Another Love

25 Rumors

The meeting with Lei and her team to finalize the plans and schedule of the launch of her business with which I was to be her business partner in has just been finished when my phone rang.

I looked at my phone to see who it was and immediately answering it as it was Sir Lewis Hamilton calling.

"What can I do for you Sir Lewis Hamilton?"

"Only you would answer my call like that, princess." He said chuckling. "Do you have time before the Styrian GP?"

"I don't think so. I'm in LA right now going though, new ventures. Why? Is Mercedes thinking of siphoning me out of Ferrari?" I said laughing.

"I'm also in LA, let's have dinner later so I can tell you why." He said while laughing.

"Yes. Free dinner. Where?"

"I'll send you the coordinates. I'll see you at 8 later then."

"Sure Sir. I'll see you later then." I said then ended the call.

I looked at the time only to see it was still 4 PM so I decided to finish looking at the observations, videos of the testing and data sheet that was sent to me through mail from the factory in Maranello for the car upgrades and how the car's engine reacted to the fuel and the like.

When I finished studying the data and taking note of my own observations and conclusions based on the observations and videos, it was already 7 PM so I just fixed my things and put them all in my tote bag and headed out to my car rental and drove to the restaurant that Lewis said to meet at.

I was ushered by a staff member to a table where Lewis was already seated in.

He got up and kissed me on the cheeks as a greeting and we sat before the wait staff gave us the menus and we gave our orders.

"How are you?" He asked as we sat down.

"I'm fine. Living life to the fullest while I am still young." I said chuckling.

"Young my ass. You're almost in your mid 20s." He said rolling his eyes.

"That's still young, old man. So, Mercedes wanting to siphon me?" I said jokingly.

"Yeah, something like that. They wanted me to ask you if you would be willing to hear the team's offer when you have time preferably before the Austrian GP." He said rolling his eyes which made me laugh.

"I don't think I have the time before the race weekend. I'm needed here until Thursday and I'm needed in the Ferrari garage in the circuit on Friday so the only time I might be able to find time is Saturday morning before qualifying. Would it be okay to talk with your team then?"

"Yeah. I think the team would be fine with setting up a meeting on Saturday. They're determined to siphon you, by the way. You might want to prepare a speech if you don't want to be siphoned." He said laughing.

We caught up with each other just like siblings would and he paid for the dinner and we said goodbye and goodnight before parting ways.

I woke up the next morning to my phone pinging nonstop so I opened it only to be met with a post of @F1News of photos of me and Lewis at the restaurant last night with a caption:

"Cassandra Elise Smith and Lewis Hamilton on a Date in LA, does this mean that Cassandra is soon to move from the Ferrari garage to the Mercedes garage?"

This made me laugh so I sent it to Lewis with a message.

'You need to get a wife, old man so I could spend some quality time with my brother from another mother without the whole world speculating if we are dating. XD'

I then got up and changed to go visit the Ricci family first to see how they are doing before I have to fly to Spielberg.

I arrived in Spielberg and met with the other members of my team except Katerina at the hotel to get my room card and discuss the schedule for which we were to check the upgrades to the car along with the other mechanics of the team and make sure that it is compatible with the fuel.

As I was getting ready to head to the circuit, my phone rang and I looked to see it was Katerina.

Kat: "Hey, I'm at the circuit, have you arrived?"

"Yep. I'm just about to head there. Is there a problem?"

Kat: "No no. The mechanics are just about to finish assembling the car with the new upgrades. We need you to be here to be the one to do the final check."

"The mechanics are there tho, they should be the one doing the final check. Again, is there a problem? Tell me the truth Kat."

"Nothing. I just feel like you should be here to see for yourself that you are an asset to everyone and I just don't want you to leave." She said the last part softly to the point where I barely heard it.

"The damn rumors. Of course you also heard. I am not leaving Ferrari for another team Kat. Don't worry. I'll see you in 10."

I got down to the hotel lobby with the car keys to the rental I got and drove to the circuit.

I tapped my paddock pass and passed through some of the paddock employees, smiling and greeting them, wishing them a good day.

I continued walking until I reached the Ferrari garage where they were waiting for me as the car was already fixed and they just needed me to give the go signal before they fill it with fuel and be there to observe the testing as Carlos and Charles were also ready to drive the newly upgraded car for FP1 as it is about to start in 15 minutes so I immediately gave the go signal for the cars' fuel tanks to be filled before taking the data sheet Kat was handing to me and moving to stand in front of the monitor to observe the changes in data and car stance from the previous car and compare them with the data that is to be recorded from FP1.

After FP1, the team decided to have a working break to discuss the data from FP1 while eating lunch before the FP2 in order to analyze the data to aide in the making of the team strategy that they would be deciding based on the car's performance after FP1 and FP2 which serves as the cars' testing after the upgrades done on the car at the factory.

In the beginning of FP2, I was getting dizzy so I sat down and this didn't go unnoticed to Kat as she approached me and asked if I was okay, to which I responded that I was feeling dizzy and she reprimanded me and demanded that I go back to the hotel to rest and she will be sending the videos and data to my email.

Kelly saw me when I stepped into the lobby of the hotel and me feeling unwell must have been showing on my face as she approached me and said she was going to help me get to my room. I was about to say I was fine when she gave me the look which said 'Don't you dare argue with me because you look like shit right now.'

I went on to take a quick shower and change after Kelly helped me to my hotel room and I immediately fell asleep when I got on the bed.

I woke up and saw that it was already morning so I grabbed my phone and saw that Kat messaged me asking if I was still awake at 8 PM so she can drop the data sheets in my room but I was not able to reply to her so she just sent the videos for FP2 yesterday.

I watched the videos and took note of my observations and conclusions to share with the team when I got to the circuit and started getting ready as FP3 was starting in 2 hours.