Mine? || Lando Norris

8

When I walked in the restaurant I could see Lando sitting at a table waiting. Okay Em. Breathe in deeply, I thought to myself and walked up to him.
„Hey. Sorry for being a bit late,"
I said apologetically.

"Oh hey. No worries it's fine"
He immediately stood up to pull out the chair for me. What a gentleman.
He gave me one of the menus he must've already got before I came.
"Thanks."

This situation is super awkward. We didn't really talk until the food came. We just sat in silence. Most of the time, he looked at me and I tried to avoid eye contact.

"So. I wanted to ask this earlier but I felt like it shouldn't be asked in front of the whole team but did we knew each other before? You seemed so familiar from the first time I saw you."
There it is, the question of questions.

Okay but for real, what am I supposed to say? Lie to him? That won't turn out well.
"Well..do you remember Abu Dhabi the year before last? The after party?"
When he doesn't remember it's going to be very embarrassing for me.

His eyes widened.
"Wait. We hooked up?"
He laughed. Why was he laughing In this situation?
"Im sorry. I'm not laughing at you. Why didn't you tell me earlier?" He still tried to calm down.

"Well I didn't know if you remembered and it was kinda embarrassing to be honest. But you don't remember so it's embarrassing anyway."
I felt my cheeks heat up. He suddenly stopped laughing so I finally looked at him.
"You don't need to be embarrassed. I do remember that night I just didn't know who I was with since you snuck out before I woke up."
He shrugged, grinning.

"Yeah that was the plan. Let's just forget about that please. Oh and it would be nice if you won't tell anyone."
He raised one eyebrow.
"Why? Am I your dirty little secret now?"
"Well. Yes. If you want to call it that"
This whole situation amused me somehow and him too because he started to laugh again.
"I'm proud to be your dirty little secret. Don't worry I won't tell anyone it would just make things harder. And awkward."
„I definitely agree with that."

The rest of the lunch went on flawless and without any awkward tension. We didn't spoke about the hook up after that and had quite a good laugh. I could understand the past me now. Lando is an attractive man. Not only his visuals but his personality, too. He was funny and respectful and I loved his humor.

"I honestly didn't laugh that much in a while now." I said smiling and wiping the tears from the corner of my eye.
"It's an honor."
"Wow okay no need to exaggerate there. It's not like I'm super special or something."

"Well you are special in your own way."
He said and I couldn't tell if he meant it in a good way or not.
"Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment?"
"You can decide that yourself."
He grinned.
"It's more of an insult innit?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, calm."
We both started laughing again.

"I should leave now, Paul must be waiting for me by now."
I said, looking at my watch.
"Paul is your manager right?"
He called the waiter with a gesture so we could pay.
"Mhm and he's watching June right now. She should get hungry soon."
"Who's June?"
Fuck. There's nothing more I could add. I got myself into this situation.
"My daughter."
I couldn't look at him.

The waiter came with the bill and Lando got distracted. "It's on me."
Before I had the chance to say something he paid and the waiter left.
"Thank you. Next time is on me then."

"No worries. I invited you so I pay."
He just shrugged it off and for a second I thought he forgot what we just talked about.
"Anyway. I didn't know you had a daughter."
"Yeah it's nothing I'm going around to brag with. I'm trying to keep her away from the press and the internet."
I said that as if it was the most normal thing to tell the father of your child.
"Yeah I can understand that. Cool. So you should go and see your daughter then. See you in two weeks in the UK then."

Thank god he didn't dig deeper.
"Thanks for the lunch again."
I hugged him goodbye and left as fast as I could.

I had to get some fresh air. The last conversation made me so anxious and I honestly just felt bad the whole time. I knew I had to tell him at some point and it probably would be better to tell him right away but I just couldn't and I didn't even know why.