Chicago Love ✔️

Chapter 10: Smiles Upon Smiles Part Deux

Alex had to admit - staying at Hailey's condo, enjoying her company, a nice homemade cup of coffee, and her driving him back to his hotel was much better than the original plans of drowning his sorrows in a couple drinks and taking a ride share back.

He also hated that he was leaving Chicago with the unknown of when he would see her pretty blue eyes once again, but knew he couldn't dare miss his flight back to Charlotte. He was already on thin ice in his mind based on missing races last season, this season, and the performance currently going down the drain. 

He made sure to arrive at the airport in time and board the Hendrick Motorsports plane alongside his teammates, ready to fly back so they could land, unpack, and then beginning planning for Atlanta.

Ah yes, Atlanta Motor Speedway. It used to be a fun track to go to with the different dynamics of grooves to run and tire wear. Now, it was a superspeedway chess match. Sometimes you got lucky and came out on top, and other times it just turned into an ugly mess. He knew he couldn't afford an ugly mess as another bad finish would not be fun, and a wreck would certainly be sore.

"I didn't think I'd see a smile on your face after yesterday," Kyle Larson teases as Alex takes his seat on the plane, buckling up in knowing they would be taking off in the air soon. 

These flights back were always entertaining when Kyle was on-board for a change. It allowed him a distraction in being able to discuss things back and forth, whether it be the current Cup Series landscape and happenings, or the dirt track business they both enjoyed. There was certainly lots to talk about with how popular the High Limit Series had become, and a lot of people debating the current landscape of sprint car racing. 

"I can't be the only grumpy guy on the plane," Alex replies back, referencing Kyle's fourth-place finish behind their teammate Chase who placed third. Ultimately, Alex was the only driver of the foursome to place outside of the top-15, and he could thank Denny for that. Gotta love Hamlin, right? "I thought you'd be heading off to some dirt track to go play this week." 

"I am - tomorrow actually," Kyle comments, which didn't surprise Alex as he could only smile in response. He was glad that Kyle was enjoying life and having all the success. There was a bit of worry with his injury and Chase's snowboarding incident that restrictions would come back in play for others. "I hope to see that pretty purple Ally sprint car there. Jake's doing pretty good getting his feet wet with those cars." 

"He's certainly impressed me given his lack of experience." It was not a hard decision to put Jake behind the wheel of the sprint car following his own incident, knowing Jake deserved the opportunity with the success he had garnered in dirt action to date. Though knowing his lack of experience with a wing and the team's habit of up and down results, there was some initial nerves when the decision was made. However, seeing Jake almost make it in to the main event in the most recent event, there was no arguing against the decision now. 

"I honestly was shocked with how well he handled the last event. He's got more talent than I thought he had in him. But seriously...." Kyle looks over at Alex, eying his teammate. "You can't tell me that you had a bad race yesterday and were super grumpy about it, and then are smiling today for no reason. I also know that you didn't stay at your hotel last night as I called your room a couple times wanting to hang out. So where did you go? What did you do?" 

"I was grumpy about my day so I took a ride share up to Molly's. It's a bar that Jay had told me about when we were trading Chicago stories. I'm not one to go out to bars and party that way, but this place had a good vibe last night. It's a relaxed, casual, sit back and drink and talk - just like you would if you were at home. I ran into someone that I met previously through Jay." Kyle could already tell by the smirk on Alex's face that it was someone of the female variety. It was why his mind was already transported back to that night at 34 Raceway - not thinking of Alex's wreck, but the pair of ladies that had joined Jay and his brother in attendance. Which one had resulted in the smile he was seeing this morning.

"Was it the brunette or the blond?" Alex looks at Kyle with a bit of shock in return on the question. He never had told a story of randomly hooking up with someone before. He had never been the type to do that thing. Nobody would probably guess that Alex had done what he did the night before. Why was Kyle's mind assuming this had happened?

"What makes you think it was the female variety?" Kyle could see through the denial in Alex's voice, thanks to the blushing red cheeks that were growing darker by the passing moment. He knew he wanted to hear more details of this story, knowing he probably wouldn't believe it happened even if told to him directly. Nobody would probably believe him if he repeated it, either.

"Your cheeks. Your smile. The fact that you seem quite satisfied. I'm a man, too, so I know what it all means Alex." Alex did not want to share those details with Kyle. He did not want to create a reputation, or rumors. He also didn't want anything reflecting back to Hailey. What if it caused issues for her, or for Jay for that matter?

"I met with Hailey, okay? It was just simple conversation. She went for drinks to try and forget the rough case she had. We shared conversation together as we tried to move past the shitty experiences we had." Kyle just nodded his head in return, though already knew there was probably more to the story that Alex wasn't sharing quite yet. He wasn't about to push him right now, though, knowing they had plenty of opportunities and weeks ahead to learn the full story. 

Besides, if she showed up randomly at a race, that would answer the rest of the questions, too.