Hollow River

26.

Zak didn't want to talk about River nor the Red Bull seat. He just wanted to know how I was feeling.
Weird, but at least I didn't have to lie.

I was feeling fine, not great, not bad just fine.

I would feel great if Max wouldn't have interrupted us last night.

As soon as I finished my talk with Zak, I immediately walked out of the hospitality and walked to the Red Bull one.

I wanted to see River, I didn't have much time because the race would start soon but I had to see if she was fine.

Fortunately I didn't need to search for her very long because she was walking out of the hospitality with her laptop in her hands.

"River" I called after her. She looked up to me but shook her head quickly.

Oh come on.

"River please" I yelled again, I wanted to talk to her, I needed to talk to her.

She turned around, her eyes were red and puffy. Something happened, she cried, a lot. "Lando please, leave me alone"

"What happened?" I asked. Christian also walked out of the hospitality, patting her back. A gesture for her to follow him to the garage.

She nodded at him with a forced smile on her face but turned back to me very quickly. "Nothing happened Lando. Literally nothing"

I wanted to pull her into my arms, I wanted to make her feel better but I didn't.

"What's wrong River?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I am just a girl" she turned around and walked in the garage.

And I was left standing in the middle of the paddock by myself.

'I am just a girl'

What did she mean by that? She wasn't just a girl. She was the girl, at least for me.

————————-

The race went so bad. It couldn't go worse. The car had no pace, the strategy was so bad and honestly so was I.

I was shit, I couldn't concentrate whatsoever.

River on the other hand did a great job. Max won the race and Checo ended on the podium.
She was messing with my Red Bull seat without even knowing.

She was good at her job, even when she looked as if she was feeling bad.

I had to find out what was wrong with her.

But unfortunately, I had a debriefing meeting with my team. River probably had a debriefing meeting as well, but their meeting would be way shorter than ours.

They had a good weekend, we had a terrible one.

I sat down as one of the first people. The sooner we started this, the sooner it was over.

We went over the weekend like we always did, Red Bull would do this too so that probably took us as long as them.

It were the questions and remarks that were gonna take a long time.

"Does anyone have remarks or suggestions?" Zak asked. I immediately shook my head. "I don't"

I did, a bunch of them but I didn't have time.

"Nothing?" He looked at me with a frown. "No, I can't think of anything for the moment" I said as I looked at my watch and got up.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Oh come on Zak, I have no time for this right now.

"To my hotel, I don't feel too good" I lied but I needed to get out of here. He just rolled his eyes but didn't say another word.

I rushed out of there, I immediately walked to the Red Bull hospitality.

Max walked out of the hospitality with his trainer so their debriefing was done already.

"You're going back to Monaco as well?" Max looked at me. I nodded. "Yes but where is-"

"You wanna go with us on Air Max?" He always referred to his private plane as Air Max, it was a joke we made all the time. "Sure but where is River?"

"She already left half an hour ago, she wasn't feeling well"

Fuck, so I rushed out of my meeting for nothing. I wasn't gonna follow her to her room again, she was gonna think it's weird.

So I just went back to Monaco with Max.