Heard it through the grapevine

Chapter 4

Helena drove back to Maranello on the following Monday. She only intended to stay until Wednesday, as she had some work-related commitments in Monaco on behalf of Flavio. She had agreed to attend a media dinner in his place on Thursday evening, and she was already feeling nervous about it. 

Sandra had been green with envy, reminding her of all the important people that would most probably be there, but Helena had not felt jealous of herself, she had rather felt nauseous at the prospect of messing something up or saying something wrong. She knew that she could manage to switch her professional persona on for one evening, but the nerves were still there. She hadn't had much time to mentally prepare for it. 

On Monday evening she had been invited to Sandra's apartment, and not being able to quickly find the subtle words for 'no thanks', she now found herself in Sandra's apartment with a small kitten on her lap and a glass of wine in her hand. She ended up feeling bad for wanting to say no, Sandra was pleasant enough company, and she had made them a nice pasta for dinner. She figured that Sandra was probably a little lonely in Maranello. They didn't exactly have the most social department at work, and there weren't that many other people in our age range in Maranello, outside of Ferrari.

Sandra lived in a somewhat spacious apartment not very far from the Ferrari office. The apartment had been decorated in a classic Italian style, and it was somehow exactly what she had imagine Sandra's home would look like. She had family photos framed on almost every surface and on the walls, and Helena gathered that she had a large family who she must miss a lot. 

Sandra had spent most of the evening talking about herself and all of her adventures before coming to Maranello. Helena was perfectly fine with it, making sure to mumble a yes, no, or "mhmm" every once in a while, as to not let Sandra know that she was paying more attention to her cat than to what she was saying. 

She had seen Thomas in the office earlier. He had been standing in a hallway with some colleagues when he spotted her. "Hey! Helena!" he had yelled at her, motioning for here to come over. She was busy, but she had reluctantly walked in his direction and greeted the group with a small wave. She'd met most of them before, but she wasn't entirely sure if she could recall all of the names. 

"We're a few people who are going to a bar later, do you want to come?" He'd asked her. Helena wondered why they were going to a bar on a Monday, but did not question it further. She appreciated how they always tried to include her when they would do something outside of work, and she wanted to say yes, but she knew she had to go to Sandra's place later that evening. 

"I wish I could, but someone from my team invited me to have dinner with them, so I'm going to have to skip," she told the group. 

Thomas nodded. "Oh okay, well, we're probably going to stay for a while, you can always join later if you want." 

She nodded yes and let them know that she would text if she decided to make an appearance. She left them to get back to work. 

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Back in Sandra's apartment it was getting past 9pm, and Helena's phone had kept vibrating on the dining table. She hadn't checked it, but she assumed that it was probably the others pleading her to join them.

"Are you not going to check that?" Sandra asked as she interrupted herself in the middle of her story about her skiing trip to the alps last year. 

"No, it's okay, it's just some friends. But I should probably get going soon, it's getting late," said Helena not really feeling particularly tired. She put the sleepy kitten down on the chair next to her. It didn't wake up, it just stirred slightly at the contact with the new cold surface.