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27.

Back Home

I arrived home a day after Max, and I imagined with all the intensive physio he would be having , our house would be occupied with several people at all times of the day, which meant after an exhausting conversation with Lance, a long flight and drive back that I would have no peace. After leaving my stuff at the house, I walked over to Lando's in the hopes he would be around somewhere lurking. I was greeted by his friend Max instead, he looked just as puzzled as I was to see him.

"You're Verstappen's sister aren't you?"

"Uh yeah...is Lando in?"

"Oh yeah, come on in, he had a feeling you would pop through" I entered his home and saw that familiar comfy couch from before, I sank myself over it before grabbing his blanket and putting my head down. I had shut my eyes for what had felt like 10 minutes but when I opened them again the room was dark, the seat was comfier than the couch and turned out to be a mattress. I was then greeted with a little knock at the door before Lando appeared holding a water bottle and some pills.

"I've got painkillers because I thought whatever you would wake up from would leave you with a headache" "I brought you up here because the rest of the Quadrant lot came over for some filming, didn't want you getting annoyed with the noise" He rested himself on my knees as I brought them up to sit upright. His curly locks hid his eyes from mine and I think it was for the best they were because seeing his smirk underneath was enough for me to know where this was leading.

"I don't know how to thank you but I really needed this mate" "Our house is heaving with people so I actually can't wait to get back to work because I can't spend all summer there with all of Max's team."

"I'm excited to have you on the team, Zak is a super boss to have and Andrea is pretty chill too so you should be fine. I'll take you with me tomorrow if you'd like as a warm up to your first day"

"Yeah that sounds good to me"

"So should I be expecting you every night or is this one of those one offs we never mention again?"

"I wouldn't call this the last time, but I should really get going. Max will be fuming I haven't bothered to check in on him since I have gotten back. See you tomorrow and thanks again for letting me sleep, I appreciate it more than you'd know"

I headed back over to my place to see that Max's team had finally left him alone so I could catch up with him in private. I walked in and he had somehow made his way over to the sim and was using his one leg for both pedals and screaming in the mic to his twitch friends.

"Max I'm back!" I tried to shout him but he was already preoccupied so I gave up and picked out an outfit for what was going to be an exciting day with Lando.

The Next Day

"Morning Maximus" "I'm leaving soon, do you want anything whilst I'm away?" Max woke with a more pleasant look on his face, as though he was happy I was leaving the house

"For now, no, I'll text you if i think of anything. Good luck Lia, you will be loved there and I know Lando will take care of you, because if he doesn't he'll be having words with me" He patted my shoulder with those last words before limping his way over to the gym where his physio team were already waiting.

I decided to keep it on theme for my outfit and wore a papaya coloured corset top with my mom jeans and my favourite dunks for comfort too. Lando pulled open the door and we were headed to my fresh start together, it took us less than 30 mins to get there amongst traffic and I already felt happier making this big step.

"Okay so when we go in, I will introduce you formally to some of the big name peeps, then you can work out for yourself whose vibes you like and don't like. Also I won't be mentioning Max as your brother, if people know then that's completely on them, it has nothing to do with you or your job here." Lando's words were very reassuring, he knew there was a bit of anxiety going into something like this because of my surname, but he made me feel a lot better about it all just before we walked in.

I was welcomed by a balloon arch to the offices and Zak Brown was lurking the corridors looking for Lando, but was greeted by me first.

"Welcome to the team! Make yourself at home, we'll get someone to give you a full tour first and then you can meet the rest of the squad" His amercanisms were very prominent when he said "squad" it almost made me laugh. He was true to his words though, I left my bag at the office and was paired up with Jaq who showed me around. She was super friendly and I think we had one of those instant connection moments when we started talking lunch and our love for sweet potato fries.

"Okay, so you've seen basically the entirety of the factory, the only place left is the sim room but Lando is using it at the moment so we'll wait till later for that one" She guided us both back to the main office where we would be working from together, and introduced me properly to the media and marketing team.

"Guys this is Natalia, she's our newest member to the media team so please make her feel welcomed and if you see her wandering about just bring her back here, we know how easy it is to get lost here don't we" They all laughed and simultaneously looked over to a guy sitting in the back who looked guilty as could be. "Anyways, we have a lot of tasks to keep busy with today, including the prep over this summer break before we visit Zandvoort. I also need you to all sign up for the team hike coming up, it would be great for the team-building stuff and for our charity partners so please please do sign up"

Within the first day I had been signed up for the team hike, I had sent off some emails and established myself a familiar role in the team where I could look over potential material being posted and send back any edits or changes necessary. This was comforting and the vibe here was pleasant, I didn't want the day to end but before I knew it, Lando had brought his car out front and we were ready to leave. He was grinning when he saw how gutted I was to be going home, I think he wanted this to work for the both of us if I am being completely honest.

"Soooo, how was the first day then?" He zoomed out of the gates and headed back to our homes.

"Honestly, it was amazing. The place is a maze for sure, but I really loved everything about it. I can't thank you enough for putting in a good word, it means a lot to me"

"Look a good word can only get you so far, it really is all you. You are insanely talented at what you do Lia, you needed to be somewhere that could enhance that and make you see it for yourself" He put his hand over mine as we headed down the country lanes near our area, his hand was warm and welcomed, I needed this more than I knew but that inner stubbornness wouldn't have allowed it if it wasn't for Lando.

note

sorry for such a late post, this story needs to start coming to an end soon, just thinking of the write way to do it :)

also thought a longer chapter would make up for the delay