Your number 1 fan

Is It Her?

MAYA POV

The first date wasn't meant to end this way. Carina wasn't meant to run out of her own house at lightening speed. She didn't tell me what was wrong. Did I do something wrong? Questions start to fill my head as I just stand feeling floored in the middle of the kitchen. Do I stay here?

We'd spent five hours together, eating and talking about anything that came to mind. There wasn't a boundary there, I didn't put boundaries there when we talked. I spoke freely, for the first time in about 6 months. Hell, I don't think I'd ever felt more comfortable but with Carina now missing, you could say that it put that to a stop.

CARINA POV
Shit, I knew this was going to happen. If it wouldn't happen to me, it would happen to my little brother. He would be plagued with this illness, the illness that my papa has.

-

It's been a few days and things have been weird between me and Maya. It's understandable, a perfect first date and your date runs out on you and leaves you in her house. I'd be weirded out if I was Maya. The mere idea of ruining the small thing we had caused me to drive to her work. It might not be a good idea.

Knocking on her door, I wasn't expecting her to quickly open the door as if she was ready to leave.

"Oh... hi" she says after a few seconds of our eyes meeting for the first time in a few days.

"Hi, can I talk to you?" I carefully ask, I notice her looking behind me as if looking for danger. I assume, she doesn't want her team to see me.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asks as she leads me into the center of the room and closes the door behind me.

"The other day, I'm sorry I ran out on you. My brother-" I start to explain but she interrupts me.

"Are you okay? That's all that matters." She reassures, I can't help but smile at her reaction. It was an instinct for her to check that way, her caring came first.

"I'm okay. Look, my papa has bipolar and that's why growing up was hard. It was unstable at home, that's why my brother and mama moved to Michigan. It's why he doesn't have the accent; he went to an American High school. The hospital is worried about my brother, he's starting to show signs of him being bipolar too. Luckily enough, there's a lot of research and it wouldn't be a world ending thing. It's just scary and when I got that call, I had to see him." I get everything quickly from my chest. It sounds more like a synopsis.

"Is he okay? Is there anything I can do?" she asks after a few seconds of thinking. In the time of me speaking she had brought me over to her desk chair and pulled me onto her lap. Feeling her so close was comforting, the smell of her perfume was now one of my favourite scents. A scent I now am addicted to.

"He is okay, he is on his way to get a diagnosis, but he is pretty reluctant. Like my papa, he is very stubborn and thinks there's something wrong with mental health. He is currently living on my couch until he feels more stable. It's scary" I share, I feel my breath start to hitch as I fight tears from leaving my tear ducts.

"Does he need anything? If music helps him, I have a whole playlist for him which is in my opinion, very relatable. I'm glad you came to talk to me today, I was worried" she whispers as she pulls me closer.

"Cap, we've finished cleaning the engine. Do you want us to start on the aid car" someone walks in with a slight bit of attitude. They throw the door against the wall, Maya visibly wincing at the sound and movement in front of her. I stand up instantly, not wanting Maya to feel more uncomfortable but surprisingly, Maya pulls me back onto her lap.

"Yes, we're doing drills afterwards. I don't want any complaining, okay?" She asks rhetorically before going back to giving me sole attention.

"That's a little mean Captain." I tease before I start to kiss her.

She breaks us apart with a smile on her face. "If I get a kiss for being mean, I think I will keep being mean. That's all the motivation I need." A giggle escapes me mouth and she looks pleased.

"On a different note, I have work to do and you are a big distraction. How about you come over to mine tonight for dinner? If it's too much, I can come to yours or I can invite your brother?" She whispers as we're stuck in a trance, both of us just as obsessed as each other.

"Also, what high school did your brother go to. Maybe, I ran there." She smiles widely, a smile that only sometimes accompanies a conversation about her running.

"Farmington" I shyly reply, afraid that she'd figure something out. If she had seen me when she ran all those years ago. My heart stops as I wait for an answer of any kind.

"Oh yeah, that was my last competitive run with my dad. It was also one of the last times I lost with my dad present." She exclaims, her eyes trained on one spot as if she's trying to recall every moment of that day.

"Why did you lose?" I decide to risk it all... maybe.

"Hmmm, it was a brunette in the crowd laughing next to someone who looked like her boyfriend. I think she winked at me, but I might have made that up in my brain. She looked almost identical to you, how weird" She laughs when she stops talking, I awkwardly join in. Knowing that I was the distraction, that day she had seen me.

"Anyway, you need to work, and I need to see if I can get my brother off of the couch" I say as I walk towards the door already pecked her lips.

"See you later, beautiful" she whispers as I close the door, running to my car as rain starts to fall around me.

MAYA POV

Farmington was special, she reminded me of that. It was singlehandedly a moment in which I realised my own identity, that brunette helped me more than I could probably ever tell her. Just talking about it had me wondering if there were pictures from that day. Pictures of the race and maybe a picture of that woman, why did I never think about that?

A folder on an encrypted hard drive has sat in my desk since I was granted this job. The folder had every picture ever taken with me, from Christmas to every race I'd ever taken a part in. I couldn't help myself from looking at these pictures.

-

It took an hour to find these pictures. An hour of me getting distracted and putting on music, and subsequently sorting the folder into a more coordinated way.

And there it was, a picture with fans. I'd met that guy the brunette was with that day. He'd excitedly handed me a pair of my shoes from the brand deal. He'd talked about how his sister had a crush on me and stalked me online, I remember laughing about it.

Click, click, click.... Click... wait. A picture of the brunette, it's blurry but it's her... is it Carina?