CHECKERED FLAG - c.l [2]

Healing

"Your name?"

"Madeline Vivian-Rose Scott."

"What team do you drive for?"

"Mercedes AMG-PETRONAS."

I shuffle on my seat as the light from the studio was blinding me, also causing me to break a slight sweat as the camera in front of me was much too close for my liking.

The girl who was interviewing me looked rather nervous as she watched me as I spoke, constantly fidgeting on her seat back and forth, playing with her hands on her lap.

"How are you feeling after your departure from Ferrari?" she asks me, and I gulp down the lump in my throat that was forming now, knowing I was going to be getting these kinds of questions.

"Lovely to see you still haven't put down that iPad Amanda," I smiled, embracing her in a hug as she stood before me.

Amanda had picked me up from the airport in Monaco for my interviews for the previous season on 'Drive To Survive'. She was over the moon that I was now signed with Mercedes, also resulting in her having another season on the grid with a higher pay grade.

"Someone's got to keep you in check now Madeline," she tapped away at god knows what.

I hadn't been in Monaco since the summer break last season, having spent it with him, trying to avoid the cameras while our PR relationship was still new.

It was weird being back here. It was a small country, one that I didn't find myself itching to return to after the memories of last time came flooding back to me the second I left the airport doors.

"I'm ready for the season ahead, I believe there will be a lot more improvements at Mercedes than with Ferrari," I was yet to announce that I was to be the new driver, having only told Lewis and George that Toto had agreed to take me back, but the people in the studio knew and it was only a matter of time until word spread to him too.

The only sound in the studio came from the interview girl shuffling her cards a hundred times more than she already has and it was starting to irk me that she wouldn't settle.

"How is your relationship with Charles?" she goes on to ask me and I feel myself stiffening in my seat the mention of his name.

Back at home, I had made it very clear to my dad, Lewis and George I didn't want to hear his name at all, to address him by anything else than his real name.

I look at Amanda for an answer, but she pulls her lips into her mouth, shrugging.

I had told her everything that had happened after the meeting back in the states, and everything that happened between him and I throughout the season on the plane home.

"We've gone our separate ways now; I don't like looking back on the past and I plan to keep that mentality moving forward with Mercedes." I states, sitting up taller in my chair as I let out a low and slow breath, Amanda nodding her head in approval.

"Are the two of you still in contact?" Lola asks me and I lower my eyes, wishing she was asking me actual driver questions.

I knew she had been asked to ask me these questions, so it was probably just as uncomfortable for her as it was for me, but it didn't make it any easier being a female in a male dominated sport and the only questions I ever got was about who I was dating or seeing.

"We hold a professional relationship, but we have been too busy to catch up since last season," I lie.

Amanda had told me not to slander his name during the interview, despite wanting to, I knew it would only be turned back on me and I had hoped his team would've told him the same thing.