Crashed

XXIII

Zoë

His hand on my arm, the anxious look I can see in his eyes. God I just missed him so much, why did he have to ruin everything? "Friends, third try?" he tries to make me smile as I look up at him. I fall into his arms as the tears drop down on his shirt. He says nothing but holds me closer. "I... yes friends." my raspy voice whispers. He squeezes me even a little harder and I let go. "God sorry your shirt is all wet now." He laughs a little "Dark colour, will be fine." His thumbs find my face to wipe the tears away as I start to laugh too. "So tell me, howcome you work in F1 now?" "Yeah, Lando signed me up for a vacancy in the Williams team. He heard from Alex his team was looking for another engineer, and he thought of me and just signed me up without asking." "Are you happy with that?" "Well, at first not. I mean you know how much I hate not having control, but now I am very happy with it." "I didn't dear to say but your last job sucked on all fronts." I giggle "True." "But miss control freak is okay with something spontaneous?" I push him a little "I had to enough to think about it, a little control. But I wanted to call you so bad when he told me, you can imagine my state of mind." he starts laughing "Not funny Max!" "Poor Lando, thinking to surprise you, not knowing you absolutely hate surprises." "I felt so guilty." He scrapes his throat "Did you- did you really want to call me?" "Ofcourse dumbass, I wanted your opinion on the team and if I should go into the job offer. If you think this world would be a fit with me, since you're the one that knows me the best." I avoid his look but I know he starts smiling. I take a deep breath "Right okay, I need to go to my new job now. I see you somewhere later today?" "Yeah yeah, totally! Have a great working day today, see you on that pitwall in no time!" I laugh as I walk away "Slow down, day one is starting now. Have fun driving and text me to get something to drink later?" "Yeah, will text you!"

I walk back to Williams and walk straight into the toilets to check my eyes. Shit, all puffy and red. Now is not the best time to have about zero knowledge on how to fix my face, there are cameras here everywhere. "Fuck" I whisper to myself before leaving a big sigh. I look at myself in the mirror when I see one of the doors open and a slim girl walk out. She is absolutely stunning, her outfit is gorgeous. A visitor, not someone working here. She smiles shyly at me and I return with a small curl of my lipcorners. She fumbles around in her bag and takes out some powder. "Here, for your eyes." "Oh eh, thankyou." I say to her. I have no idea how to apply and she takes it out of my hand and opens it. "Look up a little, now this might be a little too birght for you but as long as you don't have some cameras making pictures with their flash you'll be getting away with it." She tells me as she pats my lower eyelids with the powder. "There, all done." I look in the mirror and although it's still puffy, the redness has been deminished. "Wow, that worked like magic." She laughs a little and puts out her hand "I'm Lilly, Alex's girlfriend." "Zoë." "Are you new? I come here so every now and then but I haven't seen you before." "Yeah, my first official day. I'm actually a new race engineer on Alex's team. Guess that means we'll see eachother more often." She nods and smiles. "Maybe we can spend some time together in the hospitality if you have time." Her enthousiasm makes me blush a little. "That sounds cool." I nod before looking at my phone. "Well I gotta go now, my official hours are almost starting. Thanks for the safe and nice to meet you." I say as I open the door to get to my station. "Nice to meet you too, come look for me to grab a coffee!" She yells after me and I have her goodbye. A day already full of surprises.

Max

She fell in my arms, tears streaming down her face. My heart broke, I was the cause of that. But she wanted to give me, us, another chance. And if not romantically, I want her in my life, so than as friends. Maybe we're just not meant to be. She walks off to Williams, turing back and grant me with a little wave and a smile. I rub my hands through my hair before also walking to my hospitality. I walk in when my mother greets me. "I must be getting crazy but I think I just saw Zoë walking into Williams." She looks at me and straight through me. She starts to whisper "What did you say to her, her eyes were all red? I am serious here Max, don't mess with her." "We actually made up, yeah huge fight over the past couple of months." "Hm, and what is with that Williams shirt?" I start to smile. "She's following her dreams, working in F1." my mom looks confused at me "In Williams? Why didn't you just got her something here?" "Mom, it's her career. I will not intervein in that. And you know how much she'll hate me if I would do that, getting her a job because I pulled some strings." She wants to say something more but I get called away. "Family dinner, all of us, like old times next monday, and you invite Zoë." I nod before walking off. 

I walk out the paddock at the end of the day when I see Zoë coming out of Williams. "ZOZO" I hear behind me. Kelly and little P were walking with me. I had said nothing to them. She turns around, smiling but I can see the nerves on her face. "Zoë? Oh my god girl, why didn't you reply to our messages?" Kelly walks in, giving her a hug without hesitation. Her eyes lock with mine. I give her a reassuring nod, I never told Kelly anything. Her eyes show more ease and they let go. "Sorry I was a little bit busy with-" "With Lando boy?" Kelly pushes her playfully "No. Yes. Maybe. And a new job as you can see." "Oh wow Zo, congrats. Now we can hang out a lot more." "I get to see you more auntie Zozo?" Penelope smiles from ear to ear and Zoë bends down to pick her up. "Everytime you come to a race, we will get a bubble tea together, wherever in the world we are. Deal?" P squeels and laughs as she nods. I just stand watching them catch up from a distance. Her radiating smile my way again.

Untill I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Maxie mate, what you staring at?" Her eyes and smile were not for me, she saw him walking towards us. "Lando, just my best friend and girlfriend talking about girl stuff." "You hurt my feelings, I thought we were best friends." He jokes and grins. "Hey I still have to tell Zo but my mom invited us all for family dinner this Monday, and since you guys are together now you should come to." He looks at the ground. "Oh she- she told you?" "Was it a secret than?" he scratches his neck. "No no- not really. We just haven't spoken to anyone about it and I never met her family before... And we agreed to not say anything to anyone untill she worked a little longer in Williams. To be one step ahead of the online hate she probably will get when it comes out, you know of having a job because of her boyfriend." "Oh, well I won't tell anyone." I try to reassure him but he seems in his head. Kelly walked towards the car with P already and Zoë walks over. "What's with the serious faces?" Zoë she laughs at us. "Oh ehm-" "Nothing important." Lando falls in. "I'll see you in a bit." Lando vaguely smiles at her and leaves, but the tension was sensible. "I think he wants to talk to you?" "What did you say to him?" "Well, my mother invited you for a family dinner on Monday, well I still needed to invite you so here is the invite but I told him he should come to now you're together." "Shit Max, why would you do that?" "How was I supposed to know you kept it all a secret? You never told me that." "Fuck okay, I will rush after him and will clear everything up. And you will not tell anybody about this, especially my parents, I'll call them somewhere tommorow or so." She rushes off, leaving me standing there.