him when she realised the truth.

Now it was Saturday evening and he'd just arrived back at his motorhome after his day at the track. He didn't feel like eating. He didn't feel like doing anything much besides laying down on the bed and moping about Lily. What was she doing? Was she pleased with her third place in quali?

He'd qualified in eighth himself, which he wasn't very happy with. The car hadn't been great that weekend though so it had been the best he could have hoped for.

His phone beeped. He picked it up from on the bedside table, hoping it was Lily, but disappointed to see that it was Mike.

Mike: Did you leave already?

Sebastian: yeah. Didn't see the point in hanging around. See you tomorrow morning.

Mike: are you still ok to meet Monday at Silverstone to finalise your contract?

Sebastian: Yeah

Of course he was ok to meet. It wasn't as if he had anywhere else to be. In fact he couldn't wait to get the meeting out of the way. Once it was he could concentrate on the actual driving.

Mike: are you alright Sebastian? You seem a little off

Sebastian: I'm fine.

There was no way he was telling Mike that he was anything but fine, that he was lovesick and pining away for the woman he apparently wasn't allowed to have.

He switched his phone off and went into the bathroom. He stripped to his boxers and then brushed his teeth. Then he went and got back into bed. Hours later though he was still laid wide awake staring at the ceiling, thinking about Lily.

***

Lily knew she was being off with everyone, but she didn't know how else to be. Seb had  told her to sign the Ferrari contract. He'd told her that, knowing exactly what it would mean for them. They were over. He'd tried talking to her on the island, and by text over the rest of summer break, and here in Belgium, but she couldn't bring herself to listen.

They were done. That was that. Words wouldn't change it, talking to him would just make it hurt even more. She had to concentrate on her career now. It was all she had.

She looked at the trophy that she'd placed on top of her massage table. She'd finished in third, but she no was now twenty three points behind Max in the championship.  She knew that her chances of winning it were slipping away, although she was fifty points clear of Charles in third.