Lando's POV
Maybe it wasn't a good idea to have come here. Georgia was right, I literally had nothing to do here.
The only thing I could do was stare at River as she was doing her job. I noticed she had different gloves, she always wore her fingerless gloves when she needed to motivate herself but those were different ones.
"Good to have you back" Zak said, so I quickly looked at him. "Thanks, it's good to be back"
"You can still win the championship" he said, probably wanting to motivate me a little. "I know"
But it obviously wasn't gonna be easy, it definitely wasn't gonna be easy.
The mechanics started to cheer, Oscar put it on pole again and it was also because River, once again, made a brilliant strategy.
She smiled as she got up from the pitwall and walked to the garage. As in a reflex, I stood up a little straighter.
But what did I think? She wasn't walking to me. She walked straight passed me, without even acknowledging me.
I deserved that.
I sighed and turned back to the screens that showed the broadcast. She probably wasn't gonna forgive me, but I had to try.
The drivers had to do their interviews so everyone would be gone, including Georgia.
So I had to try and talk to her now.
I walked as quickly as I could with these crutches to the hospitality and I was right, I knew she would sit here to prepare for the debriefing.
I never noticed how hard she worked before. I never appreciated that enough.
I walked up to her and sat down on her table, putting my crutches next to me.
"What do you want Lando?" She sighed. It broke my heart to see that she didn't want to talk to me, but I broke her first.
"I just want to talk to you, I wanna say how sorry I am. I messed up and you deserve so much better"
She nodded in agreement. "I do deserve better and you did mess up"
"How can I fix this?" I asked, which finally made her close her laptop. "I don't think you can, you broke me"
She got up, she wanted to walk away but she didn't. She put her hands on the table and looked down at me.
"and you know what? I was nothing without you, I did need you. So what? We're humans, we all need someone at some point and I needed you"
And I needed her. I knew she was something without me, she obviously was.
She was the best strategist in this paddock, everyone loves her, all the fans love her and not because of me.
They love her because of how fun and caring she was.
"I needed you to be the person you said you were going to be - supportive, caring and reliable. I needed you to have my back. That's what you promised, remember?" she continued.
I nodded in defeat. I knew what was coming.
"So, now when I say I don't need you, it's not because I'm throwing the independent woman 'I don't need a man' card in the air"
She stopped for a little while, looking around, probably noticing that everyone was looking at us.
"No, it's that I don't need a man who cannot keep his fucking word" she continued, looking down at me and walking away right after.
I looked at her, she once again, put me in my place in a full hospitality.
But she was right, she was so right.
She's different now. I was too much of an asshole to see how beautiful she really was. Her heart was beautiful, she cared so much about me and I never understood why.
I never treated her the way she deserves to be treated.
