Double Sided Tracks

Invitation

Nora extended her hands, thank god for that, otherwise it would've been awkward.

And since god is on his side today, Sultan also decided to ignore whatever glitch that was and started talking about racing and policies and yadda yadda.

Nora's eyes scan the room like she's not in the conversation, and he doesn't blame her. She was on her laptop just minutes ago. "Excuse me, I'm just going to get water." Nora said and gave Sultan a knowing look. Lewis suspected she's probably leaving and not just for water, the way she packed up her bags.

He watched her go, stood there with Sultan and Angela who's (bless her heart) still trying to listen to Sultan and probably making sure he's feeling heard. Then he excused himself, he spotted Nora who's walking slowly through the hospitality, focusing on her phone that's clutched in her hand.

He was about to jog to her when she walked straight to Max, who walked like he got somewhere to be— it's 2 hours before qualifying, that RB19 is ready and the media might as well have announced his pole position already. She bumped into him pretty hard, Lewis could tell, the way her body slightly jostled back and her purse slid from her shoulder.

"I'm sorry! So sorry!" She exclaimed, bending down to pick up her phone.

Lewis walks slowly to watch from a distance, opting out his original plan to get to her quickly. He was expecting Max to be an asshole, the Dutch guy knows how to do that. Instead, he seems amused. Lewis could see him smiling, and what's going on- oh. Absolutely not.

He quickly jogs towards them, picking up her purse that was set up on the ground (Lewis didn't even notice she did that) and holds it out for her. "Nora, are you okay?" Yes Max, I know her name.

"Oh hey- thanks. Yes, I'm alright. Sorry again, I shouldn't have been on my phone." She said but Max no longer has that smiley face, he looked straight to Lewis, quickly yet piercing. Boo hoo.

"That's fine." He nodded towards her and walked away.

"Huh." That's all Nora said, brows furrowed like she's thinking.

"Come watch the race from our garage." He blurted it out, and that seemed to snap her out of whatever it was she was thinking.

"From Mercedes garage?"

"Yes, I'm a driver for them." He joked.

"Will Toto be there?" She asked seriously, and giggled when Lewis looked slightly confused.

"I mean, he'll be there. But I'll be there too." He joked. And that made her smile.

"You gotta get used to people asking about Toto," she joked, and huffed. "But uh- yeah, I'll see tomorrow. I have this paper, and you know, I have to finish it and I don't want to get in the way in the garage— with all these." She rambled, and pointed at her stuff.

Lewis shrugged, "you won't get in the way, I promise. We'll get you comfy there. You can be all nerdy in our garage." He joked.

She laughed— more like snort, and covered her mouth quickly. He found it so endearing, he's screwed. "We just met, you can't call me nerdy."

He shrugged, "we'll see about that." And winked.

After they parted ways, Lewis went to find Angela, who's now alone. He plopped beside her, giddiness in his stomach, so excited for the qualifying. Or something else.

"What." Angela said sharply, "what are you doing." she said, not asking, said– when Lewis stared at her. "I know that look."

He shrugged, unhappy that Angela is ruining his mood. "I'm not doing anything, man." he said.

Angela gave him a glare, "so you haven't invited her– can I just mention that she is the daughter of the Saudi minister of sports?"

He shrugged, unable to see where she's going with this.

"You haven't invited her to the garage?" she asked, rhetorically. She knew exactly the answer, and Lewis just confirmed (what she already knew) by being silent. "Lewis." That's all she said.

"Angela."

She quickly shakes her head, white blond hair moving in her ponytail. "No, no, no. This is–" she started, continuing shaking her head. "She's not. She's not– she can't." she started and closed her mouth, fingers gripping her phone, looking for the right word. "She's not a groupie, you get that, right?"

"Woah- Angela,"

"No, don't 'woah, Angela' me." she said, "this isn't the time to try your luck, or to see if you can still rizz up a girl, okay? Not her."

Lewis brows furrowed in confusion, why Angela was so serious about this. "I get it, okay?" he said. This isn't a good conversation to have right before qualifying, he needs Bono to feed him some good words instead.

"Do you?" she asked, voice less harsher than before. "I actually need you to understand it." she said, and Lewis felt horrible for split seconds.

"Ok," That's all he managed to say.