THE ONLY ONE

✲ TWO ✲

march 15th, 2019

"Tay, I'm fine," Emily said, chuckling as she walked through the paddock on the phone to her older sister Taylor, smiling as the cameras took photos of her. "I'm nearly at the cafeteria now anyway, so I'll call you tonight. Alright, I love you too, bye."

Emily hung up the phone and smiled as she put it in her pocket as she made her way down the paddock before she ran into her long-time friend, Max Verstappen. The two met when Emily was performing in the Netherlands back in 2016 and Max's younger sister, Victoria booked a meet and greet and ever since then, Emily and Max have been good friends.

"Emily," he said grinning, "it's been so long!"

"Max," she said smiling as she hugged him tightly. "It's so good to see you! How are you?"

"I'm doing good," he said chuckling as he hugged her back, "how have you been?'

"I've been doing good," she said smiling.

"How come you're here?" he asked as she chuckled. 

"Can't a girl watch her favourite Red Bull driver drive?" she joked as Max chuckled. 

"Oh, there's some new drivers for you to meet," he said as she looked up at him, "follow me."

The two walked towards the paddock cafeteria where most of the drivers were. Emily and Max walked in and saw Daniel, Sebastian, Lewis, Alonso, Kimi, Checo and Pierre chatting together with three new people Millie had never seen before.

"Emily!" Daniel said grinning as he got up and hugged the blonde tightly.

"Danny!" she laughed, hugging him back as everyone got up and greeted the blonde.

"When's the album?" Kimi asked as Millie laughed.

"I've just finished my tour," she laughed, "you can wait like everyone else, you don't get special treatment just because you're one of my favourites." Kimi groaned as the blonde chuckled.

"Ems," Max said as the blonde looked at Max, "this is Alexander Albon, Lando Norris and George Russell." Emily looked up and smiled when she saw the three new guys standing there. Lando was staring at Emily with a look of awe and amazement at she smiled up at him.

"Nice to meet you guys," Emily said, her diamond blue eyes locked onto Lando's aquamarine ones.

"You too," George said as Emily looked away from Charles and looked at George with a smile.

"So, what teams do you guys drive for?" she asked.

"Toro Rosso," Alex said as Emily nodded.

"Williams," said George.

"Er, M-McLaren," Lando said as Emily chuckled.

"Are you sure about that?" she joked as he chuckled. 

"I hope," he joked as she smiled.  "So, without trying to make it sound like a pick up line, you come here often?"

"A little bit yeah," she said smiling as George and Alex walked away, leaving the two standing together. "I've known Max for a few years now and he usually invites me out to races and I go when I can. I've just finished my tour and I've got some time off."

"Oh nice," he said as she smiled. "I went to a few of the shows with my sisters, they were so incredible."

"Thanks," Emily said smiling.

"Er, do you wanna grab a coffee or something?"

"Sure, I could do with a pick me up," she said smiling as the two walked out of the paddock canteen and made their way to their nearest coffee shop. The other drivers watched them leave while Max had a grin on his face.

"They'll get together before the end of the season," he said, "I'm calling it now."

"Really?" Kimi laughed.

"Yeah!" Max said, "did you not see the way they looked at each other?"

✲ ✲ ✲ ✲

"So, you were fourteen when you released your first album?" he asked shocked as she nodded.

"Yep," she said as she sipped her coffee. "I don't know how it did well, I couldn't sing very well but people seemed to like it and here I am now."

"How did you find it?" he asked, "growing up in the spotlight?"

"It was weird," she said chuckling, "very different from a normal teenagers life at least. How about you? You started karting young right?"

"I did yeah," he said nodding, "when I was seven."

"That's pretty impressive," she said as Lando smiled.

"I try," he said as she chuckled.

"So, where are you from?"

"I was born in Bristol," he said, "my Dad's British but Mum's from Belgium. You?"

"Born and raised in Pennsylvania," she said, "then I moved to LA when I was thirteen and here I am now."

"Impressive," he said as she shrugged. 

"Not as impressive as you," she said as she smiled, "karting at seven. What made you want to do that?"

"Well, I tried his horse riding, then quad biking and also motorcycle riding," Lando said as Emily chuckled, "but then I got into karting after my dad took me to watch the national British Karting Championships."

"Holy shit," she chuckled as he shrugged. 

"What made you want to be a singer?" Lando asked.

"I'm not really sure," she admitted, "I started writing when I was young and my sister Tay heard me sing in my bedroom once and she encouraged me to try and properly sing. My parents sacrificed a lot to get me singing lessons and I guess they paid off."

"Are you doing anything this weekend?" Lando asked as she shook her head. "I think we're planning on going out after the race, if you wanna come along?"

"Sure," she said smiling, "I'll be there."