Under the surface

17.

The next days of Croatia were a blast. On the second and third day, they docked the boat up in  Croatian city of Rijeka. Aurelia, along with Daniel and Lando, went to the market, while Ollie, Charles and Max all raced in the simulator room under the deck of the boat.

As soon as Aurelia and her party reached the market, Lando and Daniel pulled her to one side.
"You and Ollie are a thing right?" Lando asked eagerly.
"Umm... kinda.. i guess."
"FUCK!" Lando shouted as Daniel shouted "GET IN!"
Lando handed 5 £100 notes to the grinning Australian, and started to explain.
"Danny bet me £500 that you and Ollie were dating."
Aurelia looked confused. Was it really that obvious that her and Ollie had something going on?
"I see how you look at each other. And it may have helped that I saw him kiss you last night..."

Aurelia went bright red as Lando's jaw dropped.
"YOU MADE A BET WITH ME KNOWING YOU WOULD WIN?!" Lando responded.
"Yeah, it was just whether Aurie would admit it."

For most of that conversation Aurelia was daydreaming, wondering how she hadn't noticed Daniel, but one word caught her attention and dragged her back to reality.
"Aurie?" She asked.
"Yeah, you know? A nickname. I have a nickname for all my friends: Charlie, Artie, Ollie..."

"So basically you just stick 'ie' on the end of their name?" Lando joked, but Aurelia was more focused on another word.. "Friends"

Aurelia was in shock that a famous formula 1 driver, Daniel Ricciardo, regarded her as a friend, 2 days after they met. It warmed her on the inside, strangely enough.

The only Formula one driver she had ever had full contact with was Fernando Alonso, since they both featured in an interview on a Spanish motorsport channel. At that time she was only in F4, so the main focus of the interview was on Alonso, with a few questions to her. Carlos Sainz was meant to be on it, but he had to cancel, so they searched through the Spanish Motorsport drivers list and found her as a replacement.

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Back on the boat, Ollie was having a go on the simulator, and was driving through the familiar track of Monza, which Ollie had used in real life to train with Prema in F3 and F2. Since he was also in the Ferrari Academy, he also got free access to the track, so he could train with Prema any time he wanted.
He knew the track like the back of his hand, and was approaching the Ascari Chicane, Max very bluntly said "So you like that Aurelia girl, eh?"
Ollie was so shocked at Max's remark, he whipped his head around to see Max, and landed the SF-23 he was driving on the game into the nearest wall.
"Uh... what did you say?" Ollie asked.
"It's obvious mate." Charles said.
"We see the way you look at her." Arthur added.
"Damn. Looks like you crashed. My turn on the sim next!" Max laughed.

Classic. Max used his blatant crush on Aurelia to make his crash and skip to Max's go. Ollie reluctantly hopped out of the sim and watched as Max climbed in, reset his car and changed the livery.
"I think this car looks a lot better." He smirked as he rolled the new Red Bull out of its simulated garage.
Both Charles and Arthur started to laugh, but Ollie was dead silent.

He pulled Arthur over to the side and said
"Do you all think me and Aurelia are dating?"
"Well I mean... yeah." Arthur said.
"Oh." Was all he said.

They both walked back to the simulator, just in time for Ollie's turn again. He pulled the Ferrari out of the garage, after making a few adjustments to his setup, and was flying.
The car glided around the Monza circuit like a car possessed. As he came out of Parabolica, he crossed the line to set the fastest lap by a whole second.
"Holy fuck." Max muttered.
"Jesus Christ!" Arthur and Charles both shouted.
"How did you do that?" Both the Leclerc's asked.
Ollie couldn't explain it. He just knew how late to break, when to turn, what curbs to mount and which to not. The track felt natural to him.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see you in Carlos' Ferrari seat in 25, Ollie." Max said.
"Max! You can't say that!" Charles panicked.
"What? Carlos is going to leave Ferrari in '25 and move to Sauber before the Audi takeover. He told both of us and I am just saying Ollie is a good contender to replace him."

After Ollie's rapid lap, the squad left the sim room to find something else to do. The Leclerc's went jet-skiing, and Max drove into the town. Ollie was alone to lye on a sun lounger, waiting for the person to return who he desperately needed to talk to.

When she did, he ran up to her and said.
"We need to talk... like now."