Hollow River

44.

River's POV

The next morning, I walked in the paddock by myself.

I wanted to talk to Lando, we needed a conversation about this even though I was already ready to forgive him.
I just wanted to cuddle him tonight.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to talk to him before the race.
We had a lot of things to do and so did Lando.

I sat down at the pitwall. It was my first race for Mercedes but I was surprisingly calm.
I trusted these drivers, I believed they could do this.

Maybe because I had the advantage that I already kinda knew what strategy Red Bulls was gonna use.

"It's hammertime" Bono motivated Lewis. He was doing extremely well, but he wasn't keeping it very clean.

"Tell him to keep it between the lines" I pushed Bono's button. He transferred the message to Lewis, who was annoyed by it but still listened.

It was a pretty straightforward race, no safety cars, no big accidents. My strategy worked perfectly.
George finished P4 and Lewis finished on the podium on P3.

Lewis was already thanking the team over the radio when I jumped off the pitwall.

I had somewhere to go, even though no one was following me.

I was standing between the Ferrari and Red Bull mechanics, alone.
I was the only one wearing a Mercedes shirt.

What was wrong with this team? You support your driver, even if he's already been on the podium 100 times.

I still had to educate this team, step by step.

Lewis got out of his car, the look in his eyes revealed that he already suspected no one would be here for him.

But he was wrong.

I pushed through the crowd of mechanics, until I was standing next to Christian.
This couldn't be more awkward.

But my awkwardness disappeared when I saw Lewis looking at me.
He ran up to me, I didn't even need to see his face to know he was smiling under that helmet.

"You did such a great job" I smiled as I wrapped my arms around him. He hugged me so tight. He didn't say anything but he didn't need to, I knew he was happy, I knew he appreciated it.

I looked at him as he walked to the podium. "You were right" Toto said. He was standing next to me, he came to the podium ceremony, as he should.

I just smiled and looked up at Lewis. He looked down at Toto and I. He almost teared up, not because he finally got another podium, but because at least someone from his team came to support him.

Don't worry Lewis, next time our entire team will be standing here.

———————

We finished our debriefing meeting pretty quickly. There was no need to discuss every little thing of the race, we had an extremely good result and that's what mattered.

I closed my laptop and put it away when someone put his hand on my back. "River, I wanna thank you for today" Lewis said softly.

I turned around and looked at him. "You don't need to thank me, you did an amazing job and you deserve that podium"

"Thanks, but you know that's not the only thing I was talking about" he wanted to thank me for being there, for supporting him.

"Well, you better get used to it" I nudged him and grabbed my stuff. "I can get used to that" he let his fingers brush down against my back before looking next to me.

"Sorry to interrupt but you still have to do some interviews" some girl looked at Lewis but she immediately turned her face to me. "River right?"

I nodded, I had no idea what her name was so I was hoping someone would introduce her.

"I am Georgia, Lewis' new PR manager" she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you" I smiled. She seemed nice enough and she was beautiful, even though she looked as if she could use a long nap.

"Did you have a rough night?" Lewis asked and looked at her. "One of the best nights I've had" she had a glow, I recognized that kind of glow.

I had it too when I spend a night with Lando. I bet she had a good night with her boyfriend as well.

"Anyways, I need to go. I'll see both of you in Silverstone" I smiled.

I wanted to go to Lando. I needed to tell him how sorry I was.
I didn't care that he was my mystery guy. I actually liked the fact that it wasn't someone else.

I couldn't fall more in love with him. I would do everything for him.

I would burn this world down for him.