Love, Olive - c.l

two

Bahrain, being a country in the Middle East, was bound to be warm in the springtime.

Currently, it was two O'clock, and I was sitting in the Garage, listening to my engineer, Friedrich, talk to me about the plan for the weekend.

Friedrich, or Fred, as I called him, was very German.

He was so German I struggled to understand him.

"What was that, sorry, Fred?" I ask him, leaning forward to hear him better, over the roar of the garage.

"I said," He began, sounding annoyed, "That this is just the very first practice of the year. This is for you to adjust to the car, and get to know it better."

The first practice of the year, as Fred said,

"Yes, right OK," I say, nodding, examining my papaya car, which was barely seeable through all of the mechanics.

If I didn't know any better, I would think my car was being pampered like a princess.

"Olive!" I hear someone yell above the ruckus and chatter.

I turn my head in the direction, and I see my manager, Bella, walking over to me.

"Yes, Bella, what is it?" I ask her good-naturedly, turning back to look at my car again.

Her name was Isabella, but almost everyone called her Bella. It was just easier to say. Bella's hair was long and mildly dead. It wasn't quite ginger, but it wasn't orange either. It was a beautiful colour, but I would struggle to believe that she didn't get a fair bit of teasing from it during school.

"You have an on-stage appearance, with Lissie, in five minutes." She says, her English accent sounding a bit mismatched as if there was a tone of another accent hiding somewhere.

"Right, OK. If I'm not mistaken, there's another team that is up there with us, is there not?" I ask her.

"Yes, this time, you are up there with Mercedes. That will be all of your appearances with Lissie for now, but there will undoubtedly be more, like conferences throughout the weekend." She says, tapping away on her phone, but also paying attention.

"Right." I say, nodding slowly, "So that's Lando with me, and George and Lewis?" I ask her, again.

I already knew the answers, I had watched the races before, and all the goings on that happened around them, but I wanted her to know I was paying attention, and that she felt valued in her job.

"Yes, that's correct. Would you like me to take both you and Lando to the stage?" She asks, looking up from her phone, and looking at me with a genuine smile.

There were stereotypes that Assistants and Managers didn't care about who they were assisting and managing, just for the money that they got from it.

Bella single-handedly broke that stereotype in half.

She could have broken it with her eyes closed. Bella was the most lovely person on the face of the earth, as well as that, she was fantastic at her job.

"Yes, thank you, Bella. That would be great." I say.

She doesn't reply but starts moving across the garage at the speed of light, weaving in and out of people and machinery to find Lando.

I was hardly keeping up with her, and I felt like the word 'sorry' was leaving my mouth every other second.

We manoeuvre our way to Lando's half of the garage, and he greets me with a smile.

"Olive, Bella." He says, giving us a small greeting-type nod.

"Hi, Lando. Bella tells me that we have to make our way to the stage, with about three minutes until it starts."