The Last Chicane

Pressure

It had been several days since she had posted that photo, and she has yet to answer any of my calls. She was dodging me.

"Tatum De la Cruz! I am so furious with you right now. How could you post that picture on Instagram? Call me back!" I hung up the voicemail.

I hadn't seen Charles since we went kart racing as he told me that he had some meetings for work.

Since Tatum was ignoring my calls and Charles was in meetings, I decided that I would go and walk around the city. I could rent a cab and have them drive me places but I enjoyed the walk and fresh air. It always helped clear my mind.

Lost in thought while walking down the street, I bumped into someone.

"Oh my god I am so sorry, I wasn't paying attention." I turned around to look at the person I had just bumped into.

It was Pierre, Charles' friend from the night at the club, the F1 driver.

"Hey Blake, haven't seen you in a while." He smiles at me.

"Hi. I'm so sorry I bumped into you like that. I was lost in my thoughts." I explained while tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"It's alright. What have you been up to since the night I met you at the club? Is Monaco treating you properly?"

We started walking together down the street as I told him that I haven't really done a whole lot since the day Charles took me karting.

"How do you guys deal with it?" I finally asked. The question had been eating me alive for the past couple of days.

"Deal with what?"

"The pressure. Everyone watching you all of the time. Does it make you nervous to have eyes on you at all times?" I questioned.

"Well. We grew up doing this so we're used to the media. It's just a part of our everyday lives at this point. Now the pressure... depends on the season. We all handle the pressure differently. There's the constant fear of if I'm not performing well enough then I'll be out and they will find a replacement." He paused for a second. "But you should know about working under pressure. I mean you are a bomb ass nurse, right?"

I looked at him to find the corners of his mouth tipping up.

Heat rose in my cheeks.

"Oh God. He talked to you about me?" Suddenly embarrassed.

Chuckling he replied, "Don't worry. He had only good things to say. You seem to have made quite an impression on him."

"Me?" I pointed a finger to my chest.

He nodded his head.

"But... why me? What have I done?" anxiety knotted in my gut.

"You treat him like a regular person. You see him for him, not his job. You are rare. Especially in the world that we live in." His smile faded. I could tell that this world had more pressures than what he was letting on.

I paused for a moment before replying. "I don't care about fame. I never have, and I never plan on it."

"And that, Blake, is what makes you rare."

____________________________________________________________________________

The next day, Tatum finally called. I was laying on the couch watching tv. I had started watching videos about the basics of F1, and got trapped in a rabbit hole.

"Heyyyyyy B. How are you doing?" She asked hesitantly. She knew I was upset with her, and why.

"Oh cut the shit Tay. You posted that picture of me. Why?" I had had several days to think and process my emotions about what she did. She posted the picture of me. I had gotten over it, in a sense. I just wanted to know why.

Sighing, "I know you're mad at me. And you have every right to be upset with me. I was drunk, and it was a poor choice on my end."

"Why do I feel like there is going to be a 'but' coming next?"

"But.... I meant what I said in my caption. You looked stunning B. And I meant it. You never give yourself enough credit." She added. "Will you forgive me for my drunken decision?"

"Of course I forgive you. I forgave you several days ago." I said as I started another youtube video of F1 press conferences. Oh yeah, I was down a deep rabbit hole. "Tay, what have you even been doing the past couple of days? Where did you go the night at the club after you left the rooftop." Asking curiously.

Tatum was quiet for a moment. For a long moment, actually. My suspicion grew.

"Tatum. What are you not telling me?"

"Well," she slowly spoke, "So, I may have accidentally but not accidentally hooked up with someone."

I froze. Tatum has never slept with anyone in her life yet. She always said that she was too busy with her career for all of that yet. Did I just hear her correctly?

"B?" she asked and I realized that I hadn't said anything out loud yet.

"I'm sorry. I thought you said that you hooked up with someone. But you don't do that, so I must have misheard you." I finally paused the tv, unable to concentrate on it.

She was silent.

"Tatum! At least tell me who you slept with! And what happened?" I needed to know. Not every single detail of it, of course. But I needed to know that she was okay, and everything was consensual.

"I'm fine, I promise. It was my decision, my choice. Now, who it was..... you may need to sit down if you're not sitting already." she spoke softly on the last part.

"I'm sitting down. Hurry up and tell me, the suspense is killing me."

"I hooked up with Carlos, Charles' teammate at Ferrari."

It was my turn to be silent. I didn't even know Carlos, having never met him.

"Blake? Are you still there? You didn't pass out, did you?" She hesitantly asked.

"Uh, yeah I'm still here." Not sure of what to say now. "So are you guys still talking, or was it just a one time thing....?"

"Right now we are just talking. I'm not really sure where this is going to go, so we kinda wanna keep it on the DL, if you don't mind?" She was asking me not to say anything about them. Which I didn't mind, it wasn't really any of my business anyways.

We talked on the phone for a while longer and then she had to go to a meeting for work, and we hung up.

What Tay had confided in me shook me up a bit, but I wasn't going to let it affect me. I had two weeks left of vacation. And I wasn't going to let anything ruin this experience.