Strangers At A Bar

Eight

Sunday September 24th

Lily woke early, deciding to take advantage of the quiet hours to head to the on-site gym and get in a good workout before the day began. Sticking her headphones in and putting her head down she forgot all about the world around her until the vibration of receiving a text brought her back down to earth where she realised it was now gone 7am, she'd spent over 2 hours in the gym. Grabbing her jumper and room key she quickly headed back to her suite to get ready for the day.

After a quick shower and an outfit change she made her way across town to the track where the buzz of race day was already beginning to build. She headed straight for the garage, mostly in order to avoid accidentally bumping into Toto as she still hadn't decided how she was going to handle what happened the previous evening yet.

"Kelly!" Lily snagged her friend by the elbow as she entered the garage, pulling her towards a quieter spot.

"Nice to see you too." Kelly laughed.

"If anyone asks, you and Max bought me a bouquet of flowers yesterday."

Kelly nodded. "The most beautiful flowers for the most beautiful birthday girl, obviously." She smiled, understanding the assignment.

"Thank you."

"What flowers anyway?" Lily pulled out her phone and shower her a picture of the bouquet on her hotel room dresser. "Holy crap." Her eyes widened. "These really are beautiful. Wait is that an Ariel Dearie bouquet? Those are like $600!" Lily looked at her in shock for a second before quickly composing herself and stuffing her phone back in her pocket. "Are you going to tell me who they're really from?"

"No." Lily replied shortly, her palms sweating at the thought of how much those flowers cost.

"I bet it's Charles. He's rich enough to not give a second thought about spending that much on flowers. He seems like he's romantic too."

"It's not Charles. And I'm pretty sure everyone here is rich."

"Sure, rich, but not 'I'm going to spend $600 on a couple of flowers for a girl I'm doing dirty' kind of rich... I mean I suppose Lance could have used his dads credit card." Kelly laughed and Lily rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine, don't tell me. Your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you." Lily frowned. "Sorry for dragging you into this."

"Hey, that's what friends are for." Kelly smiled reassuringly. "Plus, other people's drama makes me feel better about my own, so thank you." She laughed.

"What drama are you having?"

"The usual. Max is being unbearable, you'd think winning every race would make him calmer but it's literally done the opposite." She rolled her eyes. "But, it's whatever, he'll get over it eventually like he always does. Until then I'm just going to have to live vicariously through your happy relationship." Lily scoffed. "Come on, they're getting ready."

The pair turned their attentions to the race, watching on the monitors as the lights went out and the drivers fought to gain positions, and that's where the stayed until the race finished with Max taking the win. After long celebrations and press conferences things finally started to wind down. Lando had offered to give Lily a lift after the race to George's dinner party so she hung around the garage until he was ready to leave, by which point the place was nearly empty bar a few remaining staff clearing up the days mess.

"Let's go Lily." Lando sang to get her attention. "I need to go and drown my sorrows." He laughed.

"Hey P7 isn't bad. You're still in the points and you outpaced both Ferraris in a tractor." She grinned cheekily and Lando laughed.